The North was never Catholic vs. Protestant

“After all, Christians were fighting Christians in the North, and no doubt both sides confidently believed that God was on their side.”

TP O’Mahony (Analysis, Nov.16 ) effectively commits a ‘cardinal’ error of slewed simplicity, by lining up the crass Christian vs Christian notional reading of the conflict in the North. This was never a Catholic vs Protestant ‘war-of-doctrine’, despite the repeated labelling with those generic terms.

This was, at core, a ‘socio-economic-political’ fight for dominance on the one-hand and sovereignty/civil-rights equality on the other.

The terrorists on the ground were mainly from disadvantaged ‘ghettos’ on both sides of the divide, and were fighting for and defending their sovereignty more than any Christian crusade.

Sadly, those same ‘feral’ features still figure in the contrived statelet, but at least people aren’t taking them to the killing fields.

Jim Cosgrove

Chapel Street

Lismore

Co.Waterford.