Northern Protestant fears are not irrational

I FEEL Ian Paisley Jr and Michael McGimpsey were right to take the president to task over her controversial remarks, which id nothing to build bridges between the two communities in the North.

It was incorrect to suggest that Northern Protestant fears of Catholicism are "irrational." Protestants have rightly felt that their way of life is threatened by submersion in a Catholic-dominated united Ireland. The huge decline in the influence of the Catholic church makes this fear far less relevant, but it does remain and still has validity.

The president has represented this country well during her first term but this aberration does not bode well for her second term she should remember that she represents all of us, and not just the majority community from which she comes.