SIR,-1 was most interested in the article by Mr. Jack
White, Protestants and Parties,' and was particularly glad to note that—in his view—Protestants in Eire are realising, in a greater degree than hitherto, their respon- sibility to pull their weight in parliamentary affairs.
There is however one point on which I should like to comment; Mr. White says: "There is a constant awareness of religion: one likes to have- everybody taped—the new neighbour, the new employee, the doctor or lawyer." In a country where a very large majority are regular attendants at some place of worship it is Trot surprising that there is an " awareness of religion," and there is no difficulty in discovering to which church a man or woman belongs. Those who did not know Ireland before the formation of the Free State or the Republic might imagine this " awareness of religion and liking to have everybody taped " to be a state of affairs brought about by the present regime—this is by no means the case.
My memory goes back to the early years of this century—midway between Catholic Emancipation and the proclamation of the Republic—and my experience is of small provincial towns in the South of Ireland. In many such neighbourhoods there was a really friendly feeling and social intercourse between Roman Catholics and Protestants. Neverthe- less, in any appointment which affected the community as a whole, one of the–first points to be taken into account was to which church those to be elected belonged. This applied as much to the appointment of the dispensary doctor as to the members of the local Nursing Association Committee; if the latter had a Protestant as President, then the Vice- President must be R.C., and the other members of the committee were nicely balanced in the same way. This " balance of power " was rather taken for granted than discussed openly.
Was this tendency, at first, a conscious effort on the part of Protestants to implement the Catholic Emancipation Act, and give to R.C.'a a share of responsibility in local affairs which had been previously denied them ?—Yours faithfully,
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