Sectarian prejudices
Sir: I am pleased that The Spectator printed Mr Chisholm's letter (September 27) on the sinister and subversive advances of Catholicism. Such good Orange vitriol is rarely printed for the consumption of the English public. However it illustrates excellently how community development has been poisoned in Northern Ireland, thus prohibiting Irish unity and polarising political views in order that the political power base could be vested within a small group of Anglo-Irish Protestant families.
To a lesser extent this technique has been used in Scotland. Though I am not a supporter of 'Red Clydeside' I must admit that this was a technique used to weaken it by means of 'divide and rule' and manifested itself in the principle that Protestants are loyal to the Crown and hence Conservative (no matter how working-class) and `Fenians' (Catholics) are disloyal, hence they must be socialists or, worse still, communists. (The Vatican to some Orangemen is a front organisation for the Kremlin).
Thankfully political dialogue in Glas gow has improved but attendance at a Glasgow Rangers football match indicates how successful men like Mr Chisholm have been in keeping sectar ian fears and prejudices simmering in the culture of Clydeside.
In case Mr Chisholm should dismiss this letter as the rebellious ramblings of an Irishman propagating papism, I am a non-Catholic Scotsman with Protestant Ulster blood.
Robert Ferguson Gibson 'Ach A' Mhowaidh', Lentran, By Inverness
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