Table talk
Sir: Mr Cornelius O'Leary, in attempting in your issue of 17 January to whittle away the reasonable and soundly factual letter of Mr Chichester-Clark (3 January) on the subject of the Ulster Unionist party and the Orange Order, is not as well informed as he would need
to be. Thus be is evidently unaware that women can join the Orange Order. If he has lived many months in Belfast without meeting any of these formidable ladies, he must be living a rather sheltered life. anyway, those lady MPS at Stor- mont, to whom he refers, are not to be found in their ranks.
Mr Fitzsimmons is certainly not the first per- son, or the first man, to be in the Ulster Cabinet without being an Orangeman. His dropping out of the Order brought no reaction and indeed attracted little notice.
It would be interesting to learn which 'pro- minent Orangeman' was expelled from the Order for attending Colonel McCausland's funeral.
The major and very important point which Mr Chichester-Clark's letter factually illustrated is undoubtedly true. There is in Northern Ire- land a demonstrable and developing decline in the old identification of politics with religion; and one hopes that Mr O'Leary, like most of the rest of us, is glad to see it.
The Roman Catholic hierarchy in Ireland was not without responsibility for causing politics to be polarised on religion; but we must also put blame on the sins of other people's ancestors. The Act of Union of 1800 was supported by every Irish Roman Catholic bishop, with a single exception. It was when the British government dishonoured its promise to associate the meas- ure with Catholic emancipation that the thing went sour.
Nelson Elder Senate, Houses of Parliament, Stormont, Bel- fast 4
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