A loud 'No'
Sir: Ian Moore makes the outrageous claim that there was 'a virtual press blackout' of the 'No' campaign in the recent Northern Ireland referendum on the Good Friday agreement (Letters, 20 June). I read all three of the province's main regional news- papers1hroughout the campaign, and I saw nothing to support Mr Moore's belief that the agreement's opponents were ignored. If anything, the small minority of opponents in the Ulster Unionist party received press attention which was disproportionate to their numbers.
Mr Moore's claims about the contents of the agreement are even more questionable. He is quite correct to note that the agree- ment repeals the 1920 Government of Ire- land Act. But that Act (which provided for devolution of government to the province) has been largely obsolete since the suspen- sion of the parliament of Northern Ireland in 1972. Pace Mr Moore, the agreement does not repeal the 1800 Act of Union. (In fact, it affirms Northern Ireland's member-
LETTERS
ship of the United Kingdom more than once.) And while the agreement provides for a commission to examine policing arrangements in Northern Ireland, it does not provide for the destruction of the RUC. It is true that the agreement makes provi- sion for a referendum on partition, but sim- ilar provision was made in the Northern Ireland Constitution Act of 1973.
Mr Moore would have been well advised to read the agreement before he pro- nounced on its contents.
Colin Armstrong
2D Windrush Avenue, Newton Park, Belfast
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