Dear Editor:

The On-Line March 15 edition of the National Review reported the then forthcoming visit of anti-Catholic bigot Ian Paisley to the White House as the guest of President Bush on St. Patrick's Day. The leading spokesperson for Orange bigotry in Northern Ireland is to be an honored guest of the President of the United States of America. Unbelievable!

As this article points out, Paisley "detests Catholicism, routinely refers to the Catholic Church as a limb of Satan, to the Pope as the Scarlet Whore of Rome, and so on."

One feels obliged to ask why President Bush has chosen to honor this 17th century bigoted mentality with the homage that their meeting bestows upon him?

It should be remembered that during the Reagan administration, Paisley was not allowed to enter the United States by Secretary of State Alexander Haig to deliver an address at Bob Jones University.

The Secretary of State of the United States of America was then pronounced "anathema" by the elder Bob Jones as he called upon the Lord God of the Universe to curse Haig with his wrath. This was duly recorded by the television cameras.

Will America's Catholics allow this insult from President George W. Bush to remain unnoticed?

Surely, bigotry and intolerance, in the person of the Rev. Ian Paisley, has no place within the hallowed precincts of a domicile that once knew the presence of Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and other great Americans

Bill Viczian
Neenah, Wis.

Dear Editor:

David W. Dunlap's New York Times March 15 report "Memorial to Hunger" is noteworthy for the information it left out.

That a memorial to the victims of the British exterminators of Irish men, women and children in the 1840's is long overdue cannot be denied. That this particular memorial at New York's Battery Park City is a true memorial is open to serious question.

A true memorial would inform the public as to why the memorial was created instead of being a propagandistic whitewash of the murderers of Irish humanity.

First of all, use of the phrase "potato famine" suggests that Ireland was in the throes of a famine - an extreme and general scarcity of food. It was not. A blight on the potato had occurred which had occurred on the European continent also. There was
no shortage of food on the continent.

There was plenty of food in Ireland. None of the other crops had failed. Food was exported to England. The starving population was prevented from seizing the food by 75 strategically stationed British army regiments.

A careful scrutiny of census figures in Ireland suggests that some 5.2 million Irish subjects of Queen Victoria died from starvation and disease during the period 1845-1850.

It is about time that the Irish tragedy of the 1840s no longer be spoken of in euphemistic terms such as "the great hunger" and "the potato famine."

Barbara Fink
Menasha, Wis.

Dear Editor:

   Thank you for taking an interest in Tom Kumpf's work and his book, Children of Belfast. We were very happy with the "Camera Eye on Belfast's Kids" article by Martin Russell in the February issue of your journal. We have already seen further interest in the exhibition, which was at Howard Christopherson's Icebox Gallery at the time of the article, as a result. Also, we were able to donate two signed copies of the book for a fundraiser for the Milwaukee Ulster Project.

  Tom is truly a good human and I'm glad to see that he's getting some recognition for his work as an accomplished writer and photographer. I'm also pleased that the issues which concern him -- and all of us -- are receiving attention, as well. He's in Ireland now and having a bit of a time because of the hoof-and-mouth disease precautions -- traveling across fields is not allowed at this time and the border crossing to Northern Ireland is taking several hours.

Jan Bachman, managing editor
Devenish Press
Lafayette, Colo.
 
 

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