Ian W Thomson (Letters, March 1) makes the point that, although anti-Irish/Roman Catholic sentiment is still with us we should also remember the progress that has been made in moving away from that bias, which he attributes to the large influx of Irish people who came here as a result of the Great Famine.
Actually, the most bitter anti-Irish/RC sentiment was with us before "an Gorta Mór" and peaked between the world wars; but Mr Thomson is correct up to a point in that change for the better has come in the attitudes of those "originally resident in Scotland".
That change has come is a great tribute to those indigenous Scots who disregarded the propaganda from pulpit and politicians that taught them their fellow Irish/RC neighbours were racially inferior, would damage the purity of the Scots race and should be sent home to Ireland.
However Pat Bourne, the Irish diplomat who called for end to the "appalling" sectarian legacy that exists here is right to do so. In my experience, we in this country have a taboo on the subject of anti-Irish racism, past or present.
My opinion in this regard was reinforced a few years back when I asked the Scottish Parliament to investigate the reasons why Roman Catholics are twice as likely as their Protestant peers or those of no religion to serve time in prison. The Public Petitions Committee kicked the matter back and forth for more than three years before commissioning a report from an academic.
Whenever the academic suggested the causes of the disproportionate number of Catholics in jail may be in some way explained by residual anti-Irish prejudice in society, the petition was closed post haste.
If we don't acknowledge and examine the matter openly it will fester and propagate.
Tom Minogue,
94 Victoria Terrace
Dunfermline, Fife.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article