Letter published in Newsletter and Belfast Telegraph

Dear editor,

Ms Margaret Ritchie MP, MLA, and Leader of the SDLP is wrong to suggest that banning the parade past the Ardoyne in North Belfast will stop any trouble. Is she suggesting that we give into the law breakers and criminals rather than uphold the rights of law bidding citizens?

It appears to me that there is a rule for one side and not for the other here, according to Ms Ritchie. Is she suggesting that if Orangemen in Portadown or Dunloy cause trouble and break the law they will be permited to exercise their right to walk? In Dunloy we have seen Orangemen stopped from exercising their right to walk - but they don't protest against the decision of the Parades Commission through the use of violence or rioting. Violence should not pay and anyone guilty of it should face the full rigour of the law.

The rights of law bidding citizens must be upheld, not quashed. Ms Ritchie is pandering to the demands of these thugs who were bused in from across the Province to block a main road out of Belfast, to cause trouble and as a consequence cost the tax paying public millions of pounds in policing and the clear up. Perhaps the state should recoup the money spent on Policing the riot from those found guilty of causing trouble. It seems only fair.
If this parade is stopped are we going to see an end to violence, riots, intimidation and miming from republicans, dissident or not, in effort to stamp out Unionist culture and tradition? This is not the experience of Orangemen in Dunloy. The onslaught and abuse against Orangemen continues.

These thugs in Ardoyne did our country a great disservice on Monday and they deserve no sympathy and no concessions for what was a political act to stop Orangemen from exercising their right to walk up a public road.

Yours etc

Cllr John Finlay
Ballymoney

Letter on Part Time Reserve

Dear Editor,

It is right and proper that our police officers who served in the Part Time Reserve should receive the proposed £20million payment and I am pleased that it has been delivered by the Hillsborough deal. For far too long our fellow citizens who served in the police did not receive the recognition that they deserved. This is one major aspect of the Hillsborough Agreement that I would like to welcome. The Hillsborough Castle Agreement deserves our support because it contains such recognition which has for so long been denied. A positive result like this would never have been achieved by running away from political talks as some wreckers within the Unionist community want to. By following their course, this payment plan would never have seen the light of day.

 

Yours etc,

 

Cllr John Finlay

Bann Valley

Ballymoney Borough Council

Letter on Parading in Dunloy

Dear Editor,

I write in reply to your article entitled: “No deal in Dunloy for parades now or in the future’ in the Times last week. I believe that your anonymous ‘source’ quoted in the article only goes to demonstrate their own intolerance and discontent towards the Protestant community in Dunloy. They represent a very sad person who just doesn’t want a Protestant about the place.

I would like to remind your ‘source’ that Protestants are the people who have been under constant attack in Dunloy since the 1970s, they are the true victims in all of this. In 1986 the Orange Hall was destroyed in a fire and since then the local Protestant Community has been under attack through verbal abuse or violent attacks on the hall, as well as on their homes. Does your ‘source’ feel that this is justified? Last year, as in previous years, members of the Loyal Orders, of which I am a member of myself, received abuse as we stood at the front of our hall is about time that some people shed their sectarianism and embraced the principles of inclusivity, tolerance and respect. The Orange Hall has been in the town of Dunloy since 1896 . It represents our culture, our tradition and a part of our way of life of which we are very proud of.

Your ‘source’ obviously doesn’t believe in a ‘shared future’. I am sorry to disappoint your ‘source’ but Protestants are here, and are here to stay.

However we have a new way forward and I think that your ‘source’ ruling out the Loyal Orders ever returning to the streets of Dunloy is said in haste and very intolerant as we try to move our society forward.

Yours etc,

Cllr John Finlay

Ballymoney Borough Council

Letter to editor

Dear editor,

On Thursday’s Question Time (11th February 2010), Jim Allister’s shallow political position was exposed by a member of the audience asking a simple question - what are you for?

Jim knows what he’s against but his only attainable strategic goal for unionism is Direct Rule which he has actually called Dublin Rule. That’s not a strategy that’s a disaster.

The only thing that Jim Allister can offer the people of Northern Ireland is a return to Direct Rule leading to Joint Authority. Joint Authority Jim tries to compensate for his own failings by attacking other people in vicious language.

TUV trades in fear and expects people to suspend their logic to swallow its black propaganda. TUV claims have become increasingly absurd as previous false claims have been exposed as lies.

The TUV exists for one purpose and one purpose alone: to sow division and defeatism within Unionism.

Question Time was a train wreck for Jim Allister because it exposed for all to see just how devoid of ideas or leadership quality he really is.

This bitter wee man couldn’t run a bath let alone Unionism.

 

Yours etc,

 

Cllr John Finlay

Bann Valley