Opinion

Letter: ‘Gregory Campbell shouldn’t be allowed to rewrite history’

Letter to the Editor: “In 1966 loyalists targeted Catholics. Today the target is immigrants..”

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DUP MP Gregory Campbell (Niall Carson/Niall Carson/PA Wire)
By Letters to the Editor

Gregory Campbell, writing in a Platform piece in the Irish News, states: “We need to build a better future while not allowing anyone to rewrite the past”.

Unfortunately Gregory goes on to do just that. He talks about “the unjustified violence that commenced in 1969/70 with the emergence of the IRA”.

Where was Gregory in 1966 when Gusty Spence and his UVF gang were murdering Catholics?

My brother Robert and his wife were attacked in their home on the evening of the eleventh of July 1966. They were both hospitalised and their home ransacked by a unionist mob. The house in question was in Frenchpark Street which was in the news recently when another house was attacked by loyalists.

Pacemaker Press 20-08-2024: Detectives are investigating an arson attack in south Belfast last night, Monday 19th August, which is being treated as a racially-motivated hate crime. Detective Inspector Angus said: "Just after 11pm, we were contacted by a member of the public who reported that a vehicle was on fire in the Frenchpark Street area. There were fears that this could spread to a nearby house. Picture By: Arthur Allison/Pacemaker Press.
An attack on a house in Frenchpark Street in the Village area of south Belfast last month is being treated by police as a racially-motivated hate crime

The target in 1966 were Catholics. The target in 2024 were immigrants. The perpetrators? The same breed of knuckle-draggers. Those of us who lived through and survived the Troubles won’t allow Gregory Campbell or anyone else to rewrite our history.

For Gregory and anyone genuinely interested in how and when the Troubles started, I recommend Michael McCann’s excellent book, Burnt Out.

W Donnelly, Belfast BT11

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