A CANADIAN of Donegal descent has claimed today that Protestants were forced out of the county.
Joe Patterson, from British Colombia in Canada, makes the claims today in a letter to the Belfast Telegraph.
His full letter is below:
I HAVE just read an article in the Belfast Telegraph which appeared under the headline ‘Willie Frazer furious over DUP deputy’s ‘apology’ for unionist failure’ (News, November 22).
I am a Protestant and the former owner of a long-established business (mid-1860s) in Letterkenny in Co Donegal until we were forced out of business by a boycott ordered by Martin McGuinness.
A Dublin newspaper reported in January 2005 that Father John Carr had addressed a special committee regarding the death of his sister in 1972.
She had been caught in crossfire on the border between the IRA and the security forces.
Fr Carr stated: “The IRA were in control in north-west Donegal and the prudent course was not to rock the boat.” Fr Carr continued: “It is not what the IRA did, but what the state did to us.”
In spite of making numerous complaints to the Garda Siochana no charges were ever laid.
In a letter from the Garda’s crime policy administrators, Garda assistant commissioner G Blake wrote: “It is of paramount importance for the effectiveness of An Garda Siochana that information gathered in the course of a criminal, or other, investigation must remain confidential.”
Many Irish Protestants sought help from Ulster unionist politicians only to be ignored. By their silence they gave their consent to McGuinness/Adams to continue the ‘Protestants Out’ policy of the government of the Republic.
