I just came accross this "letter to the editor" in today's Irish Times.

In case you don't know what she is referring to, it concerns the recent violence in Northern Ireland following the decision to allow Loyalist marches to parade through Nationalist areas. It has been a touchy subject, and no doubt Sinead will get receive some flack for her letter. I will post any replies to her letter if they appear.

ps...the Irish Times web page is http://www.irish-times.com I think?

Sir, - In reference to Michael Purser's letter (July 24th) concerning Ireland and its "Northern majority", exactly what does he mean by "majority?" It makes me ill to hear Patrick Mayhew, and John Major, and God knows who else, all talking about this "Northern majority" and its rights.

Everyone knows that in the province of Ulster there are nine counties, not six. And how did Ulster come to be known as "The Six Counties"? For those like Michael Purser and Mayhew, who seem to have forgotten, it was discovered that within the nine counties of Ulster, the majority in fact was Catholic, and so a false majority was created by the simple chopping off of three counties, leaving six counties and a loyalist "majority". (Exactly to what or whom are they loyal? Soon there will be no royal family to be loyal to!)

Gerrymandering, I think is what it's called. A false majority which was created by liars for liars. The real majority of the people in the real province of Ulster are Catholic. And who ever cared about their "rights"? What about people's right to be Irish in their own country? What happened in Drumcree has shown the world, once and for all, that the real perpetrators of evil in Ireland have not been the Irish themselves. And certainly brought home, for me, the reason why the IRA was formed in the first place. Which was: to protect a people whom even the police could not protect. If the police cannot protect the Catholic people, then who will? Why does the Orange Order want to march through Catholic area anyway? It is like marching past the house of a family whose daughter you have raped, and chanting: "Hooray, we raped your daughter on this day".

I am sorry for my language, and you can put it in stars. But I know that I am speaking the truest feelings of many Irish people, who do not get the chance to speak, when I say again that the lies I see going on around me concerning Ireland, as told by the only people who DO get a chance to speak, make me sick in my stomach. So Michael Purser, your Emperor has no clothes.

What about their right to be Irish? In their own country? - Yours, etc.,

SINEAD O'CONNOR, London.