Dame Nuala and Mistrust

Nuala O’Loan has sparked a row after telling Radio 4’s Women’s Hour that Protestants were taught as children not to trust Catholics.

She said: “One of the things that surprised me, because I grew up in England, was that people here (Northern Ireland), Protestants – and I only learned this fairly recently… Protestants would have been taught as children that they could not trust Catholics. I found that astonishing but when I explored it with Protestant friends, they all agreed that was the case.”
The Newsletter contacted Mrs. O’Loan who clarified her comments as follows:

“I could never understand why it mattered that I was a Catholic Police Ombudsman, it baffled me. But eventually I was told this was the teaching of some churches to their people and that meant I could understand a lot of what has been said about me.”

Unsurprisingly her remarks have been condemned by Jimmy Spratt and Ian Paisley Junior who both also pointed to Mary McAleese’s infamous Nazi remarks. Jim Allister has pointed out that Mrs. O’Loan’s son was spoken to about his conduct at a parade and has asked what she taught her own son.

Since Mrs. O’Loan, when she “discovered” this “teaching” which Protestants gave to their children, she “…checked it and checked it and checked it,” (presumably with her “Protestant friends”: I wonder how many of them (Protestant friends) she now has left.

Anyhow I am off to teach my two boys…..