Amergin, Intolerance of catholicism was by no means confined to Ireland within the British Isles. Neither was having to celebrate Mass in caves the worst of what catholics had to endure in Ireland. The penal code was about the meanest, most discriminatory legislation you could imagine.

But when it comes to barbarity in the name of Christianity, I doubt whether the reformed churches ever got to base camp.

Queen Mary had hundreds of prods burnt at the stake; the Spanish and French inquisitions did that and worse (like crucifying them back-to-back on doors) to thousands; religions, cultures and even civilisations were destroyed in (now) Latin America in the name of catholicism, etc,etc.

And priests all over the world having, through the confessional, pryed into the private lives of a gullible laity, turn out in many instances (hundreds in the USA alone) to be at least as perverted, evil and downright hypocritical as any of their parishioners.

When we marvel at the unionist fear of a united Ireland, it's worth remembering that until only the last few years, divorce and contraceptives were illegal in Ireland, and the works of Frank O'Connor, Edna O'Brien and hundreds more were banned. Dr Noel Browne had to resign from government in the fifties for bringing forward legislation for family welfare, which the church saw as an intrusion on to its own territory. And attending Trinity College Dublin was punishable by excommunication. I am not making this up.

Broadly I'm with the nationalists in Northern Ireland, but it's nothing like as simple as the green lobby often presents it. And paradoxically I have no time for nationalism in any other context.

Sorry to be longwinded, but within the context of this thread I'm peddling a fairly minority line, so I hope you'll be forbearing.