The Unsinkable Myths

News stories tend to take on lives of their own, and when the current of events shifts channels, it is difficult for even the best reporters to shift with it, especially if they are not daily on the scene. Something like that must account for Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn’s recent article on the situation in Northern Ireland (“The Irish Problem,” June 26)—which, though consonant with what one hears and reads elsewhere, is widely at variance from present reality.

Kuehnelt-Leddihn says that “Londonderry and Belfast look like German cities after World War II.” 1 was not in Germany after World War II, but 1 was in Londonderry and Belfast in May, in the midst of the disturbances following Bobby Sands’s death; and if that is what Germany looked like, I can only conclude that our B-17s and B-24s were dropping bricks in the 1940s. 1 saw scattered bits of rubble caused by bombings and demonstrations, but on the whole the destruction by the IRA and “rioters” combined was no greater than is to be seen on a normal summer weekend in, say, the ghettos of Detroit.

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Forrest McDonald

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News stories tend to take on lives of their own, and when the current of events shifts channels, it is difficult for even the best reporters to shift with it, especially if they are not daily on the scene. Something like that must account for Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn’s recent article on the situation in Northern Ireland (“The Irish Problem,” June 26)—which, though consonant with what one hears and reads elsewhere, is widely at variance from present reality.

Kuehnelt-Leddihn says that “Londonderry and Belfast look like German cities after World War II.” 1 was not in Germany after World War II, but 1 was in Londonderry and Belfast in May, in the midst of the disturbances following Bobby Sands’s death; and if that is what Germany looked like, I can only conclude that our B-17s and B-24s were dropping bricks in the 1940s. 1 saw scattered bits of rubble caused by bombings and demonstrations, but on the whole the destruction by the IRA and “rioters” combined was no greater than is to be seen on a normal summer weekend in, say, the ghettos of Detroit.