AS a member of the Protestant community and someone who lost a cousin during the Troubles, I found the article from the new Lord Mayor of Belfast, John Finucane (News, May 23), where he states a willingness to engage with the unionist people, the Orange Order and members of the royal family, very plausible and, if sincere, very welcome.
A public consultation on proposals to reshape stroke and breast assessment services in Northern Ireland has been extended by a month.
Andy Barr states (Write Back, February 27) that people are born gay and no amount of praying will change that. I would like to see Andy's scientific proof for this. As far as I know, no one has located the so-called 'gay gene'.
Anti-social behaviour in west Belfast has been dominating headlines and social media sites in recent months, with a particular focus on Dunville and Falls parks.
NIGEL Dodds' language, in asking the Irish Republic's Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, to tone down his language (News, January 25), deserves to be welcomed by all concerned about the impact of Brexit on these Britannic islands, interrelated as they are in the movement of people and in culture and commerce.
DONALD Gale (Write Back, January 16) argues that the complexity of biochemical mechanisms involved in life is such that they are unlikely to have originated from the random processes of nature, and so must be a divine act of creation.
BREXIT may owe more by way of reaction - an assertion of English nationalism - to media pandering to the loud voices of Irish separatist nationalism and Scottish separatist nationalism than to nostalgia for past glories, as Brian McClinton (Write Back, January 14) all-too-sweepingly suggests.
I AM grateful to Kim Sengupta for his article (Saturday Review, December 29). Like Kim, I was privileged to meet Baset Al-Megrahi in Tripoli just before his death in 2012, by which time we had become good friends. Years before, I had met him while he was in prison at Greenock in Scotland for a crime I knew he had not committed.
The film The Man Who Invented Christmas makes the big claim that Charles Dickens was its inspiration. It was his short novel, A Christmas Carol, published in 1843, that is said to have transformed a fading pagan tradition into a popular family feast.
I have just finished reading Michael Kelly's article: "Why even those who do not darken the door of a church all year are still pulled back in by the Christmas story" (Saturday Review, December 22).
Faced with a significant number of her own MPs, as well as all of the DUP, refusing to accept Theresa May's withdrawal agreement, which is backed by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) in Northern Ireland and the Ulster Farmers' Union, one wonders if the DUP lives in a "parallel universe" and in complete disregard of its own business community which survives to a large extent through trade with Europe?
Your Viewpoint (December 17), 'Public must speak out about Stormont', misses the point about the absence of our devolved Assembly and Executive.
THE announcement, on Wednesday, from Northern Ireland's chief education inspector, Noelle Buick, in the Educational Training Inspectorate's (ETI) biennial report, revealed only 39% of Northern Ireland schools "fully co-operated" with school inspectors. This revelation is not entirely surprising.
FORMER Fianna Fail adviser Martin Mansergh is lecturing Irish nationalists on the allegedly positive aspects of Northern Ireland.
A THOUSAND nationalist signatories from both parts of Ireland published an open letter to the Taoiseach, calling on him to ensure the rights of northern nationalists after Brexit.
I HAVE read and re-read Dr David Capper's statement about Justice Brett Kavanaugh not being entitled to the presumption of innocence because he was not facing a court of law, or in danger of losing his liberty, with a feeling of incredulity (Write Back, October 18).
THE Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland welcomes the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court in favour of Ashers Bakery.
Earlier this week at the Labour Party annual conference in Liverpool, two very significant developments occurred.
Members of our congregations have expressed deep shock and sadness upon learning of the divisive recommendation coming before Ards and North Down Council on Wednesday, September 26.
In Friday's Belfast Telegraph (September 21), Professor Tom Hadden made a number of statements in his piece in the Comment section on Legacy proposals, which I feel I must respond to.
On BBC Panorama, the Prime Minister said: "The people of Northern Ireland deserve to be listened to in these negotiations by the UK as people elsewhere in the country, and it's important that we deliver for the people of Northern Ireland."
WHO is steering Northern Ireland? The Secretary of State seems pleasant but as unwilling to take control as her predecessor was. Perhaps that is the instruction from Westminster, concerned not to upset the DUP on one hand and Sinn Fein and the Irish government on the other.
The latest revelations emanating from the costly Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) Inquiry resemble a pantomime farce and only reinforce the view that Northern Ireland politicians, especially in the DUP, are totally unfit to govern.
The 20th anniversary of the Omagh bombing is now over and no direct apology has been received from Nuala O'Loan for her comments on that most painful day.
I WAS very disappointed to read Alf McCreary's article (Saturday Review, August 11) on the Pride parade, as he appears to have succumbed to the polished PR of the LGBT community.
HAS anyone else noticed how rare it is that someone of note in the arts, sport, entertainment or the media from a unionist background to declare themselves, without qualification, as British, or unionist, when the occasion to do so arises? How different for those of a nationalist background, who seem to have no problem declaring for Ireland.
THE letter by 230-plus Presbyterians (News, July 6) has a certain stable-door-closing ring about it.
In response to Dr Billy and Jean Boyd, of Newtownabbey (Write Back, June 25), let me say that to pick quotes from Timothy, Paul and Joshua is disingenuous if we consider what Jesus - who was often seen in the company of "publicans and sinners" - might say about the current state of a small part of his universal Church, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, if he were here today.
I refer to Brian McClinton's letter (Write Back, June 21) regarding the Bible and philosophy.
HAVE some people in west Belfast lost the plot, or do they just blindly copy whatever Sinn Fein does?
WE are deeply concerned about the impact of the current definition of terminal illness used for eligibility for benefits, including Personal Independence Payments (PIP) in Northern Ireland.
I write as a member of staff in the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children (RBHSC) to question the wisdom of your front-page article and Editor's Viewpoint (May 14), which appear to amount to a witch-hunt, as I can see no benefit to anyone of such "investigative journalism".
IMAGINE growing up in your own home city and not being able to use your native language at the post office or when you visit the dentist or doctor. Imagine having to rely on a family member to translate for you, even when in hospital. This is the language discrimination suffered by our deaf community.
THE flying of the SAS flag in Loughgall is a reminder of the success of the brave SAS operation at Loughgall.
As a host for the Abortion Support Network, along with other volunteers, I provide accommodation, transport and food for Irish women forced to travel to England for abortions.
At Action on Elder Abuse Northern Ireland, we were pleased to see the Belfast Telegraph noting just how woeful the prosecution rates of crimes against older people are and urging its readers to report such crimes.
When questioned about the loss of 13 Sinn Fein elected representatives, following outbreaks of internal disputes, Sinn Fein's new leader Mary Lou McDonald glibly described it as coming down to "interpersonal dynamics".
Watching the Winter Olympics, I wondered where the occupational health and safety officials were.
The position on the Irish language is as incomprehensible to many Britons on the eastern side of the Irish (not "British") Sea as is Sinn Fein's obsession with it to the point of preventing political compromise.
Malachy Finnegan was a sadist. Throughout my seven years as a pupil at St Colman's in the 1980s, something rotten was allowed to fester at the core of that school - I saw it every day.
David Fullerton (Write Back, January 10) is gravely mistaken in thinking that abortion is opposed only by those whom he describes as holding 'fundamentalist beliefs'.
David Fullerton wants Donald Gale to desist from writing about abortion in pro-life terms. I fear that Mr Fullerton's approach is illogical and inconsistent.
The saga of the recent sectarian outburst of Barry McElduff MP is just another sorry milestone in the political history of Northern Ireland, which is littered with such uncharitable words and actions.
I wold like to suggest that your newspaper begins to print a daily running total of the Northern Ireland Assembly wage bill, which has amassed while the recipients are still not sitting, preferably on your front page.
I just wanted to clarify a point regarding the far-Right group Britain First (News, January 10).
The comments about President Trump's health, both physical and mental, are concerning and a lot of print space has been devoted to it and the possible ramifications.
If the committee for the commemoration of the civil rights movement is concerned about endowing a better understanding, as stated by Dr Sean Byers (Write Back, January 9), then it should emphasise that the issue was not - and should not have become - sectarian, as it did. What went wrong?
All my suspicions about the Government withholding funding from the NHS with the intention of causing a collapse, to sneak in more privatisation as a 'cure' to the crisis, have unfortunately been confirmed by Anne Milton.
Were you - or someone you know - born before or during the First World War?
Brian Gibson's letter (Write Back, January 9) asks is the media open-minded when judging Donald Trump? I suggest it has been too open-minded and that is why Trump is president today.
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