Nelson McCausland’s claim of Republican bias in Cityside report is selective, dangerous nonsense

I WRITE to protest about the article by Nelson McCausland, accompanied by a photograph of me, in which he suggests that I, together with four other academics, consider “unionist causes beyond the pale” (Comment, March 8).

What dangerous nonsense. Over the years, most of my academic research has been in relation to the study of poverty and inequality in Northern Ireland, which affects both communities.

I have worked tirelessly with government officials and voluntary organisations to develop policies to end the scourge of over 100,000 of our children — Protestant and Catholic — growing up in poverty in Northern Ireland. I am, therefore, proud to be what Mr McCausland calls an “academic activist”.

Mr McCausland, in his partial selection of facts and the implied sectarian and “Left-wing” bias in my work, fails to mention my Protestant background.

My father left Dublin during the Civil War and took up a post in the Northern Ireland Ministry of Agriculture. I was brought up in England and subsequently studied at Trinity College Dublin. I then chose to take up an academic appointment at the New University of Ulster in Coleraine in 1969. I, therefore, have a deep understanding of unionism.

Yes, I am on the board of the Pat Finucane Centre. The board considered Protestant migration from the Cityside an important issue and contracted two researchers to carry out the research. Mr McCausland makes no comment on the report, other than the bold and simplistic assertion that “most people will acknowledge that it was the result of a sectarian campaign perpetrated by the Provisional IRA”, while the report studiously points out that it is much more complex.

PROFESSOR EMERITUS PADDY HILLYARD By email