Professor is wrong to link convicted bomb plot pair to Northern Ireland

TOM Devine sees the impetus behind the bomb plot against prominent Catholics in Scotland as strongly Northern Irish (“Men who were fuelled by festering fear and hatred”, The Herald, March 31).

Never, during a lengthy career teaching the politics of nationalism, did I encounter anyone in Ireland who placed the responsibility for the Troubles on Scotland. Yet using similar logic to Professor Devine, such a case can be made as it was the arrival in Catholic Ulster of avowedly Protestant settlers from Scotland 400 years ago which laid down divisions that finally flared up into devastating and prolonged violence.

Mass Irish Catholic immigration to Scotland ended nearly a century ago. The Troubles in Ulster, from 1971 to 1994, produced remarkably little fall-out in Scotland. Furthermore, the great improvement in inter-communal relations since the parties led by Peter Robinson and Gerry Adams started to govern the province jointly have made no difference to conditions over here.

Scotland and Northern Ireland are two countries with their backs to one another. For most of its history, Scotland has been short on resources and geographically fragmented, which is a recipe for intense conflict over goods, territory and status. It can be seen not just in deprived areas but in professions such as mine and Professor Devine’s, where the pursuit of the top prizes is often unrelenting.

Professor Devine’s well-earned reputation as a leading historian will be reinforced if he avoids playing to the gallery by looking for external explanations for long-term ills which have Scottish origins and staying power (despite an Irish overlay).

There are enough prominent Scots looking for external alibis and as long as this syndrome is indulged in, changes for the better will be slow to arrive in this self-regarding and immodest land. Tom Gallagher, 21 Meadowfield Terrace, Edinburgh.