Truth and Orthodoxies - A reply to Richard Dawkins on the Irish Question

In thy chapter on the deeply religious nonbeliever, friend Richard Dawkins, thee observes that in the context of thy world view, the war in Ireland is cast in such a way to hide its religious nature, "... Catholics and Protestants are euphemized to 'Nationalists and Loyalists...."

And so, here we have it ... the problem with orthodoxies of all kinds is the complexity of the models in the real world - beyond our theories, political or religious. The framework of my "truths" about Ireland are formed in my cultural perspective and thy "truths" are framed in the cultural context of thine. Both are deeply ingrained in our view of the same facts creating different outcomes of conclusion.

In thy appreciation the war in the northern counties of Ireland are a religious conflict, colored in the press as political. In my context the war is political, with an indelible real politic behind the manipulation of both the press and public to obscure a hidden agenda (as the film based in part on the exposures of ex-British agent Frank Holroid was titled). so, when I look at the coverage and commentary on the war in Ireland, I look in wonder at a political war cast in the press and Parliament as a religious war!

In my context, seeing the events from the distance and intimacy of an Anglo Irish name, I see the vital role of Protestants and Atheists who were nationalist. I have known members of active service units of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) both Provisional and Official and Irish National Liberation Army (INLA). Many were not very concerned with religion, none that I knew saw the struggle as a religious divide any more than they might see American slavery a Protestant event as the majority of slave owners may have been Protestant. Rather, they saw the war as a struggle for rights to gain the equality of citizenship rather than the role of subject to a foreign crown. They saw the struggle as an attempt to be free of an economic system which bled colonial territories for centuries of natural resources and raw material, while fostering local unrest to divide and conquer.

After the Second World War this economic oppression was turned to a frontier in the standoff between NATO and the WARSAW pact, as the unoccupied lower 26 counties were constitutionally neutral.I could go on at length on my "proofs" of this, from the loss of trawlers to British subs planting listening devices off the coast of Ireland to the building of Knock Airport (a religious smoke screen for a hugely political exigency). But, I will cut to the end of the story.
The same year the Soviet Union breaks apart and Ireland sets aside neutrality to allow US warplanes to land at Shannon to refuel on their way to bomb Iraq during the first Gulf War, while the "Holy shrine at." Knock's new airport is used to keep commercial traffic flowing, suddenly Britain, who claimed to stand between warring elements of the Irish community, could suddenly find a way to hold secret talks with the IRA. The politic changed and Britain's stand in the war changed - the religions remained the same.

For the presentation of my "truths" this is a very short answer - though I admit is a long rely to only a few sentences on thy part, and for this I apologize. My conclusion is that it is not the commentary of Religion which is used to racialize one or the other communities by a coldly calculating political entity - it is the understanding that understanding is based on transcending the orthodoxies which color our "truths" without concern if they are religious or political.
Or to put it another way, should not a true free thinker, be a heretic to the deepest held notions of his or her own heart?