The Troubles: Ireland's Ordeal 1966–1995 and the Search for Peace

by Tim Pat Coogan

But there is another overtone to Paisleyism: a patina of violence which tinges his presentation of popery and the bogus connection he forges between the papacy and the IRA. The Protestant Telegraph also claimed, in April 1967, that the following is the Sinn Fein Oath: These Protestant robbers and brutes, these unbelievers of our faith, will be driven like the swine they are into the sea by fire, the knife or the poison cup until we of the Catholic Faith and avowed supporters of all Sinn Fein action and principles clear these heretics from our land… At any cost we must work and seek, using any method of deception to gain our ends, towards the destruction of all Protestants and the advancement of the priesthood and the Catholic Faith until the Pope is complete ruler of the whole world… We must strike at every opportunity, using all methods of causing ill-feeling within the Protestant ranks and in their business. The employment of any means will be blessed by our earthly Fathers, the priests, and thrice blessed by his Holiness the Pope. So shall we of the Roman Catholic Church and Faith destroy with smiles of thanksgiving to our Holy Father the Pope all who shall not join us and accept our beliefs.