Here is a letter I submitted to the ‘Belfast Newsletter’ today.
Dear Editor,
In response to the letter by Peter McEvoy,
‘Remember after the Gerry Adams verdict, the Irish did not start this fight’,
it has to be said that Mr McEvoy writes as one who has imbibed and believes the false notions of Irish history taught in Roman Catholic schools.
While there is much that is mere fancy amongst the historical documents of Ireland, there are two that Protestant and Roman Catholic historians accept.
They are the ‘Confession of Patrick’ and his ‘Letter’.
From Patrick’s ‘Confession’ we learn that Patrick was not in Ireland to carry out the will of the Pope. Were he sent there by Pope Celestine, as Rome would claim, then that is one matter that Patrick would mention when giving an account of how he came to Ireland.
Patrick makes no mention whatever of the Pope or of Rome or of being sent by Celestine. His call to Ireland was a simple call sent of God. His language is as straightforward on this matter as that which you would hear today in a fundamentalist gospel meeting.
The message of Patrick is as far removed from the message of Roman Catholicism as heaven is from hell!
The granting of Ireland to the English king, Henry II, by Pope Adrian IV in 1155 is a great embarrassment to Roman Catholic historians. They have even attempted to claim that the Bull was a forgery and the Pope never issued such a degree.
The purpose of the invasion was to crush the remnant that clung to Patrick’s teaching and that defied Rome’s attempts to include Ireland under its ecclesiastical control.
Pope Adrian’s Bull was issued in 1155 but it did not suit Henry to invade Ireland until 1171. He landed at Waterford and met with little or no resistance and so Ireland passed into the hands of England.
Today, the Irish Republic would consider itself free from the invader of 1171. It is not so. The invader of Patrick’s Ireland is still entrenched in the land. That invader is Roman Catholicism. At its feet alone we may lay the blame for the ongoing controversy and the sorrows stemming from it.
How ironic that those who consider themselves, ‘Irish Patriots’, are in fact the upholders of the real ‘invader and depriver’ of the ancient gospel freedoms of the people of this island!
What little there remains of true gospel religion in Ireland is the remnant of the faith that Patrick, under God, introduced some fifteen centuries ago.
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
Kilskeery, Co. Tyrone.
2nd June 2025