SIR: I feel I must write in reply to the lies and mis-information given in your newspaper regarding the Apprentice Boys Parade in Bolton on April 13.

Burtonwood Breweries cancelled the room, because of threats from the extreme left. Membership of organisations such as Combat 18 and the BNP is not allowed in the Loyalist Institutions. Anyone found to be a member is expelled.

Unionists cannot support nationalism, as they are opposite. We, as loyalists, (with members from ethnic backgrounds in our ranks) consider the extreme right to be as dangerous a threat as the extreme left. Noel Spencer says 'He doesn't want Fascists marching in Bolton', and that he 'doesn't want sectarianism rearing its head in town'. When the Irish community hold events in Bolton, they are billed as 'cultural', but anything to do with the loyalist community is billed as sectarian.

When Sinn Fein councillor Francie Malloy held a meeting in Bolton Town Hall last year, the likes of Tom Hanley and Neil Duffield said it was good that Unionists turned up and asked questions, but these people were not prepared to let DUP councillor Gregory Campbell speak on the 13th.

Regarding your article published April 15, the stand off was not bitter and a number of Apprentice Boys were praised for their actions and behaviour by the police.

Your picture caption on page one says 'Flashpoint police hold the line against loyalist and Neo-Nazi marchers in Bolton'. I would appreciate it if you can point out the 'Nazis' so that they can be turned away from further parades.

Neil Duffield says: "The loyalists in Bolton made no serious attempt to separate themselves from the Combat 18 gang present." For Combat 18 to be moved from the streets of Bolton is a police matter, not an ABOD matter. Anti-Nazi League spokesperson Jeremy Taylor, says: "This is a victory for decent people." This situation was never a competition between two sides. Apprentice Boys dispersed once there was somewhere to go. The police said the ABOD could not parade, but did not have a dispersal plan. That came from an ABOD marshal.

On page 15 (editorial) you call Apprentice Boys Parades 'an anachronism'. Yet nothing is mentioned of Republican Internment Parades, Easter Uprising Celebrations, or Bloody Sunday Anniversary demonstrations. Once again Irish Republicans have seen their parades pass without incident, and now are ready to stop patriotic Unionists from celebrating their culture with their parades.

If Mr Hanley, Mr Duffield, or Mr Taylor would like to contact me via your newspaper, I would be more than happy to answer any of their questions, but I suspect, like your newspaper their minds will already be made up. M Dooley, Fareham, Hampshire

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.