Only the shrillest of voices here

We the People: Journeys through the Heart of Protestant Ulster by Geoffrey Beattie, (Heinemann, £16.99) James Tweed LAST month saw an unwelcome ,statistic about the Northern Irish "Troubles" when the 3000th fatality within the beleagured province was announced. Almost 25 years of killing, and still the Protestant people, despite being the majority, insist probably wrongly that their perspective on events has been either misrepresented by the media or just plain ignored in preference to their Catholic counterparts.
Well, no longer, for expatriate Northern Irishman Geoffrey Beattie, who is currently Reader in Psychology at the University of Sheffield. has given a platform to Protestant opinion in this semiautobiographical book.
The book, sadly, sheds little new light on this darkened corner of the United Kingdom. By nature of its premise, Beattie's book is deliberately lop-sided and at times his choice of interviewees comes across as being more who was available at the time rather than an attempt to canvas all Protestant opinion. Hence. when it comes to religion, he turns to the Rev Ian Paisley's Martyrs Memorial Free Presbyterian Church in Belfast, with a Union Jack at one side of the pulpit and the Red Hand of Ulster at the other. Beattie also talks to Pastor Jack McKee of the Elim Pentecostal Church, whose approach seems more wholistic with regard to helping people through the hell of this life, than Paisley's emphasis on the hell of the next one. However, no mention is made of the many Protestant Christian ventures seeking reconciliation and healing, such as the Christian Renewal Centre or even the Cortymeela community in Ballycastle. Nor is reference made to the Protestant farming community, from many of whom Beattie would have received a more moderate opinion on the state and future of Northern Ireland than he has chronicled here.
Omissions such as these result in a book which perpetuates the sense of impotence we all feel when watching the latest Belfast carnage on the news. We Are The People confirms prejudices and provides ammunition to those who may feel the British government ought to pull out. Perhaps this is the book's hidden agenda.
James Tweed, born in Northern Ireland, works for the Church of England Newspaper.