You can’t force people to like and respect something they vehemently oppose, regardless of how many times you go on the radio or appear in newspapers to tell them they are awful for not supporting it.

Take the recent controversy about the British Army registering as an employer for a job fair to be held in Derry, in the council-owned Foyle Arena leisure centre.

Sinn Féin said it was ‘fully opposed’ to their attendance and that they would ‘not be welcome’, while the Ulster Unionist Party accused nationalist parties of ‘sheer hatred and bigotry’. The DUP said the opposition was born out of ‘hostility to the army’.

It’s not really that difficult to get your head around why people in Derry would be opposed to the British armed forces peddling their wares at a jobs fair.

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© The Irish News