MARC Horne's article regarding Orkney having its peace shattered by the recent conviction of Michael Ross was unworthy of a supposedly quality newspaper ('Island idyll blanks brutal murder from its memory', June 22).
It's a common tabloid myth that remote or rural communities are somehow "idyllic" and that, when tragedies such as this dreadful murder occur, there descends a "veil of silence" (Horne's words). In fact, of course, Orkney is like any other community,
rural or otherwise – it is composed of human beings with all the variety of fallibility, talent, attitude, opinions (and wariness of reporters) – that that implies.
Further, to base his comments on casual conversations with half a dozen people hardly reflects the outlook of an entire community.
He began his article with a passing reference to the recent St Magnus Festival. A truly quality newspaper might have found space for a measured report of Ross's conviction and also used the space freed up by the removal of Horne's lurid tosh to examine how a remote "island idyll" with a small population manages to produce year after year a festival which not only attracts international musicians and performers but succeeds in actively engaging a substantial proportion of the local community as well.
Eric Sinclair, rector, Kirkwall Grammar School (1990-1999)The full article contains 216 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
