Sir, - Someday, perhaps Dr Ruth Dudley Edwards might surprise us by submitting an opinion to your newspaper minus the blinkered viewpoint and anti-nationalist diatribe which has become the hallmark of her political exclamations. In her article (June 11th) "SF Campaign Run On Fascist Lines", Dr Edwards goes so far over the top that she runs the risk of neutralising her argument.
Dr Edwards makes many accusations in her article that should not go unchallenged but I will respond to just two. She claims that "police reform is the emasculation of a police force and an appeasement to paramilitaries". What nationalists demand in the way of police reform is no more and no less than the implementation of the Patten report, commissioned under the terms of the Belfast Agreement.
Dr Edwards's assertion that "voters in the Republic seem increasingly unbothered about either democracy or morality" is both unfair and untrue, except perhaps, for those who endorsed the draconian policy of Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act.
However, being a democrat and valuing the freedom of the press, enduring such a bigoted attack on a constitutional political party and those who vote for it, is a small sacrifice to make. Yours, etc.,
Tom Cooper, Knocklyon, Dublin 16.