Madam, - Jeff Dudgeon ( Letters, October 24th) equates the intolerance of the DUP towards homosexuals with the attitude he claims Sinn Féin holds towards the gay entries in the "black diaries" associated with Roger Casement, executed in 1916.
This is quite a flight of fancy.
In terms of policy and public stance Sinn Féin is not homophobic That party stands accused, according to Mr Dudgeon, because it has not made a public declaration of faith that Casement wrote the diary entries concerned.
Historians and researchers are divided as to whether they are forged. It is hard to understand why an organisation should declare an opinion on any disputed written matter without rigorous forensic inquiry.
In the case of the "black diaries" the relationship to forensic science has always been at arm's length; tentative, coy and highly restrained.
No purported "forensic" examination, of which there have been a few, met the acid test of the genuine article, ie, one carried out and presented to a standard appropriate for court submission.
Gays in the North have a right to respect and dignity. The island as a whole has a right not to have politically correct, flawed and scientifically illiterate history imposed on it. - Yours, etc,
TIM O'SULLIVAN, Homefarm Park, Dublin 9.