Sir, - The recent upsurge of anti-unionist sentiment in this country was a triumph for the Sinn Fein/IRA propaganda machine. Your correspondent Mr McGrath (July 30th) accuses unionists of wanting to provoke a civil war. To decide not to share power with an organisation that has always said it will not decommission is a decision to defend democratic governance structures. So far from decommissioning, the IRA has been buying dozens of guns from Florida since last April. It has also just murdered Charles Bennett in Belfast.
Surely it is now clear that the policy of appeasement has failed. Is it not time that Dublin and London stopped playing games with Sinn Fein/IRA at the expense of Protestants in the North? There will never be true peace until Sinn Fein stops blaming others and decides to embrace democracy by breaking with the IRA Army Council.
On St Valentine's day, Mr Ahern showed real leadership by insisting on decommissioning before government. His U-turn let Sinn Fein off the hook. Now Mr Ahern can reassert his leadership by pressurising Sinn Fein to embrace democracy and break with its masters. He can speak with credibility as the founder of his party put guns behind him and the prize was that he and his party went on to run this country for decades. Sinn Fein would gain two prizes: the decommissioning issue would disappear and it would have in sight the prospect of holding the balance of power in the next elected Dail. Is that not the best way forward? - Yours, etc., D. Simpson, R. Bury,
The Reform Movement, Military Road, Killiney, Co Dublin.