Sir, - The murder of Brian Service in Northern Ireland was neither random nor pointless. It was intended to send a message to the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and others, on the eve of his visit to Stormont, that the letter of the Belfast Agreement should be conceded or Catholics will be killed. It is to be hoped that neither of the two governments, nor anyone else, will bow to this terrorist threat.
The Irish people, North and South, have voted overwhelmingly for the letter of the Belfast Agreement. This latest loyalist murder shows the dangers of missing its deadlines. We have heard a great deal in recent weeks about the pressure on David Trimble, his limited room for manoeuvre and the need for nationalists to be realistic. It seems we are being asked to accept the definition of his opponent, the anti-Agreement Jeffrey Donaldson, of what is realistic, when the truth is that Mr Trimble has successfully come through his party conference with his opponents marginalised, the opposition UK Unionist Party has recently imploded, and now the murder of Brian Service has tainted Unionist hardliners.
David Trimble now has space for manoeuvre. As we know from the past, politics in Northern Ireland abhors a vacuum. The clock is ticking. If David Trimble is allowed to make the space that he now has into a vacuum, then others will step in to fill it. After the murder of Brian Service any deal which concedes the letter of the Agreement would be a deal done over his dead body. Such a vista is inconceivable. - Yours, etc. Joe Murphy,
Edgbaston,
Birmingham,
England.