A chara, - John Bruton's piece entitled "Democracy can't ignore illegal arms" (Opinion, August 16th) was unhelpful, ill-informed and misleading. He re-wrote history, ignored reality and effectively turned his back on the Good Friday Agreement.
Throughout the piece there was no reference to the 220 loyalist attacks in the past eight months, including the 140 pipe- and blast-bomb attacks carried out by loyalists and the tragic deaths of three people. Also, Mr Bruton ignored the presence of 23,000 British troops in the North, 100,000 legally held weapons in the hands of unionists, and the continued existence of the largest paramilitary force in the Six Counties, namely the RUC. Instead, Mr Bruton went on some sort of rant against republicans.
In the midst of this, he also failed to mention that Sinn FΘin - in line with what it signed up to under the Good Friday Agreement - has done more than any other party to use its influence to achieve decommissioning, whereas he, more than any other 26-county politician, has consistently hindered moves towards decommissioning by failing to acknowledge the series of historic moves made by Republicans in recent years.
Mr Bruton's article ventured into the surreal when he discussed his period as Taoiseach.
He seems to have a very selective memory of this period - which may not be a bad thing from his perspective. His claims that he did not want decommissioning before entry into talks flies in the face of numerous statements he made during the run-up to St Patrick's Day 1996. These statements urging the IRA to decommission before talks were best described by Geraldine Kennedy (The Irish Times, February 17th, 1996) as an "irreparable mistake".
John Bruton looks at events on this island through an anti-Republican prism. This is perhaps not surprising when one considers that his political idol is John Redmond. However, surely even he must acknowledge that the IRA's statement of August 9th was a historic attempt to resolve the current crisis. It was even more remarkable when one considers that loyalist paramilitaries continue to attack nationalists daily, the RUC remains unreformed, the British Army remains in place throughout the North, and David Trimble resigned from a fully functioning executive.
It is time for John Bruton to realise that Republicans have done everything in their power to make the Good Friday Agreement work. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of his friends in the UUP. - Is mise,
Cllr Nicky Kehoe, Dublin Central Sinn FΘin, North Strand, Dublin 1.