Sir, - The release of six IRA prisoners by our Government was an act of gross insensitivity, coming only a week after the implication of the IRA in the murder of Mr Andy Kearney in Belfast. Just at the time that this organisation has shown itself to be arrogant enough to ignore its ceasefire and think it can get away with it, our Government has confirmed this assumption.
The effect these releases are having and will have on unionist opinion and the political capital to be made by "No" unionists are blatantly obvious, and should not need explaining to anyone who knows anything about Northern Ireland. If our Government did not foresee this, it has no business running the country. If it did, the obvious conclusion is that it simply did not care; the Fianna Fail republican agenda is to be followed, no matter what the effect.
It is time we in the South realised that we are also part of the problem. We are very good at criticising unionists for their dinosaur-like qualities, but are unable or unwilling to question a lot of our own prejudices and the tacit acceptance of republican violence. Yes, prisoner releases are part of the Good Friday Agreement, but surely the people in Government who purport to know what they are doing could wait for a less politically sensitive time to implement this - a time when the republican movement has shown some sign of giving up its arrogant barbarism. - Yours, etc., Lorcan McNamee
Rathedmond,
Sligo.