Sir, - For a lifetime, the playing of the Orange card was the defining power in Northern Ireland. You could have all the talks you wanted, all the orders necessary, and all the Sunningdales torturously wrought, but it was the Orange card that settled matters. Until the British Government dealt with the Orange card, the mindset of the Unionist political establishment would not change, or accept the realities of the modern world.
In 1998, Tony Blair's Government, in spite of the mayhem and the awful murders surrounding Drumcree, at last stood firm and showed those who wielded the real power for over 70 years, that their over-riding power was finished. In spite of a year's protest on the hill, it is clear now that the message has been sorely learned and the medicine taken.
Meanwhile at Stormont the charade went on. All the political powers on both islands were straining might and main, round and round the mulberry bush, over words like "could", "might", "must," in the absence of the group who could deliver the most enormous boost to the future of this land, by a few simple sentences.
The IRA have contributed, on a grand scale, to the suffering in Ireland in a ruthless pursuit of a changed political landscape. That landscape has now changed utterly for the common good. They now have the power to contribute so positively, by the pen rather than by the bomb or the bullet, by firmly backing their political leaders and stating definitively, that the time has come to turn their swords into ploughshares. - Yours, etc.,
John Woods, Francis Street, Dundalk.
