Madam, - Congratulations to Fintan O'Toole on his excellent article "Sinn Féin's silence on IRA killing" (June 28th).
It was one of the most concise and hard-hitting criticisms of the hypocrisy, cynicism and viciousness of the IRA that I have read.
Between the murder of the children in 1973, that O'Toole mentions, and that of Robert McCartney a few months ago, there have been innumerable unarmed and innocent civilians whose lives have been ended by the actions of the IRA.
Sinn Féin still presents itself, and the community it claims to represent, as "victims", misrepresented or demonised by the British government, the "securocrats" and the media.
Yet, in reality, the worst oppressors of the past 35 years in Northern Ireland have not been the unionists, the British army, the RUC or PSNI or loyalist paramilitaries, but the IRA and its offshoots.
Militant republicans have killed and maimed far more civilians than any other group.
The greatest number of their victims have been working-class Catholics and nationalists, the very community which the IRA claims to represent and defend.
Militant Irish republicans are no better than other international terrorists, whether it is the FARC in Colombia, the train bombers in Madrid, those who carried out the school siege in Beslan, or the Al-Qaeda terrorists in New York and Washington.
The IRA's terrorist campaign has been equally cruel, callous and vicious.
Fintan O'Toole's article raises serious questions for Sinn Féin, Martin McGuinness and the IRA and it deserves a reply. - Yours, etc,
JULIAN CAMPBELL, St Luke's, Cork.