Madam, - I agree with Arthur Morgan, TD that the murderers of Garda McCabe should be released under the terms of the Belfast Agreement. We cannot in justice expect different standards in our own jurisdiction from those applied in the North.
However, I part company with Mr Morgan regarding his sickeningly mealy-mouthed reference to these people's "involvement in the tragic events that led to the death of Garda McCabe". These "events" were not acts of God or nature. The people in question planned and mounted the raid, carried weapons and were ready to use them - and did so, with lethal effect.
The conventional party political system is in disarray. The largest party in the State has been shown to have been fuelled by corruption and bribery and there is apparently no party really prepared to speak for the dispossessed and the marginalised. But anyone thinking of voting Sinn Féin as a kind of protest should think again. - Yours, etc.,
PIARAS MAC EINRI, Model Farm Road, Cork.
Madam, - In answer to Arthur Morgan TD's question as to why the killers of Jerry McCabe are still in prison, would it be because they were convicted of killing a serving member of the Garda Síochána while robbing a bank during an alleged ceasefire? - Yours, etc.,
BARRY WALSH, Blackrock, Cork.
Madam, - The Sinn Féin TD Arthur Morgan writes compassionately of the "prisoners convicted of involvement in the tragic events that led to the death" of Garda McCabe. Is this clumsy phrase a new euphemism for "convicted killers"? - Yours, etc.,
TONY ALLWRIGHT, Killiney, Co Dublin.