Madam, - So Father Sean McManus is heartbroken (February 25th). I wonder if he ever reflects on the heartbreak that he and his few fellow-travelling clerical ilk have inflicted on the Northern nationalist population they profess to champion? By lending through their calling a veneer of moral respectability to a 30-year campaign of sectarian gangsterism that debased the ideals of the Civil Rights movement, they helped to deliver that community into the hands of a mafia.
The tragedy for both working-class communities in the North is that they are terrorised by gangsters wrapped in their respective flags. The double tragedy for nationalists is that they alone have given them a mandate. - Yours, etc.,
JOHN ROONEY, Belfast 15.
Madam, - Father Sean McManus's mock outrage is comical (February 25th). He accuses Bertie Ahern of being an "executioner" and alleges that Michael McDowell is an "extremist".
Perhaps Father McManus should ask the families of those recently murdered by the IRA who the extremists and executioners actually are. - Yours, etc.,
PETER FITZPATRICK, Darlinghurst, New South Wales, Australia.
Madam, - Perhaps Sinn Féin/IRA's wish of "Tiochfaidh ar Lá" has finally been realised. Not only has their day come as far as most of the Irish public is concerned, but also the day has come when constitutional politicians have at last woken up to what they themselves have been doing: spoon-feeding Sinn Féin/IRA into becoming a massive criminal organisation, a "rafia". The policy of appeasement has ended in abject failure. With the excellent work of the Garda and PSNI, the day has also hopefully come for the victory of law and order on this island.
But the question to be asked now is why all political parties allowed this situation to go unchecked for so long. Apologists for appeasement have let law-abiding citizens down and we are owed an explanation for their political ineptitude, or should we say moral cowardice? The price we have paid is the isolation of the centre parties of the UUP, the SDLP and Alliance and the encouragement of the extreme parties of the DUP and Sinn Féin. But with the clear leadership of Michael McDowell, Bertie Ahern is taking a more principled stand.
We now know that our trust has been abused and the very idea of Sinn Féin being involved in negotiations about the future of society is now unthinkable, their electoral mandate notwithstanding. They have serially duped our politicians and the electorate, thus abusing their mandate, and still show no sign of breaking their link to a private, illegal army which robs banks. The questions Sinn Féin will not answer are: why does it need a private army if it is a peaceful democratic party, and why won't it encourage people to join the PSNI? After seven years of waiting, the Irish people surely deserve an answer. - Yours, etc.,
CLARE NORRIS, BRIAN MOOREHEAD, ROBIN BURY, The Reform Movement, Killiney, Co Dublin.
Madam, - Jason Fitzharris (February 23rd) asks the Taoiseach: "Which do you want to be remembered as, Chamberlain or Churchill?"
Our Taoiseach is the leader of Fianna Fáil - the Republican Party. Surely a republican and nationalist like Mr Ahern would have no desire to be either a Churchill or a Chamberlain. Perhaps you could remind your readers of Churchill's record in Ireland. - Yours, etc.,
DENIS BENSON, Inse Bay, Laytown, Co Meath.