Sir, - Do the powers that be in our country no longer understand what a principle is? Democratic principles are the foundations on which a state such as ours functions. Undermine them and you undermine the state itself. The state cannot do a deal with cold-blooded killers - much less those who have intimidated witnesses in a capital murder trial. Have we come to the point where we will collapse every principle on which our state is founded to kow-tow to a private army of killers in our midst, in the hope that we can get them to stop killing and maiming and crippling our people?
It is said that there was not enough evidence to convict these killers of murder. Obviously neither these men nor their legal representatives believe this. Why else would they agree to plead guilty to manslaughter? Obviously they accepted they could be convicted of the killing of Garda McCabe. The only question, then, was whether the killing was intentional or not. Surely the evidence of one witness alone - Detective Garda Ben O'Sullivan - would be sufficient to carry that point?
Compare all this to the actions of those they seek to appease in our name. The IRA has a principle that it will not decommission arms. It has not budged, and has repeatedly stated that it will never budge, on this principle. I believe it. The lunatics are taking over the asylum. - Yours etc., Michael O'Driscoll,
Castle View, Dublin 16.