Sir, – After the Ryan and Murphy reports, Irish people know the deeply scarring consequences of blind loyalty to an organisation. Some within Sinn Féin now rank alongside those Catholic bishops that put the protection of their own institutions ahead of the protection and needs of the victims of abuse and, indeed, ahead of simple, human decency. – Yours, etc,
JOHN KENNY,
Monkstown,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – If given the choice I wonder if Gerry Adams would prefer trial by media or trial by a paramilitary “court”. I think I know which I would prefer to receive my “sentence” from. – Yours, etc,
KARL McLAUGHLIN,
Greystones,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – Gerry Adams is again being “tried” by the media and politicians without due process. The irony is that many of those involved are amongst a coterie of individuals that also took part in savage, vitriolic attacks on John Hume when the peace process was in its infancy and subsequently, as that process matured into the Belfast Agreement.
It is hard to believe it now but that campaign against John Hume was every bit as vicious as the current campaign waged against Mr Adams. Thankfully, they along with many others persevered and brought that part of the peace process to its final conclusion, with the signing of the Belfast Agreement, much, I might add, to the discomfort and displeasure of many of those individuals who would have preferred to see the process fail. – Yours, etc,
TOM PARTRIDGE,
Tramore,
Co Waterford.
Sir, – Sinn Féin’s vice-president Mary Lou McDonald TD is reported as claiming that the party has no information on child abuse. Does she really believe that the IRA punishment beatings and kneecappings of minors were not child abuse? Does she really believe that nobody in Sinn Féin had any involvement in this? Incredible. – Yours, etc,
PAT O’MAHONY,
Dún Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.