Madam, - Susan McKay's graphic description of Paul Quinn's savage beating ( Weekend Review, November 17th) was chilling. In one small, sparsely populated, mainly farming area, a large group of young men - peers of Paul Quinn (some might have been former school-mates) - battered his almost lifeless body until he became an unrecognisable, bloody heap on the ground.
Then the silence, and the overriding fear that renders the innate goodness of ordinary people sterile and voiceless. It doesn't really matter to the Quinn family whether their son was attacked by active or retired members of the Provisional IRA. It matters that there is a highly organised group of conditioned psychopaths in that community, who have become accustomed over the years to enforcing their own version of justice with minimal outside interference.
Yet Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern and, latterly, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, can only endorse the hollow claims of Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams that IRA members were not involved in Paul Quinn's brutal death. Their opinion is in stark contrast with the views of local republicans, who are of one voice when they say that IRA members were involved in the attack. It is well known to republicans - and indeed, to Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan - that the IRA still holds sway in that part of the world, and little happens there without their say-so.
The transparent attempts by some Government members to avoid any embarrassment to Gerry Adams and Sinn Féin that might somehow endanger the fragile peace is, once again, brought into sharp focus. It would appear that democratic procedures must be ignored, and murder sanctioned, in the interest of a superficial process that means peace for some and misery for many others.
Ministers Dermot Ahern, Brian Lenihan and the Taoiseach himself should apologise unequivocally to the family of Paul Quinn for their remarks, which seemed to cast doubt on the veracity of their informed opinion, and that of republicans on the ground. - Yours, etc,
NIALL GINTY, The Demesne, Killester, Dublin 5.