Sir, - I am not a member of any political party and have yet to decide for whom I will vote. Having been involved in various peace groups, I have no problem if Mary McAleese conferred with Gerry Adams in an attempt to restore the IRA ceasefire. John Hume, who repeatedly did this, would have been a very popular candidate for President. Mr Hume would also have been able to get Mr Adams's endorsement without it crippling his candidacy.
However, I am concerned that Mary McAleese repeatedly makes assertions about Northern Ireland that, together, simply do not tally. Taken at face value, she appears to have inspired the support of both Gerry Adams and "literally a mountain" of anonymous unionists, while working almost secretly for the SDLP amidst concerns there that she supports Sinn Fein. She has also accused a respected official at the Department of Foreign Affairs of distorting her views on sensitive matters.
Her assertion about unionist support has been described as a "misleading fiction" by Ulster Unionist councillor Chris McGimpsey and was also strongly rejected by the Young Unionists.
She says she has always supported the SDLP and indeed worked for them in last May's general election. Yet before that election, the SDLP councillor Brid Rodgers felt she was "in reality pushing the Sinn Fein agenda". After the election she told Dympna Hayes she was "very pleased with Sinn Fein's performance" and the SDLP chairman, Mark Durkan, is not aware of her ever giving "active or engaged support" to the SDLP.
Most serious of all is her claim that the leaked DFA memo distorted her views. The role of the Department in the peace process is clearly damaged by such a memo being leaked. Mary McAleese has damaged it far more greviously by claiming that a senior official has distorted sensitive views given in confidence to the Department.
Maybe Mary McAleese is correct and Chris McGimpsey, the Young Unionists, Brid Rodgers, Mark Durkan and Dympna Hayes are all simply mistaken. However, this emerging pattern is deeply disturbing. We are now at a most sensitive stage of the Northern Ireland peace process. We need a President who can inspire trust on all sides and who, at the kindest interpretation, is not routinely misunderstood by key unionists, constitutional nationalists and officials at the Department of Foreign Affairs. - Yours, etc.,
From Michael Nugent
Dargle Road, Dublin 9.