Madam, - Michael McDowell "is a democratically elected Minister". Bobby Sands was a "criminal". He "was a twice convicted member of the IRA" (Kevin Myers, An Irishman's Diary, February 1st).
Mr Myers neglected to mention the unpalatable fact that Bobby Sands was also "a democratically elected" member of parliament.
I'm no apologist for the IRA; its fascist, heinous methods are an anathema. But surely even the most trenchant critic of the Republican Movement must admit that, far from being a "criminal", Bobby Sands was an idealist who made the ultimate sacrifice for a cause that he believed in passionately. - Yours, etc.,
PAUL DELANEY, Dalkey, Co Dublin.