Sir, - To suggest that all members of the Garda Siochana should carry firearms (Paul Robinson, June 4th) is to misunderstand the nature and ethos of that force. The Garda Siochana was founded when this country was in a far worse state of lawlessness than it is today.
The members of the Garda have over the past 75 years policed this country successfully by moral force and not by that of arms. The men and women who join it know that it is upon this moral strength that their success lies, not upon the force of guns.
This, I would respectfully suggest, leads to an altogether different type of person joining the force than that who would seek to enforce the law wearing a gun.
I can assure you that on a dark night I would far prefer to be asked where I was going without a light on my bike by a Garda who was not carrying a six gun!
Yours, etc.,
Lady Lane,
Waterford.