DAVID J. O'REILLY,
Sir, - The Attorney General's recent comments on Sinn Féin (The Irish Times, February 22nd) represent the first significant effort by any politician to alert the citizens of this nation to the very tangible dangers facing them. Mr McDowell is to be commended for having the moral character and the courage to articulate so effectively many Irish voters' deep concerns about Sinn Féin's core values, and also for casting doubts on their eligibility for ministerial office. Many young people feel, as I do, a sense of complete revulsion at the prospect of a Sinn Féin presence in the executive branch or the judiciary.
It is the constitutional duty of each party in the Irish political system to cleanse itself of any members who adhere to a political ethos which has as its unwritten core values the systematic violent intimidation of political opponents and the destruction of the Irish economy. If young Irish voters who are opposed to a political party as reprehensible as Sinn Féin fail to stand up and be counted in the forthcoming election, they will have failed their fellow citizens, their forefathers, and their country. - Yours etc.,
DAVID J. O'REILLY,
Orchardstown Avenue,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 14.
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Sir, - Michael McDowell has a bloody cheek declaring who is and is not fit to sit in the Dáil. The last time I checked, the only body qualifed to make that call was the electorate.
I am not a member of Sinn Féin or any other party, but when I cast my vote it will be on the basis of my own judgment, not on the demands of some cossetted media darling using the AG's office as a political platform. It's high time Mary Harney and the rest of those holier than thou political Chihuahuas in the PDs snapped out of it and started acting their age. They don't own the trademark on sincerity; it just looks like it next to Fianna Fáil. - Yours, etc.,
DAVID SMITH,
Harmonstown Road,
Artane,
Dublin 5.