Sir, - The unionist family has been accused of "not trusting" republicanism. The opprobrium visited on the head of David Trimble over this has been a spectacular triumph of fantasy over reality. Consider the following as the background to this alleged lack of "trust";
The IRA has comprehensively failed to decommission so much as one bullet from their illegal terror arsenal since last Good Friday. Furthermore, they have gone on record of stating categorically that they will not decommission their murder weapons. That would be bad enough were it not for the fact that these same weapons have been far from quiet since last year, with a number of murders and mutilation beatings directly attributed to the IRA. The total silence from the IRA during last week's discussions spoke volumes for their inability to come to terms with the desire of the majority of people that they disarm.
Then we have the news that the Irish Government has stopped the digging for the "disappeared". So now the relatives of those murdered by the IRA have got to endure more agony, as the information provided by the IRA to the Commission has been demonstrably misleading.
Why is it that democratic nationalism cannot face up to its responsibility to distance itself from such a barbarous group? The challenge now is for those who claim to be democrats to trust themselves and seek a future together, which excludes people linked with unreconstructed terror. That means leaving the IRA, UVF and UDA to skulk in the backwaters of history whilst the rest of our society moves forward. Peace is won by opposing violence, not by appeasing it. - Yours, etc.,
Tom Sheridan, Secretary, UK Unionist Party, Bangor, Co Down.