Sir - Your report on the views of Brendan Hughes (The Irish Times, March 4th) with regard to current Sinn Fein strategy underlines how important it is for the pro-Agreement politicians to achieve the effective implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.
Mr Hughes may revel in the purity of the armed struggle, but while he may see armed struggle as an extension of politics, he seems to conveniently forget Robert Tabor's insight (The War of the Flea) that even in revolutionary terms such an extension should not come about until all acceptable peaceful solutions have proved worthless. This is not the case in Ireland - North or South.
Mr Hughes may feel that people are politics-weary rather than war weary. Recent results at the ballot box, and through opinion polls, do not support his conclusion. Certainly people are increasingly demoralised, but this is because they want to see peaceful political progress in order to realise the potential of the Agreement and to prevent any return to violence.
The Northern Ireland Women's Coalition is currently working to achieve inclusive political talks with the aim of establishing clear objectives and shared understanding in order to move the implementation process forward. This approach worked in South Africa in 1992 when the peace talks ran into major difficulties.
While such efforts may be too mundane and subtle for Mr Hughes, any serious political analysis shows that negotiation is now the only way forward. But Brendan Hughes betrays his own position when he claims that it was "the war" that gave politics content. Any revolutionary knows that the opposite is true - only a political cause can make violence either justifiable or effective.
In glorifying the means over the end, Mr Hughes highlights the poverty of his philosophy, and this without even considering the consequences of the violence advocated. Unlike Mr Hughes, the Women's Coalition is committed to showing the effectiveness of peaceful political struggle, and to re-asserting the primacy of inclusive negotiations - Yours, etc.,
Monica McWilliams, MLA, Northern Ireland Women's Coalition, Stormont, Belfast BT4 3XX