Sir, - Finbar Cullen (February 22nd) maintains that IRA standing orders (prohibiting armed action against the forces of this State) add weight to the belief that the killing of Garda McCabe was an act of manslaughter rather than murder. I find the suggestion that we give any credence to the orders of this organisation grotesque and offensive in the extreme.
I only wish that Mr Cullen had been in court to peddle this spurious defence on behalf of the killers; his efforts might have contributed to a more fitting sentence. - Yours, etc., Niall Morrissey,
Hawthorn Park, Swords, Co Dublin.