Sir, - As Northern Ireland inches agonisingly towards democracy, the Sean Citizens who voted in such overwhelming numbers for the Good Friday Agreement stand watching in dismay on the sidelines while Sinn Fein spokesmen blandly accuse Unionists of bad faith and demand that the British Government force David Trimble to form the Executive forthwith.
Many times in the past there would have been substance to an accusation of bad faith on the part of the Unionists, but not this time. Today's Unionist leaders have shown a lot of courage in facing down the wilder elements of their support and accepting parts of the Good Friday Agreement which fly in the face of all that they held dear for so long. They have reached out the hand to Sinn Fein - an unthinkable gesture a short time ago - and yet they are accused of trying to force the IRA back to war. In my view Trimble, Nesbitt and Empey have shown themselves determined to change the way that Unionists think and act and while they will fight their corner, they realise that the world, Ireland and Blair's Britain have moved on a great deal in the past 30 years.
The only people speaking of an IRA military surrender are the people who "are not spokesmen for the IRA", i.e. Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams. These men, who have led the Republican movement away from violence over a number of years and persuaded the vast majority of their followers to accept the unthinkable as propounded in the referendum, must know the score.
The only people wishing the IRA back to war are those twisted, evil, anonymous psychopaths who refuse to change and to accept that they have nothing to offer Ireland's cause but the continuance of murder and mayhem. These individuals, the smallest minority, are not and never will be for turning and nobody knows that better than Adams and McGuinness.
The split has come and the sooner it is out in the open the better, so that those who have chosen the path of democracy can get on with the job. - Yours, etc.,
John Woods, Francis Street, Dundalk, Co Louth.