Sir, - David Carroll (April 15th) makes the point well that the decommissioning issue is a matter of symbolism rather than pragmatism. I am a Catholic living in a predominantly unionist and Protestant part of Northern Ireland. During the lead-up to the Good Friday Agreement and the subsequent referendum I stood up in a number of meetings hosted by Protestant church organisations and asked those present not to let unforgiveness get in way of prisoner releases. I encouraged them to take a leap of faith and vote Yes for the agreement in the forthcoming referendum. We now know a vast number did just that.
I really do believe that republicans do not realise just how big an issue the prisoner releases was for Ulster Protestants and just how far they had to move against their own basic instincts regarding their understanding of justice and the rule of law. I feel I owe it to them now to ask the Republican movement not to let pride prevent them making a confidence-building gesture towards the unionist people by putting arms or explosives beyond use in an acceptable way.
Such a gesture may not be required at this stage by the terms of the Good Friday Agreement and it may similarly require them to move against their own basic instincts, but it would have the endorsement, support and gratitude of the vast majority of the people on the island who supported the agreement. - Yours, etc.,
M. Murray, Co Antrim.