Madam, - David Herman (November 8th), commending Kevin Myers's moving description of the abduction and murder of Jean McConville, says: "I remember attending protests outside Sinn Féin headquarters at the height of the Troubles which attracted a pitiful handful of people".
The protests to which Mr Herman refers took place outside the Kevin Street head office of Provisional Sinn Féin and among the handful of people he refers to was a group of women from Belfast. One of these was a strong, determined woman called Ethel McAllister. She was protesting about what the Provisional IRA and Sinn Féin were doing to her people and her home town and in particular the damage they were doing to the Civil Rights campaign of which she was stalwart figure. Although the numbers taking part were small, they did receive some publicity in Belfast and this was unforgivable to the Provisionals, who must control Belfast.
They decided to silence Ethel McAllister. Shooting her would be bad publicity, so instead they decided to murder her only son, Jackie, aged 21. Jackie was not involved in anything except his new job so they shot him as he stood at a bus stop at 8 a.m. going to work.
They did not silence Ethel but they broke her heart. She no longer felt she had a life to live when Jackie was murdered because of her activities. This was the lifelong torture devised for Ethel by the inhuman Provo leadership who similarly tortured the family of Jean McConville.
It upsets me that these people call themselves Republicans and are generally regarded as such after carrying out a brutal, sectarian, anti-Protestant war for 30 years. They now believe they have won that war, as stated recently by Joe Cahill to loud applause. As a result of their victory they are now asking the Catholics to elect them to the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which they claimed to be fighting against for the past 30 years. - Yours, etc.,
TOMAS MacGIOLLA, St Laurence Road, Dublin 20.