Sir, - I am sure it did not occur to David Trimble that at the same time as he and Geoffrey Donaldson were tearing up a discussion document and sniggering for the world's TV cameras on Tuesday, the family of John McColgan were burying another innocent victim of the lawlessness that flows from this kind of political immaturity.
Certainly the news broadcast image of Trimble guffawing at this silly antic in London sat shamefully beside the pictures of a griefstricken family in Belfast weeping in their despair.
Meanwhile community workers, who for years have attempted to mediate and work across the divide while political leaders refused to engage with each other, received death threats from the Loyalist Volunteer Force. A little more outrage and action from certain politicians in response to the genocide on their streets and to the demands of their people for leadership might serve us all better than laddish and offensive gimmicks. - Yours, etc., Declan Gorman,
Ballykea, Skerries, Co. Dublin.