A chara, – With gross distortion Fintan O'Toole (Weekend, August 28th) talks about "the IRA's 30-year campaign of mass killing" and "the disaster [Sinn Féin] helped inflict on the Irish people", in a column in which the word "conflict" does not appear even once.
Not content with misrepresenting the actions of one side in the armed conflict he totally ignores the actions of all others, including the British state and its loyalist paramilitary surrogates. And this in an article which accuses Sinn Féin and most Irish people of wilful forgetfulness.
Even more extraordinary in the context is his failure to mention the fact that the British government at this very moment is seeking in Westminster legislation to close down all further investigations, inquests and prosecutions relating to deaths in the conflict. And this of course is to shield its own agents of conflict, political and military, regardless of opposition to the legislation right across the political spectrum in Ireland.
I believe the Irish people have more intelligence and integrity than O’Toole gives them credit for. They know the conflict was many-sided. They are also well able to hold their political representatives to account, unlike the clerical caste cited in the column who were accountable only to themselves.
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Elected representatives, including Sinn Féin, will be judged according to their actions to fulfil their mandate, regardless of the special and spurious “moral test” O’Toole seeks to apply to Sinn Féin. – Is mise,
MÍCHEÁL
MAC DONNCHA
Cill Bharróg
BAC 5.