Madam, - I live a stone's throw from the scene of Wednesday night's gangland murder and shop regularly in the supermarket there. I would have thought that our bustling financial centre would be a safe haven from the criminals. To say I am now nervous on my own doorstep is a understatement.
It is clear to me after this week's wave of murders that Minister McDowell and the Garda force are losing this battle. Forceful action is needed now to preserve what little sense of social well-being that remains. - Yours, etc,
GRAEME V. FLYNN, Mayor Street Lower, IFSC, Dublin 1.
Madam, - More brutal gang-land murders in Dublin, and another chance for our Minister for Justice to propound his view that gun crime is inextricably linked with drugs. However, an honest assessment of the drug culture in this country quickly puts the lie to his claims.
The most popular drug, by far, in Ireland is also the one that causes the most disruption, most violence, most misery, most broken homes, and even the most death. Yet that particular drug, alcohol, is not linked in the public consciousness with gun crime. Another hugely popular and indeed devastating drug, nicotine, likewise has no such link. Both these examples demonstrate that even the most deadly and addictive drugs, despite our Minister's simplistic sound-bites, need not cause gun crime.
Yet it is undeniable that guns are being used more and more in the illegal drug trade. It is clear that it is the very illegality of the drugs in question which causes the gun crime. It is the illegality of the drugs that makes them so profitable, and likewise it is the illegality of these drugs which ensures that thugs and murderers become involved in their supply.
The Government's own statistics show the illegal drugs market in Ireland is huge - which can only mean a significant percentage of the population are technically criminals. We look back now at alcohol prohibition in the United States and realise that not only was it useless, but counter-productive. It didn't stop people from drinking, and instead created a lucrative underworld trade where people of ruthless violence thrived.
Why are we making the same mistake again? What makes us think our current drugs prohibition will be any more successful? Albert Einstein once said a problem cannot be solved with the same kind of thinking that created it in the first place. We have a problem with gun crime in Ireland. Our drug policies are part of the problem. Some enlightened thinking could make them part of the solution. - Yours, etc,
GERARD NOLAN, Rathgar, Dublin 6.