Sir, - Mary Lou McDonald of the Irish National Congress (June 27th) rightly reminds our elected representatives of their responsibility to defend the right of Irish citizens to "live free from sectarian harassment, as expressed in the Good Friday Agreement".
While I am delighted to learn that the INC now seems to be accepting the agreement which it strongly opposed in 1998, I feel that Ms McDonald is being just a little selective. Besides the responsibility she outlined in her letter, there are other responsibilities and obligations set out in the agreement which have direct relevance to the issue in question - rights and responsibilities of which her organisation seems unaware, but which our Government and our political representatives and the majority of the Irish people endorsed and ratified when we voted for the agreement.
I refer Ms McDonald particularly to the chapter in the agreement on "rights, safeguards and equality of opportunity" where principles such as "parity of esteem", "mutual respect for the identity and ethos of both communities" and "equality of treatment" are affirmed and the obligation of the Irish Government to "demonstrate its respect for the different traditions in the island of Ireland" is clearly acknowledged.
At a time when the majority of people of Northern Ireland, coming out of a period of great pain, suffering and injustice, are demonstrating daily and with great courage their willingness to change, to make a "fresh start" and to make enormous sacrifices in the interest of peace, perhaps it is time we in the Republic started to examine how we have contributed to date and how we can best contribute in the future to the achievement of "reconciliation, tolerance and mutual trust" on the island. Perhaps we also need to examine just what we mean by "parity of esteem". - Yours, etc.
Julitta Clancy, Meath Peace Group,, Parsonstown, Batterstown, Co Meath.