Madam, - Regular users of the Google search engine may have noticed that the main page now carries a link to the video website YouTube. Click on that link, type the phrase "Dublin riot" in the search box, and there is a wealth of footage from the abortive Love Ulster rally and its aftermath in February 2006. Now it is seriously proposed that that outrage, in the best Hollywood tradition, should have a sequel.
This is madness. We hear it said that, in a democracy, everyone with a grievance should have the opportunity to take their protest on to the street. Surely, a better definition of a democracy would be a place where ordinary people may go about their lawful business in peace, and where contentious issues are resolved through legal and political channels rather than on the principal thoroughfare of the capital city?
Can there be any question about the outcome of this march if it goes ahead? The elements who hijacked it last year have not gone away, nor have they changed their opinions. The modern Irish State may have come into being through violence and destruction, but is it not now time to consign all that to history? - Yours, etc,
PAUL GRIFFIN, St Helens, Merseyside, England
Madam, - If the Love Ulster group wish to hold another march in Dublin in memory of victims of IRA violence, it might be helpful if they did a bit of public relations work first.
At this point I don't think that it is necessary to remind people here about the victims of the IRA campaign (north and south), any more than it is necessary to remind them of the victims of loyalist campaigns (north and south).
A welcome new era is dawning and the way forward should include an explanation by the Love Ulster organisers as to how their march can help to strengthen the growing bonds of mutual respect and friendship.
In other words they should, in the words of the old song, "accentuate the positive". Otherwise there is a risk that their march will come across as an insensitive extension of the contentious culture of marching which has been an obstacle to rapprochement in the north.
People here have shown by their behaviour in Croke Park during the Ireland-England rugby match that the presence of the "old enemy's" flag is not a problem. It depends on context and intentions. In Croke Park, the hand of friendship was extended and accepted without any dwelling on the painful events of history.
My advice to the Love Ulster organisers is: tell us your reasons for marching and how you believe that it will bring us closer together in a forward-looking way, rather than continuing to dwell on the sadness and tragedy of the years of conflict. - Yours, etc,
LES SERFF, King's Channel, Waterford.