Sir, - In an article in The Irish Times (January 4th) referring to Garret FitzGerald and the former IRA man, Sean O'Callaghan, Jim Dunne writes: "Defending Mr O'Callaghan against Dr Conor Cruise O'Brien and others who have been sceptical about the former IRA man's revelations, Dr FitzGerald writes . . ."
Mr Dunne is mistaken. I was never among those who have been sceptical about Mr O'Callaghan's revelations, which I believe to be true. And it is because I asserted: this belief that Dr FitzGerald was attacking what he calls "the Conor Cruise O'Brien/Eoghan Harris Sunday Independent school" (also in The Irish Times, January 4th). Those involved, he says, "have demonstrated their capacity for self delusion by the remarkable alacrity with which they accepted, and the total faith which they placed, in the recent diagnosis of the IRA's strategy by Sean O'Callaghan, former IRA member and agent".
So Dr FitzGerald was not "defending" Mr O'Callaghan against me. He was attacking me for saying that I believed Mr O'Callaghan. Dr FitzGerald then went on to indicate that he also believes Mr O'Callaghan. So it's no wonder that Mr Dunne got a little confused. - Yours, etc.,
Howth Summit, Dublin.