A chara, - I strongly agree with Derek Mooney (September 18th) in his criticism of the Sinn Féin TDs who were photographed with the killers of the late Det Garda Jerry McCabe.
If I, as a public representative, were pictured grinning with persons convicted of such a horrendous crime, the calls for my resignation would come from all sides, including my own party. The hypocrisy of those Sinn Féin representatives who denied having anything to do with the killers at the time of the shooting now rushing en masse for a snapshot is one of the most appalling episodes that I've seen in modern Irish politics.
It is also annoying that our political leaders continue to treat Sinn Féin with kid gloves and fail to take the party to task for such behaviour.
It is time for those representatives to come clean. They have written before to these pages. Let them now answer clearly these questions. Do they recognise that there is only one legitimate police force and one legitimate army in the Republic of Ireland? Do they believe that the killing of Det Garda McCabe was morally and legally wrong? Will they apologise for participating in that photograph with his killers? - Is mise,
Cllr MALCOLM BYRNE, (Fianna Fáil), Gorey, Co Wexford.