Sir, – Am I the only one who is getting increasingly annoyed with Sinn Féin, without a hint of irony, complaining about “dark forces’”? For me, the term sits well with a cabal of cowards, who acted as judge, jury and executioner for a defenceless widow and mother of 10 young children, when, in 1972, they dragged her, begging and screaming, from her home and children never to be seen again until her body was discovered many years later. If Mr Adams were to be charged with any offence his trial would be in open court and he would have 12 upstanding citizens sitting in judgement of him. Yours, etc,
JAMES HAYES.
Meadowlands,
Downpatrick,
Co Down
Sir, – In the 1970s, a Belfast mother of eight was murdered, shot in the back when she was no danger to anyone, and this week her family’s legal attempts to establish the facts of her murder were halted by the state to a background of lack of interest from the Dublin establishment and media and silence from unionism.
I refer to Joan Connolly, murdered in Ballymurphy by the parachute regiment (whose commander in chief, HRH Prince Charles, may be invited to the GPO in two years’ time). Either we have a mechanism for truth recovery on all sides, or, as the Northern Ireland attorney general, John Larkin, has suggested, we move on. The Southern establishment is disgustingly using the memory of Jean McConville to divert attention from socio-economic questions. Their interest isn’t truth (they won’t press the British for awkward evidence on the Dublin-Monaghan bombings), but rather shielding their Thatcherite fiefdom from uppity “Nordies”. Yours, etc,
THOMAS RUSSELL,
Antrim Road,
Belfast BT15 5GB
Sir, – Sinn Féin spokespersons have been at pains to suggest that the timing of the arrest of Gerry Adams was politically motivated, having regard to the current election campaigns. Mr Adams was in the Dáil last Wednesday morning and later chose to travel to Belfast to meet the PSNI. If he believed there were political motivations behind the timing of this meeting, he could quite easily have stymied those motivations by choosing to remain in Dublin and to defer meeting the PSNI until after the elections. This he did not do and so he himself was the author of the timing of his detention and arrest. Could it be that Mr Adams himself was politically motivated in choosing to present himself to the PSNI in the middle of an election camapign? Yours, etc,
JOHN GILLEN,
Downside Park,
Skerries,
Co Dublin
Sir, – Mary Lou McDonald assures us that Mr Adams’s arrest as a suspect in a murder investigation is politically motivated. Indeed there might well be sections of the body politic that are happy about the arrest. However Mary Lou should cheer up when she remembers that for many years Mr Adams has been clearly uninvolved in the IRA. The process of justice on the island of Ireland has at its heart the principle that Mr Adams, or anyone else, is innocent until proved guilty. Mary Lou can derive some solace knowing that Mr Adams will not be bundled into the back of a car, driven to some desolate layby and summarily executed by a band of hooded criminals. Yours, etc,
JONATHAN DOCKRELL,
Johnstown Road,
Co Dublin
Sir , – Mary Lou MacDonald makes much play of the fact that Gerry Adams always denied he had anything to do with the murder of Jean McConville. Does she expect that if he had he would admit it ? Yours, etc,
DAVID MURNANE,
Dunshaughlin,
Co Meath
Sir, – Gerry Adams has been arrested in connection with an investigation into the abduction, torture and murder of a young widow, mother of 10 children. The pundits insist that, if prosecuted, he will be found not guilty of having any connection with this heinous crime.
Over a period of more than 40 years, Mr Adams has acted as pall-bearer for IRA members, has worn paramilitary-style uniform, has been a spokesman and an apologist for IRA violence and latterly has issued apologies to victims of that violence. Despite all this, he insists that he is not now, nor ever was, a member of the IRA.
It is to be hoped that charges will be brought against the murderers of Jean McConville, some of whom are known to both the family and the authorities. Nothing will bring her children solace but, at least, let us give them justice, however long delayed. Yours, etc,
PATRICIA R MOYNIHAN,
Castaheany.
Co Dublin