Madam, - As a Derry man who witnessed the slaughter perpetrated by the Parachute Regiment on my home town's streets on Bloody Sunday - subsequently condemned as criminal by the Provisional Republican Movement which called for those responsible to be brought to justice - I have just two words to say to Fintan O'Toole following his incisive dissection in yesterday's edition of Sinn Féin/IRA duplicity concerning the murder of Mrs Jean McConville and other barbarisms "excused" in the name of patriotism: Thank you. - Yours, etc.,
NIGEL P. COOKE, St Helens, Lancashire, England.
Madam, - The credibility that has been destroyed by the Northern Bank robbery and its aftermath is that of the most senior officer in the PSNI, Mr Hugh Orde. There are no credible "operational reasons" - as he stated - that might prompt a senior police officer to state publicly, during an investigation, that he believes a particular party is guilty of the crime that is being investigated.
Is determining guilt not a matter for the courts? Is the job of the police not to ensure that evidence is gathered properly?
With his rash and ill-advised statement, Mr Orde has jeopardised a process that is important to all the people of this island, and has served the interest of the minority who fear Sinn Féin success both North and South.
Like it or not, for the peace process to be successful, unionists and the PDs will have to accept that Sinn Féin will also have to succeed. - Yours, etc.,
GERRY MOLLOY, Collins Avenue, Dublin 9.
Madam, - Vincent Browne (Opinion, January 10th) should place a lot less credibility in Sinn Féin's statements on the Northern Bank robbery because we have heard them all before. So Gerry Kelly said the raid was "wrong", and I heard Mitchel McLaughlin on radio describe it as "something which should not have happened" - a strangely elliptical description of a downright crime.
It did not surprise me, then, to find in Richard English's book Armed Struggle a quotation from Martin McGuinness in 2001 about the Warrington bombing (1993) which killed two young boys: "The killing of Jonathan and Tim was wrong. It should not have happened. . ."
It all falls into a pattern of Sinn Fein "regrets" and empty handwringing when the IRA kills the wrong people or causes embarrassment to its political arm.
Similarly, Gerry Adams is trying other variations of the "stuck record" technique. His references to the war in Iraq (The Irish Times, January 14th) just do not stand up. The WMD fiasco shows that the "securocrats" ultimately serve their political masters and can serve up the required "intelligence" even if it is quickly shown to be nonsense. No one can have any doubt that the announcement by Chief Constable Orde was very unwelcome at Number 10 Downing Street, and will be disastrous for the policeman's career if it is shown to be wrong.
Which brings us to Mr Adams's sally: "My opinion is as good as Orde's opinion." Not so, because while Mr Orde was putting his career at risk, Mr Adams is just serving his own interests. Besides, why should the Irish people accept the word of someone who can't even be straight with them about his years in the IRA? - Yours, etc.,
TOBY JOYCE, Navan, Co Meath.
Madam, - In his response to my letter of January 12th, Olof Gill (January 18th) writes that "Irish voters are not stupid, nor are they suffering from amnesia". Well, in the case of those who chose to vote for Sinn Féin, it must be one or the other.
Mr Gill says that "for some, the party's retrospective justification of the IRA 'war' may even seem mildly principled, compared with the self-serving criminal corruption" of other parties.
Have these voters forgotten the many corrupt acts of the Republican movement's political and military wings, such as extortion, smuggling, bank robberies or "community justice"?
Or are they too stupid to realise that killing, maiming and generally terrorising a great many Irish people - Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter - do nothing to advance their ostensible cause? - Yours, etc.,
CONOR COLLINS, Rochestown Road, Cork.
Madam, - When I hear of the current Sinn Féin centenary celebrations, I cannot help but be reminded of Yeats's "terrible beauty" and how badly it has aged: the beauty long gone, the terror with us yet. - Yours, etc.,
DARRAGH GALLAGHER, Lugduff, Tinahely, Co Wicklow.