Madam, - Gerry Adams once again exhibits sublime political nous by calling on the IRA to decommission and disband within days of Tony Blair announcing the UK general election.
Together with his entreaty, Mr Adams throws the IRA a sop by eulogising the organisation and its volunteers and rewriting Irish modern history according to Republican revisionist theory.
Essentially, Mr Adams would want us believe that Sinn Féin and the IRA were to Ireland what the African National Congress and Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) were to South Africa. At the risk of holding hostages to fortune, I feel that the IRA may make an encouraging statement shortly before voters in the the UK election go to the polls.
What this statement will be is anybody's guess, but it will be sufficiently encouraging for middle-of-the-road nationalists to vote Sinn Féin. The SDLP would then be in serious danger of being routed.
If the IRA fully disbanded and decommissioned before the putative 2007 Irish general election, Fianna Fáil would be more willing to share power in government with a new, fully democratised Sinn Féin. This may be because, inter alia, Sinn Féin would help Fianna Fáil to soften its perceived right wing image. The Progressive Democrats therefore have to contend with the possibility of being cuckolded by Sinn Féin.
Michael McDowell knows this and therefore we have his interminable, legitimate and warranted diatribes against Sinn Féin. Mary Harney also knows this which explains her recent flirtatious behaviour with Fine Gael and Labour.
These are interesting times in Irish political life, and as a mere hurler on the ditch, I look forward to the denouement. - Yours, etc.,
CRÓCHÁN O'SULLIVAN, Long Walk, Galway.