Madam, - All democrats on this island should be profoundly grateful to Ian Paisley.
He is the only politician of substance left standing in the peace process and seems to be the only one capable of keeping his eye on the ball when everyone else gets distracted by deadlines, timetables and grandiose claims about talks in big houses. Bertie is the master of waffle and fudge, Tony is the master of spin while Gerry and Martin are masters of both and have to be pushed and dragged along every step on the road to democracy and peace.
Along the road almost every other politician jettisoned their principles and gave many hostages to fortune in their rush to accommodate Sinn Féin. Poor David Trimble was conned by Tony's and Gerry's false promises and then left swinging in the wind while his political career and his party went down the toilet.
Through all this Ian Paisley was steadfast in his principled view that he would not engage with former terrorists until they had demonstrably embraced exclusively democratic means. He simply refused to have any truck with à-la-carte democrats.
We should be forever grateful that, in late 2004, he alone refused to jump into bed with Sinn Féin until it had ended all criminal activity, thus saving us and our children from the scourge of a permanent para-military style criminal mafia.
Paisley has accepted the abolition of majority rule and Dublin's permanent involvement in Northern Ireland's affairs and is now prepared to share power with Sinn Féin provided that it supports the reformed police force and the rule of law - surely an essential prerequisite given Sinn Féin's record up to recent times?
All right-thinking democrats should now stand four square with Ian Paisley and finally drag Sinn Féin across the finishing line. - Yours, etc,
DICK KEANE, Silchester Park, Glenageary, Co Dublin.