Sir, - Last Friday all of Europe stopped for three minutes at 11 a.m. to remember the victims of the cruel and cowardly attacks in the US; then people sadly resumed their activities. As mayor and first citizen of New York Mr Rudolph Giuliani had asked New Yorkers to "please go back to normal life, go to the shops and malls, show you are not afraid, resume normal life". Everywhere in Europe, people thought it was appropriate not to do a favour to the terrorists by paralysing the economy and life - everywhere, that is, except the Republic of Ireland.
On Friday I was in Donegal with my Irish fiancΘe. At 11 o'clock we stopped and said our prayers. We then decided to drive towards Sligo. There was an appalling sensation of being in a dead country. Shops, supermarkets, school, offices, petrol stations, all closed.
We then decided to drive to Enniskillen, to see how things were in Northern Ireland. Life was going on normally, as it was in Derry, Coleraine, and in Portstewart.
I think that Friday's national mourning day in the Republic has been a big favour made to the terrorists, an easy and rhetorical way to keep consciences happy, knowing too well that when military action is taken and real bombs blast, people here won't be involved as, curiously enough, Ireland, in spite of its self-proclaimed "special relationship" with the US, is not a member of NATO. Wouldn't it rather be a more coherent and brave sign of solidarity to join it? - Yours, etc.,
Dr Luigi Basso, Elm Way, Lucan, Co Dublin.