Sir, - When drawing conclusions in hindsight based on historical events it is not only useful to be armed with the facts - it is vital. Otherwise, one's findings are flawed. I would contend that Dennis Kennedy's thesis (Opinion, January 5th) that the reform package put together after the events of August 1969 was making spectacular progress and that for the Government in Dublin to consider arming the minority community "at a time of little violence" "raises serious questions".
A cursory glance at Paul Bew's and Gordon Gillespie's Northern Ireland: A chronology of the Troubles 1968-1993 (Gill & Macmillan 1993) or Michael Farrell's 20 Years, a concise chronology of events in Northern Ireland 1968-1988 (Island 1988) proves that far from being "rather quiet", as Mr Kennedy would have us believe, the first half of 1970 in the North was quite volatile.
January 24th-27th: four nights of rioting in Belfast; February 18th and March 7th: UVF bombs explode, one at courthouse, one near Austin Currie's house; March 29th: 12 soldiers injured in Derry; March 31stApril 2nd: widespread rioting around New Barnsley; May 9th10th: Crumlin Road and Tiger's Bay rioting; May 16: rioting in Ardoyne; June 2nd: rioting on Shankill Road; June 26th: five killed in premature bomb explosion in Derry; June 27th-29th: widespread rioting in Belfast, three shot dead in Ardoyne, four in the Short Strand, 200 injured.
Dennis Kennedy's contention that the withdrawal of British soldiers proves how quiet the North was is a half-truth. A new British army regiment came into being on January 1st, and became fully operational on April 1st, to subsume the RUC Special Constabulary. Also, such was the scale of violence that 500 of the British soldiers withdrawn in February were returned just over a month later. - Is mise,
Aengus O Snodaigh, Cork Street, Dublin 8.