Sir, - A year ago Detective Garda Gerry McCabe was murdered here in this village by the IRA. Every political party in the State condemned that killing except one - Sinn Fein. Two days after the murder I queued with thousands of others outside the funeral home to pay respects to Garda McCabe. Many times the remark was made by those queueing that night in that Limerick street that we were not there just to pay respects to Gerry McCabe but to make a political statement: that terrorism would not prevail in this land.
How ironic, then (or should it be tragic?), that exactly one year to the day after Gerry McCabe's death thousands of others in this State should make another political statement by electing to the Dail a member of that one party which refused to condemn the murder of that garda and the serious injury of his colleague.
It behoves all of us in this nation, I believe, to ask ourselves at this time: with whom do we stand? Is it with those thousands who on that Sunday night and on the next morning lined the streets of Limerick? Or with those other thousands who voted for the party who refused to condemn the killing? We must make a choice; there can be no fudging the issue. - Yours, etc.
Rector of Adare,
Co. Limerick.