Sir, - Dr Garret FitzGerald's statistical conjecture on a flourishing Sinn Fein poll in forthcoming elections (Opinion, April 21st) goes on to point to political animadversion barring them from a ruling coalition. What he overlooks is the unlikelihood of them getting a result in the first place.
Nine times since 1920 in the wake of an IRA campaign ending, irrespective of the reason, Sinn Fein has vanished in the polls. No military campaign, no Sinn Fein. The demand by the two governments for arms decommissioning from Sinn FeinIRA as a sine qua non for their peaceful future endeavour as a political party is a diplomatic oxymoron. - Yours, etc.,
Paddy McGarvey, Research Director, Irish Parliament Trust, Bishop Way, Cambridge, England.