Sir, - On the Saturday after the IRA ceasefire, you printed Michael Longley's poem Ceasefire. He has said that it was written before there was any certainty that the IRA would allow themselves to be persuaded. His apparently simply translation from the Iliad makes clear that peace has to be won through heroic generosity. The title of the poem is also a warning: a ceasefire is not the same thing as peace, and that particular war went on to sweep away Achilles, Priam and Troy itself.
Please reprint the poem. I'd like to think it might be read by the politicians on both sides of the Irish Sea, and perhaps even some of last Friday's "heroes".
Yours, etc.,
Celbridge Road,
READ MORE
Leixlip,
Co Kildare.