Sir, - The IRA claimed in its statement of October 23rd that decommissioning was never part of the Good Friday agreement. If this is so, then the vast majority of the people of this island were conned. We voted in such overwhelming numbers for the Good Friday agreement principally because we understood and were given to understand that it heralded an end to violence in Irish politics. That was several years ago.
Will the IRA and the other paramilitary organisations which continue to terrorise, in particular in Northern Ireland, now also decommission its baseball bats (with and without nails) and end the monstrous hypocrisy of "punishment" beatings, or will we continue to endure the spectre of Sinn FΘin and other paramilitary-supported candidates reinforcing their bid for election with vicious vigilantism? - Yours, etc.,
R. McDonnell, Market Square, Ardee, Co Louth.