Sir - The article by Lt Gen Gerry McMahon article headed "Smith's hearing claims plan could solve a huge problem" (Opinion, February 23rd) was a triumph of twisted, slanted, fawning rhetoric over elementary logic. The author, we are told in the blurb, is a former Chief-of-Staff of the Defence Forces, so he must have a fair share of responsibility for the state of affairs from which a lot of these Army deafness claims have arisen. Do the Army Authorities and the Minister think that the deafness claims are governed by Boyle's Law - that they can reduce the volume in direct proportion to the pressure applied through drips to the media and other devices to artificially inflame public opinion against the soldiers making the claims? I respectfully suggest that in any kind of democracy the legal rights of the citizen should be incompressible, whether that citizen is Charlie Haughey or a private soldier.
Let the Minister and his minions shut up, give these matters due process, then pay up and let the Army brass take more care in the future. That is the only honourable way to improve Army morale if it is bad and if it is this sole issue which is making it bad. - Yours, etc.,
Sean Crudden, Jenkinstown, Dundalk, Co Louth. impero
