Madam, - Will this saga ever end? "Everyone, including the Governments and P. O'Neill, knew [that weapons had been decommissioned\], but it is the people themselves - they don't know," David McNarry, a Trimble aide, is quoted as saying.
Madam, - Will this saga ever end? "Everyone, including the Governments and P. O'Neill, knew [that weapons had been decommissioned\], but it is the people themselves - they don't know," David McNarry, a Trimble aide, is quoted as saying.
Given the history of Northern Ireland since 1969, it is hard to blame people for being suspicious. Surely the IRA must now accept that if the weapons are already gone, then they're gone. It's time to go the whole hog and let the public see real weapons being made real gone.
Pride might prevent the Provos handing weapons over to the PSNI or British Army, but is it beyond the ingenuity of all involved, from "P. O'Neill" to the British Government, to leave already decommissioned weapons where they could be found by the Garda?
The Paisley-Donaldson alliance of "super-unionists" should also bear in mind what the Belfast Agreement is. The Government of Ireland Act, the old "Constitution of Northern Ireland", was repealed as part of the Agreement.
The Agreement is now the constitution of Northern Ireland, and was ratified, warts and all, by the people in a referendum. "Super-unionists" are as bound to abide by that constitution as everybody else.
It's the people's Agreement and it's time to implement it - once and for all, warts and all. - Yours, etc.,
SEAN SWAN, Belfast 10.
Madam, - General de Chastelain said on Tuesday that the latest IRA initiative in putting arms beyond use was part of a process, and that the more political progress that took place, the faster he expected arms to be put beyond use.
David Trimble's response, hardly a new one, was to stop political progress.
If Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern are not prepared to stand up to David Trimble's tiresome impression of a Dickensian orphan constantly calling for more, then this impasse will not be resolved. It's time for the leaders of the two governments to tell Mr Trimble that his time to deliver has come. - Is mise,
JUSTIN MORAN, Church Road, Dublin 3.
Madam, - Poor Tony Blair. He's between Iraq and a hard place. - Yours, etc.,
BRENDAN KELLY, Ballinclea Heights, Killiney, Co Dublin.