Madam, - Brian Moran (August 6th) asks us how stupid he was to vote for Mary-Lou McDonald in the light of her role at Joe Cahill's recent funeral. I assume the question was rhetorical. It is incredible that there are so many self-deluding fools about who cannot grasp the simple fact that a vote for Sinn Féin is a vote for the PIRA and for its ongoing criminal activities, not to mind an endorsement of past brutalities.
As for the attendance of Albert Reynolds, a recent leader of this country, at Cahill's funeral - this was indeed despicable to behold. What are gardaí who have had colleagues gunned down by the PIRA to think? What are the families of the hundreds of innocent victims of PIRA torture, murder and maiming to think? Mr Reynolds was taoiseach of this country and should therefore not under any circumstances have attended the funeral of a prominent PIRA warlord and mixed with PIRA bombers, murderers and outright thugs who still have their own private army and engage in wide-scale criminal activities.
To have done so was unforgivable and a blatant two fingers to all those who have been victims of the PIRA. - Yours, etc.,
ANTHONY HARTNETT, Bishopstown, Cork.