Sir, - Can good come from evil? In my recent book The Irish Raj (Greystone Press), I indirectly urged Sinn Fein and the IRA to heed the words and actions of Gandhi, who had taken an interest in events in Ireland, since emulating his words and actions was more likely to realise their longterm ambitions than were acts of violence. I would like to feel assured that Sinn Fein and the IRA have, by their words and actions, followed the set of principles espoused by Gandhi.
Fifty years after Gandhi's death, our world is still a very violent place. It does not take a great deal of money, manpower, courage or intelligence to commit terrible acts of violence. However, few terrorist movements can survive without two key pillars of support: direct or indirect support from the community in which the terrorists live; and direct or indirect support from a government of the day. It would now appear that there is no longer any shadow of doubt as to the absence of the latter support, even though some previous administrations in the Irish Republic were at times rather equivocal towards the actions of the IRA. It is the removal of the support from local communities that will ultimately serve as the death-knell for the "Real IRA" and similar organisations. This has already become evident in the actions of the people of Dundalk.
I suggest two specific measures that may help this process:
1. An explicit plea by a senior figure in the Irish Republic, perhaps even the President, for people to remove any direct or indirect support for the "Real IRA" or similar organisations (e.g. safe houses, hiding places for arms, etc) and to inform the Garda about terrorist activities and arms/explosives dumps to which they may previously have turned a blind eye.
2. A period of amnesty to all those who provide such information or hand over weapons/explosives.
Perhaps then some good may have come from the evil that showed itself in Omagh. - Yours, etc., Prof Narinder Kapur,
Consultant Neuropsychologist,
Southampton General Hospital,
Southampton,
England.