Sir, - Last Saturday the people of Dundalk gave a very emphatic signal to politicians North and South of the Border.
Because of the understandable emphasis on the Remembrance Service at Omagh, the demonstration at Dundalk received less print coverage than it might otherwise have done.
The organisers of the Dundalk mass meeting made their political objectives very clear well in advance of Saturday. They asked people to come out to reaffirm their referendum vote of 94 per cent in favour of the Good Friday Agreement. This they did in a most telling way. The largest crowd ever assembled in Dundalk, - estimates vary between 12,000 and 15,000 - applauded to the echo the chairman of Dundalk UDC, Cllr Seamus Byrne, when he addressed the crowd and put that very question to them.
The feeling of positive encouragement to our political leaders was palpable. The people of Dundalk grasped this unique opportunity to say, loud and clear, to all those with political responsibility: "Get on with it."
My interpretation of that positive demand is that Sinn Fein must go further than being half-democrats and take the steps necessary to cut all links to paramilitarism. At the same time the Unionist Party and people must grant David Trimble the space and scope to continue leading his people in the statesmanlike way that he has followed since Good Friday.
Of course we have doubts and mistrusts, after all that has gone before.
Dundalk last Saturday could have been any community in Ireland. The statement would be the same. The summer holidays, with the spilling of so much innocent blood, are over. "Stop the posturing, forget the wreckers, get down to reality and make the Agreement work." - Yours, etc., John Woods,
Dundalk,
Co. Louth.