Sir, - The title of your front page article (April 28th) "Resolute Blair warns SF, IRA" is a feel, open to fair and severe criticism. Your correspondent's attribution of remarks to Tony Blair did not allude to "Sinn Fein, IRA", but commented on each, separately. I believe that the final words of the heading should have read "Sinn Fein and IRA". This is not semantic nitpicking. Slogans and labels are highly charged, and, when used, may have serious consequences. Outside of the dictionary, language is never innocent. It is deeply imbued with the significance of its context and utterance.
There was always more than a touch of linguistic chicanery in Unionists' coining of the hybrid term Sinn Fein/IRA. It now appears to be passing into the current political idiom, doubtless to the glee of those who would not wish for a compromised political settlement. Demagoguery has always emanated from a calculated and simplistic rendition of complex political realities. The Northern political situation has yielded its fair share of demagoguery. Surely an awareness of political complexity must be the foundation stone of possible political settlement. - Yours, etc.,
Glenageary,
Co. Dublin.