Madam, - Seventeen people attending a meeting in a university with over 15,000 students is hardly a sign that Ogra Sinn Féin has the membership that it claims (October 28th). It certainly does not warrant a half-page article in which they try and spin their way out of the decline they are experiencing on campuses.
Here in DCU, from what I can see, their membership numbers are down significantly and so are their activity levels. In fact apart from an appearance at Freshers Day they have been inactive so far this term.
No amount of glossy posters can hide the fact that the novelty has worn off and that the hypocrisy at the heart of Sinn Féin is slowly dawning on students. You can't put up posters of Che Guevara and then hang around with right-wing US politicians who support the economic blockade of Cuba. You can't campaign against bin charges in Dublin and vote for them elsewhere. Refusing to ban corporate donations and keeping your council seat in your family is hardly "radical". They protest against David Irving yet seem to forget which side they supported during the second World War.
There was nothing "socialist" or "idealistic" about the sectarian war that the IRA waged. The whiff of sulphur cannot hide the stench of hypocrisy. - Yours, etc.,
PETER FITZGERALD,
Postgraduate Centre, DCU,
Glasnevin,
Dublin 9.