Madam, - Following your Editorial of January 8th on how Sinn Féin and the IRA "conned" most of the Irish Government, media and public, we should realise how much our own good intentions had left us vulnerable.
It is clear to me that most of our public men and women have fallen into what accountants call the "sunk costs" error. This is the tendency to persist with a manifestly unsuccessful project because we have invested a lot of money, time and prestige.
People also believed in the peace process because they had convinced themselves that a major "result" would make it all right in the end. Many, many times I read or heard commentators and politicians (including, more than once, the Taoiseach himself) announcing that major concessions from the IRA were just around the corner.
It is also clear that Sinn Féin leaders understood this perfectly and were particularly adept at drip-feeding the concessions while they advanced to power in the Republic as the motor behind the peace process.
The peace process should not be evaluated on the basis of where it is now, which is where Sinn Féin wants it to be - just short of apparent finality, exactly where the party gain the maximum in publicity and concessions. It should be evaluated against where we expected it to be when we voted for the Good Friday Agreement. Who thought then (outside of the Republican Movement) that the IRA would still be carrying out major operations seven years on? While the positive good of ceasefires has to be acknowledged, a constitutional state cannot permit the existence of a permanent armed conspiracy against its existence, allied with a quasi-democratic front organisation. If that is the price of the Good Friday Agreement, then the peace process is a black farce.
Recently, this newspaper has fittingly recalled the Sunningdale Agreement of 1973. The Good Friday Agreement is also beginning to recede into history as another missed opportunity. To paraphrase Seamus Mallon's famous comment, Sinn Féin have proved to be the slowest learner of all. Should it not be taught some sharp lessons? - Yours etc.,
TOBY JOYCE,
Navan,
Co Meath.
Madam, - For many years now Irish people have had to swallow hard as one concession after another was made to persuade Sinn Féin-IRA to complete the peace process. The latest revelation has proved too much. Those who speak for Irish democracy need to act now or else make way for others who can. For democracy cannot survive endless body blows before it too wilts and dies.
The Government must show that it too can lay down conditions before it admits into the fold those who engaged in criminality for so long. The thought that Sinn Féin might fund election campaigns for the next 20 years from stolen money while cynically claiming to support the democratic process is too sickening to contemplate. Sinn Féin-IRA should be forced to return the stolen money before any re-engagement with the so-called peace process. The early release of the McCabe killers, an unpardonable act of weakness by the Government, should now be finally withdrawn. This country needs leadership. - Yours, etc.,
DAVID WALSH,
Rockfield Gardens,
Maynooth,
Co Kildare.
Madam, - Unsubstantiated claims from the Chief Constable of the PSNI, Mr Hugh Orde, that the IRA was responsible for the robbery of £26.5 million sterling from the Northern Bank in Belfast must be viewed with some scepticism. The history of the police in Northern Ireland is one of anti-Catholic and anti-nationalist bigotry. Successive investigations commissioned by the British Government, including reports from the London Metropolitan Commissioner, Mr John Stevens, the former governor of Hong Kong, Mr Chris Patten, and the retired Canadian judge Mr Justice Peter Cory, all found evidence of collusion by security forces with loyalist death squads which targeted members of the Catholic community.
Furthermore, the suggestion that security forces in Northern Ireland were involved in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings is, in Mr Justice Henry Barron's own words, "neither fanciful nor absurd".
If it emerges that there was IRA involvement in the robbery, then those responsible should be made accountable under the law. In the meantime innocence must be assumed in accordance with democratic principle. For the chief constable of one of the most discredited police forces in the world to make such serious allegations in the absence of any solid evidence is outrageous. Already, Mr Orde's allegations have affected the peace process in a most negative manner, much to the delight of Dr Paisley and his power-sharing rejectionists in the DUP. - Yours, etc.,
TOM COOPER,
Delaford Lawn,
Knocklyon,
Dublin 16.
Madam, - Your Editorial of January 8th regarding the duplicity of the Republican movement leadership said it all. Martyn Turner's adjoining cartoon said it even better. Pity it is not a laughing matter. - Yours, etc.,
RON FOX,
Terenure,
Dublin 6.
Madam, - I was quite surprised at the unseemly and unquestioning haste with which most people, including yourself, accepted the word of Hugh Orde that the IRA was responsible for the Northern bank robbery.
His report was based on "intelligence". Could this be related to the British intelligence that was responsible for the report on Iraqi WMD that was used as an excuse for the illegal war on Iraq that has so far resulted in the slaughter of over 100,000 Iraqis and which has since been proven to be a tissue of lies?
Let Mr Orde produce the evidence. - Yours, etc.,
RORY MULLINS,
Portarlington,
Co Laois.
Madam, - As another correspondent reminded us in your Letter pages, the IRA vehemently denied any involvement with the callous murder of Detective Jerry McCabe - as it is now denying any involvement with the Belfast bank robbery.
Gerry Adams has had his say - but, to quote the words of Mandy Rice Davies on a previous occasion, he would say that, wouldn't he? - Yours, etc.,
GARVIN EVANS,
St Margaret's Park,
Malahide,
Co Dublin.
Madam, - Now that Republicans are inextricably linked to the massive Northern Bank heist, the political establishment must accept that it has been hoodwinked into believing that the Provisionals held democratic credentials.
Moreover, correspondents in both print and broadcast media (particularly RTÉ) should acknowledge that they too have been sold a pup and are mere puppets of the rich and ruthless Republican propaganda machine.
Since the Good Friday agreement, almost all Republican prisoners have been released. Racketeering, robbery, vicious beatings, gun law, spying, intimidation, organised crime have continued unabated from a movement whose leaders have been accorded celebrity status in Celtic Tiger Ireland.
Shades of Weimar now hang ominously over our country. Our Minister for Foreign Affairs minister looks forward to Sinn Féin holding Ministerial office in our Republic. Is this the Ireland we really want?
It is hardly surprising that your fearless stalwart Kevin Myers feels "sick, sore and tired" (An Irishman's Diary, January 7th). His voice, though strong and resolute is too often heard in isolation.
It is now time to really shake our national complacency. - Yours, etc.,
CHARLES FLANAGAN.
Glenlahan,
Portlaoise,
Co Laois.
Madam, - If Hugh Orde is right, the Republican movement has demonstrated its utter contempt for those politicians with whom it has been in negotiation and, by extension, the bulk of the population of this island who believe in democracy.
Messrs Ahern and Blair must feel rather foolish as they, like Neville Chamberlain, painfully discover the difference between peace-making and appeasement.
Let us not forget that Chamberlain too was dealing with someone who could claim an electoral mandate. - Yours, etc.,
PETER MOLLOY,
Haddington Park,
Glenageary,
Co Dublin.