Madam, - So Mr Ahern has no hard evidence of who is on the IRA Army Council. But isn't this the same man who climbed every tree in north Dublin and couldn't find anything on Ray Burke? Isn't this the same man who signed blank cheques for Charlie Haughey and was never curious enough to ask what they were for?
Let's face it: Mr Ahern is not a great judge of character. During his political life he has been duped and hoodwinked by Charlie Haughey, Ray Burke and Liam Lawlor, to name but three. During the farce more commonly referred to as the peace process Mr Ahern has been repeatedly duped and hoodwinked by Sinn Féin-IRA with consummate ease.
It is fascinating to watch Mr Ahern's ability to act like an ostrich whenever a threat appears on the horizon. I am continuingly amazed at his capacity to be utterly oblivious to what is plainly obvious to every dog on the street.
In Mr Ahern's fantasy land of "see no evil, hear no evil", you never ask a question that you don't want to know the answer to. That way you can always claim ignorance of the truth.
Pull your head out of the sand, Mr Ahern. Stop being an appeasing dupe; and stand up for freedom, democracy and the rule of law. Your legacy is on the line. Which do you want to be remembered as: Chamberlain or Churchill? - Yours, etc.,
JASON FITZHARRIS, Rivervalley Swords, Co Dublin.
Madam, - Has the Taoiseach read the Belfast Agreement? I ask this question because on Monday's front page you reported Mr Ahern as warning "that Sinn Féin could not be excluded from the Belfast Agreement, despite the discovery of the IRA's recent criminality".
Yet my well-thumbed copy of the agreement says at Strand One, Democratic Institutions in Northern Ireland, paragraph 25: "Those who hold office should use only democratic, non-violent means, and those who do not should be excluded or removed from office under these provisions." Not might, not could, but should.
By the by, before any unionists gloat, this clause concerns compliance with the ministerial "pledge of office". One of the requirements of the latter is "to participate with colleagues in the preparation of a programme for government" - an obligation which DUP ministers were allowed serially to ignore when devolution was in operation.
An obvious reason for the ever-diminishing standing of the agreement has been the willingness of its guarantors, in London as well as Dublin, to adopt a whatever-you're-having-yourself attitude in the unending post-agreement negotiations - while simultaneously uttering the official mantra that they were "implementing the agreement in full". They thus gave electoral credibility to the toughest communal negotiators - SF and the DUP - who brought cross-communal power-sharing to nought.
Now that the Irish equivalent of the Berlin Wall has fallen and exposed the totalitarianism that lay behind it, with any luck the onward march of Protestant fundamentalism can also be arrested. But only when there is a paradigm shift in government, to back the democrats in the North rather than the demagogues, do the former have much chance of ultimate success.
And only then, at least as importantly, is the one functioning democratic jurisdiction on this island safe from subversion. - Yours, etc.,
ROBIN WILSON, Myrtlefield Park, Belfast.
Madam, - Although I am not a Sinn Féin supporter, I am sickened by the unanimity of the media and political establishment assault on Sinn Féin. I would like to point out just some of the hypocrisies involved.
Fianna Fáil is not expected to accept collective responsibility for the criminality of its members, even when, like Ray Burke, those members held high ranking positions in government. Besides this, the tax amnesties of successive governments, supported by all the parties now attacking the Sinn Féin leadership, amounted to an acceptance of the criminality of the rich. Apparently robbery is OK as long as respectable means are employed to effect it.
The British and American governments are responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent people, in quite as brutal a fashion as Robert McCartney or Jean McConville, through their illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq. The Irish Government has colluded in these murders by contributing Shannon airport to the war effort. How can we take any of these people seriously when they talk about peace?
Since the accusers seem to be at least as wicked as those they are accusing there can be no moral foundation for the attack on Sinn Féin. The real motive is obviously political opportunism. Sinn Féin has placed itself at the head of a growing disaffection with the rise in relative poverty in our cities. It expresses the widespread anger at the decline in public services affecting urban working-class areas. As a result its support is growing in these areas at the expense of both the Government and opposition parties. These parties' policies on such issues as privatisation and public housing are often indistinguishable.
Should we then be surprised that, when it comes to trampling on Sinn Féin, Pat Rabbitte and Michael McDowell sit astride the same breed of high horse? - Yours, etc.,
DAVE LORDAN, Monkstown, Co Dublin.
Madam, - Given the recent decline in the popularity of Sinn Féin, I believe the party must be looking desperately for ways to restore its ratings.
I think I have come up with just the thing. I'm sure a TV production company could be found to launch a new reality programme : "Big Brother - The Safe House". All elected Sinn Féin representatives from both sides of the Border would be put into the "safe house" and the public would set them tasks such as: "avoiding the use of doublespeak"; "answering the question asked"; "saying how killing people is really criminal"; "what to do when you hear about a planned bank robbery".
Each week the public would vote out the person considered not to have worked hardest at improving their image. No doubt by the end of the series Sinn Féin's popularity would have soared and it could face the next elections with true courage and conviction. - Yours, etc.,
SARAH IRONSIDE, Brussels, Belgium.
Madam, - On RTÉ's Questions and Answers on Monday, Minister John O'Donoghue said: "Sinn Féin are at a crossroads". He's wrong. They're on a roundabout. In fact, we're all on a roundabout and it's neither magic nor merry. - Yours, etc.,
DEIRDRE BEECHINOR, Castlewhite, Waterfall, Cork.