Sir, - It may well be that Barry Doherty (letters, October 4th) expresses a majority opinion on the Northern Ireland conflict when he refers to the IRA as terrorists.
War and terror are Siamese twins. In the American Revolution a section of Washington's army fought in an unorthodox manner, one deplored by Washington himself. This force was made up mainly of frontiersmen who could see no sense in the "correct", i.e. confrontational, manner of doing battle.
The frontiersmen were accustomed to the economical Indian strategy, basically war by ambush. This method proved so effective that, in the words of a contributor to 1776, tie British Story of the American Revolution (Times Books, 1976), "war observers concluded that a guerrilla army could never be defeated . . . without a war of terror and extermination..."
One of the most effective exponents of this policy was Banastre Tarleton, the dashing British cavalry officer known to the revolutionaries as Bloody, or No Quarter Tarleton. His activities earned him a knighthood.
Mr Doherty, and others, might usefully study Beating the Terrorists? by Peter Taylor (Penguin, 1980), an exposure of police methods of dealing with the IRA in Northern Ireland. Mr Taylor, a Yorkshireman, has made more than thirty television documentaries on events in that province. - Yours, etc.,
Taney Avenue,
Goatstown,
Dublin 14.