Madam, - Kevin Myers (An Irishman's Diary, September 15th) clearly has no conception of the difference between state killings and paramilitary killings.
When a paramilitary group claims responsibility, what is there left to investigate? The normal pursuit of the killer will be undertaken regardless, and that is the primary objective.
In the case of state killings the situation is very different.
If there is a perception that the state itself is involved in illegal killings, in contravention of its own laws, then the cause for concern is of an entirely different dimension.
The very integrity of the said state is at stake, even more so if it is, say, a signatory to a bill of human rights.
If people want blindly to ignore state collusion in illegal killings then so be it - but they will inherit the kind of state they deserve. - Yours, etc.,
MARK FLEMING, Oslo, Norway.
Madam, - Kevin Myers's assertion that we should go about "clearing up other killings" committed at the same time as that of Pat Finucane on the basis of "parity of esteem" is surely the product of deranged, tendentious thinking.
Does Mr Myers really assume that the investigation of the collusion of a state in the murder of a citizen must proceed on the basis that another investigation, deemed (by some twisted act of logical gymnastics) to be of "parity" with it, be instituted simultaneously?
With absolute respect, might I advise that you grant us avid readers of your paper some "parity of esteem" by commissioning one article with an element of sanity in it for every one written by Mr Myers? - Yours, etc.,
MICHAEL PIERSE, First Avenue, Seville Place, Dublin 1.