Sir, - No doubt there are many who share Fintan O'Toole's dismay at the decision to give State funerals to Kevin Barry and the nine other IRA volunteers executed in Mountjoy Jail by the British during the War of Independence.
However, whatever its motivation, the decision will have served a useful purpose if the sight of these 10 Tricolour-draped coffins helps to start an honest discussion on the essential meaning of our national flag.
Is it merely the official flag of the 1916-proclaimed Irish Republic? Or is it the symbol of the all-inclusive concept of nationality conceived in the mind of the Protestant patriot Thomas Davis?
If it is, then its essential meaning of Orange and Green in fraternal union, together winning Irish freedom, is surely the key to resolving the arms decommmissioning issue, and taking republican and loyalist guns out of Irish politics for good. - Yours, etc.,
James McGeever, Dublin Road, Kingscourt, Co Cavan.