Sir, - In recent days we have heard Bertie Ahern, Mary Harney, John Bruton and others warning Sinn Fein that they are not permitted to "cherry-pick" the agreement on the future of Northern Ireland. They loudly remind them that the Agreement must be accepted in its totality or not at all. Yet in almost the same breath they remind us that the agreement on the release of prisoners cannot/ must not include those convicted for capital offences in the 26 counties.
The Good Friday agreement requires the British and Irish governments "to put in place mechanisms to provide for an accelerated programme for the release of prisoners" (who are party to the Agreement), within two years of the programme coming into effect. Therefore, whether Mary Harney, Bertie Ahern, John Bruton, or the Garda Representative Association like it or not, they too cannot be permitted to cherrypick what they like from this Agreement.
In a dysfunctional society such as Northern Ireland, all are victims; prisoners no less than police and soldiers. In the new dispensation, prisoners too must be given the opportunity of making a new start and sharing their experience, if reconciliation and a new beginning are to take root on this island.
Families in the South are being asked to be magnanimous in accepting the release of men and women who have brought pain and sorrow into their lives. But republicans too have been grievously wronged over the duration of the conflict. They too have carried their own pain - no different from anyone else's. No one has a monopoly on morality - or truth, or suffering, or grief. - Yours, etc., Fr TomAs Walsh
Ballyphehane, Cork.