Madam, - Referring to the SDLP's decision not to field candidates in constituencies where Sinn Féin put up IRA hunger strikers in the Westminster election of 1981, Jerome A. McCarthy (December 11th) says "The majority of people in these areas wanted this, and the SDLP, being a party of the people followed their intentions. Also, on a sensible note, the SDLP would have lost large support within the nationalist community if it had resisted."
Such thinking concurs completely with a formula used many years ago by the late John Healy (Backbencher) to denote populism and political cowardice: "Which way is the mob running? I want to lead it." - Yours, etc.,
EDDIE O'HAGAN, Castlewellan Road, Newcastle, Co Down.
