A chara, – When any group takes unto itself, without reference to objective moral norms or without legal authority, the role of being arbiter of right and wrong for its community, there is the ultimate inevitably of mayhem, brutality and murder. That sad reality is gradually becoming ever more clear in relation to the activities for over 30 years of the Provisional IRA and its fellow travellers in Sinn Féin in the Northern Ireland of the Troubles.
The Provisionals established their ghettos and took upon themselves the right to determine how each person should behave and to whom they should be answerable. Failure by any person to comply with the wishes of the self-appointed bosses led to beatings, knee- cappings, tarring and feathering and ultimately to brutal murders. Much of this was given the gloss of being in defence of a beleaguered people. The reality is that the principal victims of those 30 years of mayhem were members of the nationalist community.
Some of the savagery was clothed with words that gave a veneer of respectability. Thus for all too long we have heard of the “Disappeared”, as if they walked voluntarily into the setting sun.
The cruel truth is that they were kidnapped, brutalised, shot and callously buried in lonely bogs far from home and loved ones.
Maíria Cahill’s terrible story of being raped and arrogantly interrogated is another manifestation of the reality that has for too long remained hidden. It is high time that we all treated with great caution those who make great play of their new- found love for freedom and democracy. – Is mise,
Cllr MICHAEL GLEESON,
Killarney,
Co Kerry.
Sir, – Mary Lou McDonald repeatedly uses the word “decency” when she is attacking her political opponents. In shrill tones she prefaces her lecturers with, “if you had any decency”. It would be helpful if she now looked in the mirror and spoke those words. – Yours, etc,
MARGARET LEE,
Newport,
Co Tipperary.
Sir, – Sinn Féin has come up with such excuses as it did not realise the seriousness of if it at the time, it did not know where to go, and it did not know what to do. But it dealt with it in its own way. Where did I hear that before? From the Catholic Church, which often just moved abusers around. Sinn Féin-types did the same, but with expulsions and sometimes shootings. Canon law and cannon law? –Yours, etc,
BRENDAN CAFFERTY,
Ballina,
Co Mayo.
Sir, – Sinn Féin’s finance spokesman, Pearse Doherty, has said there is no cover-up in Sinn Féin, while the party’s deputy leader, Mary Lou McDonald, said at the weekend that she believed Ms Cahill had been abused, but described her allegations that members of Sinn Féin covered up child abuse as “completely wrong”.
I find it extraordinary that two of the youngest senior members of Sinn Féin can speak with such authority about IRA matters which took place between 1997 and 2000. Pearse Doherty was little more than a boy when he joined Sinn Féin in 1996 and Mary Lou McDonald was a member of Fianna Fáil before joining Sinn Féin in 1998. Are we expected to believe that the IRA’s kangaroo courts documented their secret “deliberations” for open filing at Sinn Fein’s head office? – Yours, etc,
NIALL GINTY,
Killester,
Dublin 5.
Sir, – Politicians, as we know, are masters of euphemism – but your front page quote from Gerry Adams's blog takes the biscuit. He admits that "the IRA on occasion shot alleged sex offenders" [my emphasis] and he goes on to say that this "was not appropriate"! Surely a most inappropriate use of the word "appropriate". – Yours, etc,
TONY BURKE,
Baldoyle,
Dublin 13.
Sir, – In the past few years we have become accustomed to seeing Mary Lou McDonald’s terrier-like stance on the Public Accounts Committee. She has been to the fore as an inquisitor. She has left no stone unturned to get to the truth. I believe Ms McDonald needs to use these skills to question her party leader on the Maíria Cahill allegations. – Yours , etc,
PAT BURKE-WALSH,
Ballymoney,
Co Wexford.
A chara, – I note Sinn Féin’s policy of “deny, deny, deny” is alive and kicking. – Is mise,
DARRAGH McDONAGH,
Kiltimagh,
Co Mayo.