Sir, - It is hard to make out the latest restatement of the IRA position on decommissioning. Is it (a) sheer bloody-mindedness; (b) another example of the IRA's inability to comprehend even the basics of conflict resolution; or (c) a total rejection of the Good Friday Agreement, that enables the IRA to proclaim (and Sinn Fein to affirm), that its stance on decommissioning - and its inexplicable obsession with keeping their huge arsenals of weapons intact - still poses "no threat to the peace process"? Yet again the "No surrender" philosophy reigns supreme!
It is hard to understand the mindset of a secret, unelected, unrepresentative and highly-armed organisation responsible for over 2,000 deaths, countless thousands injured and increased divisions on this island. Yet it is even harder to understand how so many Southern politicians, civil servants, and experienced political commentators have seemingly accepted and endorsed its position on the arms issue since 1993, and amazingly still seem to do so despite the commitments made in the Good Friday Agreement and the many changes brought about since 1998. These changes include constitutional and institutional reforms, the release of prisoners and the setting-up of a unique power-sharing executive containing two Sinn Fein Ministers working for the first time together with nationalists and unionists.
The simplistic "pike in the thatch" theory and the comforting but one-sided "red herring" thesis, unquestioningly accepted by many in the South, have been a constant obstacle to any genuine attempts at the resolution of the difficult problem of decommissioning. These theories, often associated with a type of blind, triumphant, uninformed, misguided, unpatriotic and at times sectarian nationalism dressed up as "republicanism", seem totally at variance with ideals symbolised in the Irish Tricolour, the 1916 commitment to cherish "all the children of the nation equally" and the firm dedication to reconciliation contained in the Good Friday Agreement.
Time is running out for the agreement, and possibly the very peace process itself. Courageous risks were taken on all sides to bring about the many improvements that have happened in the past three years, and great credit is due to all who earnestly strived to put an end to violence and injustice, and work for a more peaceful society. But it must be remembered that while the agreement was a remarkable achievement it could never be perfect given the divisions and the bitter legacy of violence. It had deficiencies and ambiguities from the outset.
The people knew that when they voted for it. But what was clear from that vote was that those who needed most reassurance about this agreement were the unionist community, and that community has clearly signalled all along that decommissioning was a vital part of that reassurance.
That reassurance has not been forthcoming and consequently the polarisation in Northern politics has resumed with a vengeance. If violence returns to this island - now sadly increasingly likely - a sizeable portion of the blame must be laid at the IRA's doorstep, and Sinn Fein must share in that blame. Despite many overtures the basic reassurances were never given, and an historic opportunity for reconciliation is being squandered. Could that have been what some of them wanted all along? - Yours, etc.,
Julitta and John Clancy, Batterstown, Co Meath.