Sir, - Gerry Adams is correct to say (The Irish Times, September 22nd) that there must be "urgent progress" in establishing the institutions set out in the Good Friday Agreement. But his remarks on the decommissioning issue seem out of touch with the whole ethos of the Agreement and are more in keeping with Maggie Thatcher's famous "out, out, out" speech. Where is the understanding, the flexibility, the willingness to see the difficulties of the other side and try and work out a compromise?
The decommissioning issue may be a "dead end" for the republican movement, but can Gerry Adams not see that it is not necessarily so for others? And it is not only the unionist community who are concerned. After Omagh we should all be concerned (including the republican movement).
Getting stuck in about timetables is not the answer. The early release of paramilitary prisoners has begun long before the deadline set out in the Agreement. There are many fears and concerns about this, but most people accept that it is a necessary element of the painful process that must be gone through. Point-scoring, as Mr Adams rightly points out, is not the answer either. But neither is the rigid adherence to old doctrines and myths of the past. There is no historical analogy, no precedent for what is happening now. The Good Friday Agreement demands a new way of thinking from all of us. As was put to our group by a loyalist community worker last May, from now on we must all become "guardians of each other's rights" and we must all be prepared to make compromises, on this and every other issue. It is surely the least we can do. - Yours, etc., Julitta Clancy, (Meath Peace Group),
Parsonstown, Batterstown, Co Meath.