JULITTA CLANCY,
Sir, - "Tírghrá": so that's what Sinn Féin calls it. A neat word to describe the indescribable. Abuse of the Irish language and Irish patriotism to glorify, justify, condone and excuse the most appalling abuses of human rights, the most appalling injustices, the most appalling suffering inflicted on so many people over such a long time. Abuse also of the many young people "some little more than boys and girls" who "saw injustice", but instead of the political leadership and guidance they required and deserved, found their motivation and idealism, their patriotism and their own bitter experiences, exploited and twisted so that they too joined the ranks of the perpetrators, killing, maiming, torturing and destroying, and being destroyed in turn - all in the name of "Tírghrá" (love of country)!
But of course abuse of language and patriotism is not confined to those who would call themselves republicans. Wasn't it "love of country" too which supposedly motivated the Shankill Butchers, the Loughinisland and Greysteel killers and the murderers of Rosemary Nelson? "For God and Ulster" was their convenient slogan. So was their violence also justified, Mr Adams? Was theirs too a "noble cause"?
Some 2,500 people gathered in Dublin's Citywest last weekend to honour the IRA's dead, and to hear the president of Sinn Féin express his pride in them and their "noble cause". A hundred Citywests could not have held the thousands of people who lost their loved ones or were themselves injured or maimed, their lives and their communities destroyed, in what are euphemistically called "The Troubles". None of those killings or maimings was ever justifiable, and none of them ever achieved justice. As Bríd Rodgers of the SDLP (the party which represented the vast majority of nationalists all through those terrible years) said: "Murders by security forces, loyalists or the IRA couldn't be justified at the time, nor can they be morally justified now."
Mr Adams described the event as "part of the healing process". Justifying and glorifying murder and torture can never be part of a healing process. Apart from the added hurt it gives to the victims, it is also dishonest to the people involved. Mr Adams played an extremely valuable and courageous role in encouraging the IRA to enter the peace process, and many republican prisoners made a noble contribution to the ending of violence; but Sinn Féin should be reminded of the firm commitment to reconciliation that they and all the other participants made when they signed up to the Good Friday Agreement - probably the most crucial commitment in the whole Agreement, but one which has yet to be given its proper place. - Yours, etc.,
JULITTA CLANCY, Parsonstown, Batterstown, Co Meath.
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A chara, - Occasionally people have approached me to buy a poppy to commemorate Britain's war dead. I am a republican and as such I don't believe in wearing one, so I decline, politely.
At a different time of year, I sell Easter lilies to commemorate the republican dead. When refused, I do not force them on people, nor do I subject them to abuse or question their Irishness. I merely thank them for their time and move on. In short, I respect the rights of those who want to remember their dead and I feel entitled to remember republican dead in a similar manner.
Last weekend, republicans gathered to commemorate our own dead in Dublin. We didn't force people to attend. The event was largely closed to the media and entirely closed to the public. We did not walk up and down loyalist areas of Portadown gloating about it and offending local people. We held a very dignified and emotional dinner for the families of those men and women who gave their lives for an Irish republic.
We do not expect everyone to understand. We do not expect everyone to join in our commemorations, nor do we insult those who do not. We simply ask that we be allowed remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for Irish freedom in our own way without a torrent of abuse from those people who have never understood Irish republicans and have never made an effort to do so. - Is mise,
JUSTIN MORAN, Leinster Park, Maynooth, Co Kildare.