Sir, - The Order of Druids in Ireland, being multi-faith, non-denominational, for peace, understanding, compassion and non-indoctrination, puts forward the decommissioning of explosives as a possible way out of the present impasse.
The IRA has never handed over personal weapons it considers necessary for defence, not even at the end of the Civil War in 1923 when Eamon de Valera, give his historic order to the defeated Republicans of the South to "dump arms". Even then they did not hand over a single bullet.
Republicans, will never "decommission" or hand over their weapons. They never have, not even here in the South. So any precondition that personal weapons be handed over endangers the ceasefire and certainly, to quote the Rev. Ian Paisley, leaves the talks and the peace process, "dead in the water". Dr. Paisley would know, as I do, that there is little hope of the loyalist paramilitaries handing over their huge stocks of weapons and ammunition either.
I do feel, however, that the decommissioning and handing over of explosives by both sides is possible, given the right conditions. Explosives cannot possibly be argued, no matter how convoluted the argument, to be "defensive weapons".
Personal weapons and ammunition need not, because they will not, be handed over, but they can be dumped or even subject by agreement to be used only in a last- resort defensive role, this to be supervised by an active "round-the-clock" control by an international peace commission with offices, say, in every city and town hall throughout Northern Ireland, while the peace talks continue. - Yours, etc.,
Michael McGrath, Archdruid of Tara and Ireland, Dominic Street, Kilkenny.