Sir, - Having read the letter from Faye Owner (June 8th), in which she refers to those responsible for the burning of three tour coaches and a car in Belfast as "misguided idiots who sought to inconvenience foreign visitors", and goes on to regard this behaviour as "thoughtless petty vandalism", I feel obliged to point out that it is most unlikely that Australian backpackers were the intended target. The perpetrators of this vile deed may well be misguided idiots and thoughtless vandals, but I have no doubt that what happened in Belfast was a premeditated act aimed at vehicles which had Republic of Ireland number-plates, and as such were regarded as "legitimate targets".
If any consolation can be drawn from such evil an act it is that Ms Owner's mother and sister and their touring friends were not on board the vehicles when they were attacked. Sadly, these attacks are usually aimed at people's homes when families are asleep at the time of attack.
After 31 years of war in the North of Ireland, we have, courtesy of the Good Friday agreement, an assembly which embraces all shades of political opinion for the first time. There is fierce resistance from a significant section of the unionist/loyalist community whose sworn aim is the wrecking of the Belfast Agreement and the assembly which emerged from it. No doubt those who torched the touring buses draw succour and encouragement from those politicians whose policies were rejected at the ballot box and who refuse to adhere to the principles of democracy.
Some cold comfort can be gleaned from this attack as it has united all decent people on this island and may be the impetus needed to exert pressure on those politicians who reject the democratic wishes of the people, to reconsider their stance. - Yours, etc.,
Tom Cooper Delaford Lawn, Knocklyon, Dublin 16.