Madam, - So, once again, the leaders of the two communities in Northern Ireland have failed to put a lasting settlement in place - more than six years after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement.
It is now time for the two governments to take decisive action. This should include:
1. The Northern Assembly to be suspended indefinitely.
2. Salary payments to MLAs to be stopped.
3. Northern Ireland to be ruled by joint authority from London and Dublin until such time as the Northern parties agree a settlement.
This may seem a bit drastic but it's about time that the people involved were taken outside their comfort zones. - Yours, etc.,
BRENDAN O'REILLY,
Castle Park,
Dublin.22.
Madam, - Might I offer a solution to the current impasse in the North? Could we have a referendum with two questions on the paper.
1. Do the people of Ireland want to have visible proof of the decommissioning of arms and ammunition?
2. Do the people of Ireland want the murderers of Gerry McCabe released early?
Adams, McGuinness and their allies keep telling the world that they have a mandate. A referendum would answer the above questions and tell us the strength of Sinn Féin/IRA's mandate. - Yours, etc.,
CAL HYLAND,
Rosscarbery,
Co Cork.
Madam, - Reading Vincent Browne's column of December 8th, "The peace process is secure", I found it incredible that such an experienced and worldly journalist/broadcaster should ask:
"And another thought: do we really want total decommissioning of IRA arms, or at least those under the control of the leadership? What 'disciplinary' muscle would they have then with dissident elements?"
Is he suggesting that the Garda/Defence Forces are incapable of administering the "rule of the law" in the Republic in a final peace settlement or that, as Mo Mowlam, suggested guns are needed only for "good housekeeping".
In other words is he suggesting we should give some thought to a Sinn Féin/IRA "private company" is a peace settlement, allowed to hold on to some of their weapons for mutilation puposes only?
How many nightmare scenarios does Mr Browne's "and another thought" conjure up for any so-called civilised society? - Yours, etc.,
WILLIAM McCONNELL,
Dunamanagh,
Co Tyrone.
Madam, - Dr Paisley's recent demand that the Republican movement must wear its "sackcloth and ashes" and be "humiliated" suffers from fundamental omissions. Without reference to the fact that atrocities occurred on both sides, it seems ominously to echo the "war guilt" clause of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.
This clause, designed to humiliate the German people, explicitly blamed them for the first World War, forcing them to make reparations to the Allied forces. All of this contributed to the rise of Hitler and the second World War.
In requiring the humiliation of the Republican movement there is a grave danger of instigating an atmosphere of resentment that could damage the peace process - whose success or failure depends not only on the politicians but, crucially, on the co-operation and assent of the grassroots communities of Northern Ireland.
Such self-righteous statements ignore and misunderstand the role of community in peace-making. Perhaps Rev Paisley could be reminded of Jesus's exhortation in the Sermon on the Mount: "Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth." - Yours, etc.,
BRÍD CANNON,
Stillorgan,
Co Dublin.
Madam, - The proposal that Church leaders should supervise disarmament in Northern Ireland has been made repeatedly to them and others since 1996 by the peace-research charity Irish Parliament Trust.
In letters to Archbishops Brady and Eames, to successive moderators and presidents, usually prior to Easter and Christmas, and in policy papers to the British Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body, we recommended that the amnesty in the Mitchell Principles, which the trust also originated, should be used - with street skips, manned at relevant places by local voluntary bodies, to collect all available arms, especially those in personal possession, as distinct from the unused and unusable in the dumps.
In 1998 the then Secretary of State, Dr Mowlam, took up this idea, when she declared to the TUC Scottish Congress: "The mums and grannies of Ulster will disarm Ulster" - to thunderous applause.
Unfortunately, Church appeals and collections were rejected in favour of the disastrous policy of giving terrorists negotiating terms relevant to the existence of the new assembly, with the results we now see.
Anything less comprehensive than a public-appeal amnesty will be a waste of time. - Yours, etc.,
PADDY McGARVEY,
Director, Irish
Parliament Trust,
Cambridge, England.
Madam, - The IRA leave the four killers they wanted released in jail because of a picture. For the release of the same killers, our Taoiseach and two Ministers for Justice are prepared to dishonour the guarantees that were given in writing on behalf of the State. So who is surrendering? Who is being humiliated? - Yours, etc.,
DERMOT WALSH,
Ennis Road,
Limerick.
Madam, - Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. - Yours, etc.,
JOSEPH O'DEA,
Warrington Place,
Dublin 2.