Madam, - Legitimacy seems to be of some concern to Government Chief Whip Tom Kitt (December 9th). He might, however, like to consider that it was Arthur Griffith, the founder of Sinn Féin, who negotiated the settlement with the British that led to the emergence of an independent state in 26 of Ireland's 32 counties. Eamonn de Valera, the founder of Fianna Fáil, on the other hand, fought a very determined Civil War to attempt to overthrow this State. These are facts. In 1923 the IRA ended this war.
Mr Kitt further questions Sinn Féin's recognition of the State. I have only one question for Mr Kitt: When precisely and what precisely was the formula of words that Fianna Fáil used when it recognised the State? I would also like Mr Kitt to tell me when precisely and using what formula of words did its partners in government, the Progressive Democrats, recognise the "legitimacy of the institutions of this Irish Republic". Perhaps there is such a document, and if these parties signed it or uttered some consoling words to heal the wounds of the Civil War, Mr Kitt will let me know.
Mr Kitt's Fianna Fáil would appear to like to define itself in terms of past violent conflict on this island; thus his reference to the 1916 Rebellion. The 1916 Proclamation seems also to excite him. I really can see no possible connection between the present collection of sons, daughters, grandchildren and relations of dead TDs, not to mention daddy's little helpers, that make up a large proportion of the Fianna Fáil Dáil party, and the rebels of 1916. When political power is inherited the Republic is dead.
Yet, in the same breath as he accuses Sinn Féin of "wrapping the green flag round me", he shamelessly invokes the name of the men and women of 1916 to justify Fianna Fáil's political position. Somehow I can't see James Connolly pocketing a fat brown envelope from some shady developer, nor can I see Joseph Mary Plunkett lying through his teeth at tribunal after tribunal.
Even Enda Kenny saw through the shabby effort to hijack the National Army to shore up Fianna Fáil's "republicanism". It is not a good idea to use either the Garda or the Army for narrow political infighting. You should rejoice that there is in existence a police force that is universally accepted. The absence of such a force in the North - indeed the creation of a police force that was overtly unionist in ethos - has caused great problems.
Similarly, if the Army is to be used to celebrate the 1916 rebellion, another forum rather than a Fianna Fáil ardfheis should have been used to make such an important announcement. If that wasn't "wrapping the green flag around me", I don't know what it was.
Mr Kitt would like everybody to refer to Dáil Éireann as just that. Fianna Fáil could do its little bit to make Dáil Éireann truly the Parliament of Ireland if it introduced legislation to allow Northern elected representatives to have a voice in Dáil Éireann. But that might offend somebody and Fianna Fáil doesn't like offending anybody - except republicans, that is!
Similarly, Fianna Fáil doesn't want to offend the US government of George Bush. The past few years has seen Ireland become little more than a huge aircraft carrier for the assault on the Arab world. Sustainable economic growth is possible without total debasement to any foreign power, economic or military. If 100,000 more people have jobs I am sure they get up every morning and earn their pay. I am sure they don't live their lives in a state of perpetual and obsequious gratitude to international capital, which has a strange habit of decamping to where wages are lower.
Of late the sugar beet farmers, the Irish Ferries workers and the Rossport Five have demonstrated a degree of dissatisfaction with policies that do not protect the lives and interests of the Irish people.
I am saddened by the cringing lack of self-confidence or confidence in the Irish people which every line of Tom Kitt's letter demonstrates.
I can only ask him to consider these few lines from T.S. Elliot's great poem The Wasteland:
"Do you know nothing? Do you see nothing? Do you remember nothing? . . .Are you alive, or not? Is there nothing in your head?"
- Yours, etc,
NIALL VALLELY, Dublin Road, Newry, Co Down.