Sir, - The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, provides a robust defence of the Heads of Agreement paper (The Irish Times, January 19th), but I feel that he, like most commentators in recent days, fails to appreciate the essential nature of Sinn Fein's objection to it. I understand that the document is put forward simply as an agenda for discussion and I commend the intended impetus to substantive negotiation. That said, it does appear to illustrate a potentially dangerous misunderstanding of the current republican position.
While both ideological sides in the talks process, to get this far, have shown admirable courage in tempering their aspirations with pragmatism, the fundamental point remains that even moves towards a settlement which begins to look like a bolt-on to the status quo must be anathema to republicanism. Any settlement, if it is to be acceptable and successful, should aim to redefine the Six Counties de novo in terms of their constitutional relationship with Britian and Ireland.
If we are to transcend the vicious circle of sectarian violence we must deliver stability and if we are to do that we must try to transcend a history of division. - Yours, etc.,
Grosvenor Villas, Dublin 6.