Sir, - The British, Irish and US governments are all urging that an IRA ceasefire would secure Sinn Fein's entry into round table political talks. The Sinn Fein president, Gerry Adams, says that all that is now required for there to be an IRA cessation is clarity about the date of Sinn Fein's entry into the talks. It cannot be beyond the wit of the three governments, in particular one with such a large parliamentary majority as Tony Blair's, to close this now small gap and give a definite date and expeditious timescale for Sinn Fein's entry into the talks and so secure an historic IRA cessation - and if not, pace Drumcree, the certainty of a long cool summer for Northern Ireland, at least one of vastly reduced tensions and of greater hopes and prospects than at any time in its history or in the recent history of Britain and Ireland.
No one at all will blame the British Government for calling off the deal in the event the IRA genuinely fails to keep its side of the bargain. Is this tiny gap really worth the life or well being, of anyone, from whatever tradition, in Northern Ireland this summer? Yours, etc., Formerly Secretary of the Campaign for the Birmingham Six, Montague Road, Birmingham.