Sir, - It is unfortunate that unionists have allowed the decommissioning of weapons to dominate the political debate at a moment which could yet prove epoch-making. It is equally unfortunate that the IRA and its supporters should continue to argue that a ceasefire is not a surrender. (They are right, of course, but in a shallow, irrelevant way.)
It is time for unionists and nationalists to question the inheritances of 1912 and 1916 respectively. Martin Luther King's wise words challenge the irreconcilables on both sides.
There was much more at stake for him when he stated: "I am convinced that if we succumb to the temptation to use violence in our struggle for freedom, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness and our chief legacy to them will be a never-ending reign of chaos." - Yours, etc., Michael Longley,
Osborne Gardens,
Belfast 9.