Sir, - I agree with you in your Editorial of August 18th when you say that it should not have taken the outrage at Omagh to mobilise the Government to action. In this respect, both Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair must bear some responsibility for this outrage. They are not to blame but they are, to some extent, responsible.
Two things at least have changed in the past six months. One is the peace agreement ratified by vast majorities both North and South of the Border. The other is the slaughter in Omagh. Something that has not changed is that democratically elected governments have a responsibility to all of their citizens to protect them. Given these three points, I believe that now is the best time ever to finally crush terrorists of all persuasions both here and in Britain. I believe the only way to do this is to introduce capital punishment in both jurisdictions for all terrorist activity including membership of terrorist organisations.
The standard argument against this is it creates martyrs. I do not think that this will happen now because things are different now, as mentioned above. The argument that terrorist organisations are politically motivated is no longer relevant. People have voted at the ballot box.
Internment is not sufficient. It simply postpones the problem. The time has come to eliminate terrorists and to continue to do so until such time as one is left with nothing but the democrats and the dead.
I say all of this as someone who does not blush when a visitor to my house points out a picture of Padraig Pearse on my wall alongside a copy of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. - Yours, etc., Dr Patrick Finn,
Northside Shopping Centre,
Dublin 17.