Madam, - In his hard-hitting Diary of December 8th, Kevin Myers reminded us of the fearful cost in lives of three decades of republican violence.
However, instead of calling the perpetrators "Shinners", as though they were kids climbing a lamp-post, would it not be etymologically more correct, as well as a true description, to call them "Sinners"? - Yours, etc,
MICHAEL DRURY, Avenue Louise, Brussels, Belgium.