Sir, When, in a recent radio programme. I regretted the high vote for Sinn Fein and suggested that a vote for Sinn Fein was a vote for violence. Senator David Norris and Gemma Hussey took issue with me and said that they welcomed the success of Sinn Fein in the election and that to vote for the organisation was to encourage members of that organisation to turn to the democratic road to achieve their political ends. I felt at the time that this was the kind of rational argument that stands well with rational people, but in Sinn Fe in/IRA we were not dealing with rational people.
The tragic events of June 16th have proved that those who cast a first or other preference for Sinn Fein in the recent British and Irish elections cast their vote in support of violence and that they must now accept that their vote was seen as an endorsement of that violence. To bring that fact to its proper resting place, a sizeable proportion of the population of the 32 counties must now take some responsibility for the cowardly murder of two police officers and the almost inevitable foul deeds which will succeed it.
There is a democratic way to achieve all political ends unless despotism is your goal. Sinn Fein/ IRA's goal is despotism and a great many people in Ireland, North and South accept and support this aim, rejecting those who would seek peace and reconciliation. - Yours, etc.,
Marino,
Dublin 3.