Sir, - At the risk of adding to the worrying recent trend of letters beginning "Kevin Myers is right", I must say his comments (An Irishman's Diary, October 14th) on the outrageous PDFORRA attack on the Minister for Defence were 100 per cent correct. Mr Smith has shown courage and principle in closing barracks that should have been closed decades ago. Frances FitzGerald's opportunistic attack on him should be seen in the light of previous Ministers from her party repeatedly ignoring this issue and shirking their responsibilities to the taxpayer.
Now that Mr Smith has shown his mettle, is there any chance that he will follow his initiative to its logical conclusion and disband the whole organisation? Rather than employing people to dream up compensation claims (post-traumatic stress syndrome seems to be the latest wheeze), the hundreds of millions saved annually on "defence" (defence from whom?) could be assigned to improving health, education and infrastructure. - Yours, etc.,
Tony Murphy,
South Bank,
Cuskinny,
Cobh,
Co Cork.