Sir, - Desmond Fennell's article of October 30th demands serious attention. In a letter published on June 6th 1998, I proposed that the North should have county constabularies as in Britain, with unionist/Protestant chief constables for the three east-of-Bann counties, and three nationalist/Catholic chief constables for the three west-of-Bann counties.
The naming of the police forces in these two main areas could follow the suggestion put forward by Mr Fennell. The future changes in demography could be attended to as they occur.
I sent a copy of my letter to Dr Mo Mowlam and this was acknowledged as follows by Mr R. Armour of the Police Division, Belfast: "I refer to your letter of June 7th 1998 addressed to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. The Secretary of State has asked me to thank you for the contribution you have made to the ongoing policing debate.
"As you may be aware, however many of the issues you have raised fall within the terms of reference of the Independent Commission on Policing. In view of this, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time."
This appears to show that the separate county chief constables idea at least reached the commission. Perhaps the time is now opportune for a rerun of the basic idea of separate county chief constables, with Mr Fennell's police name suggestions to be used to help modified Patten proposals more acceptable to the populace and thereby help this difficult matter move forward. - Yours, etc.,
James Martin, Rathdown Avenue, Terenure, Dublin 6W.