Sir, - After three articles by Vincent Brown, attacking Sean O Callaghan, all I am clear about is the author's agenda. To his credit Browne has come clean about the fact that his Deep Throat, the Sinn Fein source, referred to in his earlier article's, is none other than Danny Morrison, former director of publicity for Sinn Fein, author of the armalite and ballot box strategy, and a former convicted republican. Basically what it boils down to, is that Browne is asking us to believe Danny Morrison and not Sean O Callaghan.
That being so does it not behove Browne to be as cautious about Morrison as he commands people like me to be about O Callaghan?
What divine dispensation saves him from being duped by Morrisson, as allegedly I am being duped by O Callaghan?, Any neutral observer would immediately see that, at first sight, Browne and I are in the same boat. Both of us are being asked to believe stories spun by men who have been convicted. So Browne's case is no better than mine at the start.
Beyond that however, the balance of probability favours believing O Callaghan over Morrison. First, as O Callaghan points out in a recent letter, all claims made by him in the period 1985-1990, and now cited against him, have to be seen in the context of him building a cove with the Provisional IRA and discounted accordingly. Second, there is the question of character. Whereas O Callaghan not only repudiated terrorism but risked his life to act as a police agent, Morrison is still what he always was, a supporter of Sinn Fein, i.e. someone with a vested interest in smearing Sean O Callaghan, a critic of the peace process.
A final question for Vincent Browne. Danny Morrison, as Sinn Fein's director of publicity, was Sinn Fein's top spindoctor. Does it not occur to Browne that he might be the subject of a spin on the subject of Sean O Callaghan? Or is he, like John Hume on the peace process, incapable of being duped? - Yours, etc.,
15 Trafalgar Terrace, Monkstown,
Co Dublin.