Sir, - Writing on Abbeylara, Michael Dolan (May 12th) asks if it is reasonable for gardai to take unnecessary risks to preserve the life of someone "quite willing to kill them".
A mental patient arming himself with a firearm or other dangerous weapon is driven, not by aggression, but by irrational fear. Individual gardai who dealt with such situations routinely in the past understood this instinctively, and patiently worked to establish a rapport; which is not at all to infer that the Abbeylara gardai were incapable of a compassionate response.
The arrival of the heavily armed ERU tilted the delicate balance in the psychology of John Carthy's fear, putting the gardai in a well-nigh impossible position.
The juxtaposition of Mr Carthy's predicament with the "increasingly violent society" feared by Mr Dolan is wholly misconceived, reflecting on the patient's innocence.
In the historical past, the Garda Siochana responded successfully to armed violence in our midst - which did not, even in its worst manifestations, amount to a violent society. Disorder attributable to social causes, largely preventable, will never be cured by gun-carrying police.
A benign unarmed police force is profoundly what is needed to ensure that the equilibrium is maintained and Mr Dolan's fears are not realised. Before we import ideas from abroad, we have to ask ourselves what is best for the well-being of the society we alone know best.
We all have a responsibility to defend the traditions bequeathed to us in the Garda Siochana, giving an example to the world of the efficacy of moral authority in peacekeeping. - Yours, etc.,
Gregory Allen, Upper Kilmacud Road, Blackrock, Co Dublin.