A chara, – Why would Simon Harris find it "astonishing" if people with "Troubles-era convictions" (News, February 17th) are used as Sinn Féin advisers? His forerunners did not preclude such people from the 1920s on. Neither did Fianna Fáil from the 1930s and neither did Clann na Poblachta in the 1940s.
Fine Gael ministers, including party leader and taoiseach Enda Kenny, sat with Martin McGuinness on the North-South Ministerial Council for years without demur. No one in Fine Gael queried his worthiness – until, that is, he decided to stand for the Irish presidency.
Good enough to govern with unionists, but not for the good people of the Republic.
I can see the political utility of the thought, though. It creates space for smear and innuendo.
In my new book, Free Statism and the Good Old IRA, I challenge these simplistic observations. – Yours, etc,
DANNY MORRISON,
Belfast.
Sir, – While Simon Harris may find it astonishing that Sinn Féin would appoint people with convictions to advisory positions, I am in a continuous state of astonishment that a college dropout serves as our Minister for Higher Education. – Yours, etc,
COLM DOYLE,
Dublin 7.