Sir, – Now that the Basque group Eta has apologised for the suffering it caused by killing over 800 people and has asked for the forgiveness of victims and their families (World News, April 21st), isn't it time that the IRA followed suit?
Eta said “we are truly sorry” and accepted that it bore “direct responsibility” for years of bloodshed and misery. Its language was reminiscent of UVF leader Gusty Spence’s 1994 statement of “abject and true remorse” for the many killings carried out by loyalist groups in Northern Ireland.
The IRA killed nearly 1800 people between 1969 and 1998, more than all the loyalist paramilitary groups, the British Army, the UDR and the RUC put together. It would be most appropriate, although long overdue, if some IRA leader, or Gerry Adams or Mary Lou McDonald on behalf of the IRA, were to apologise fully and genuinely for all those killings.
As the Derry journalist and left-wing activist Eamonn McCann said in a recent interview: “What do we have now in this little patch of the world that would justify the cruelty, the misery, the pain, the grief and the bereavement that has attended the Troubles?” – Yours, etc,
ANDY POLLAK,
Rathmines, Dublin 6.