Plastic bullet scandal

A Chairde,

Laura Friel says it all in her article of 7 June on the new L21A1 Plastic Bullet Round (PBR). The report of the Defence Advisory Scientific Council makes alarming reading. The notice at the head of the title page, `NOT FOR RELEASE UNTIL PARLIAMENTARY ANNOUNCEMENT', clearly categorises the subject matter of the report as an issue the British government wished to place firmly beyond the realm of public debate.

Jack Straw, former Home Secretary, did make an announcement in the House of Commons on 2 April, but only in reply to a parliamentary question tabled by Jim Fitzpatrick MP, asking him to make a statement on the development of a new baton round.

The scandal lurking in Straw's reply is that he openly admits to parliament that ``although there will be a smaller risk of serious injury or death, that risk has not been eliminated''. What we have here is a Home Secretary announcing to the British Parliament that he accepts the risk of a further death by a plastic bullet.

What he doesn't say is that no physical impact tests of this new bullet were conducted by Defence Evaluation and Research Agency at Porton Down on living animals or on human beings. Only computer models of the human head, thorax and abdomen were used. No English animal was put at risk of injury or death. Clearly, `impact' is reserved exclusively for the Irish.

This, of course, lies at the very heart of the policy i.e. a death threat to anyone who dares to demonstrate on Irish streets. The project `researching alternatives' is nothing more than a PR fall-back once that death occurs.

Kevin McNamara MP, has condemned the decision to introduce this lethal weapon as ``defying the recommendations of Patten and pushing ahead a secret plan to re-equip the Army and police in Northern Ireland with a new generation of deadly plastic bullets''.

The most disheartening aspect of this issue is that nothing the public can do or say will lead to the withdrawal of this weapon. Nothing. We have an educated and gentlemanly British Secretary of State, from a country whose police are not equipped with PBRs, and who would not have dreamt of putting his own children at risk on the streets of his own home town, yet who regards Irish children as fair PBR game.

Moya St Leger

Release Castlerea Five

A Chairde,

Pressure must be kept on the government in relation to the release of the five POWs in Castlerea.

These prisoners clearly qualify for release under the terms of the Good Friday Agreemnet, and it is our duty as republicans to ensure that everything possible is done, in order to secure their releases as soon as possible.

The Garda Representative Association has openly called for the continued detention of these prisoners - but it is not for the Gardaí to decide who should or should not qualify for release under the Agreement. All parties to the Agreement have had to compromise (some of this being fairly unpalatable) and protestations by the Gardaí should not be allowed to overrule the massive majority of the people who voted in favour of the full implementation of the Agreement.

We should show the government and the Gardaí that we will not rest until all our prisoners are free. A concerted effort needs to be made now by republicans, and all those in favour of the Good Friday Agreement, to force the government to release these men.

Golly Flynn,
Countess Markievicz Cumann,
Cork

Political leadership?

A Chairde,

May I saw how much more easily in our beds we ordinary folk will sleep, now that we have a group of fine Ulster folk ready to stand up to these nationalists! Mr Black, Mr Simpson, Mr Vance, Mr Bell, William Frazier and especially Mrs Kelly and Mr Calvert, who has been out of politics for far too long while attending to business at the `House of Swindle'.

These Romanist people were much better off under our benign dictatorship at Stormont: they clearly don't know when they are well off. Backward people need the smack of firm government! The first priority of the new Craigavon Council and Government must be the restoration of capital punishment!

What we need is a crackdown on minorities in society, nationalists, republicans, liberals, homosexuals, immigrants, drug fiends, young people and intellectuals!

Mr William Black

Go raibh maith agaibh

A Chairde,

The County Cavan `81 Committee would like to thank most sincerely all those who attended and helped in any way to make such a memorable success of the day of commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the election of the late Long Kesh hunger striker, Kieran Doherty TD, on 11 June 1981. All participants performed to a very high standard, which was fitting to the dignity and respected memory of a young man from Belfast to whose aid the voters of Cavan flocked in 1981.

We would like to thank all those who contributed to what was an unforgettable day, especially Kieran's parents, Alfie and Margaret Doherty. Margaret's majestic performance of `Kieran's Song' was greeted with sustained applause. The counties of Cavan and Monaghan are truly privileged to embrace such a stout-hearted and modest women and her patriot son. We hope we have come close to doing them justice.

Charlie Boylan (Chair)
TP Ennis (Secretary)

Hypocritical attitude

A Chairde,

On a recent RTÉ programme, representatives of Fianna Fáil, the Labour Party and the Progressive Democrats all said that if Sinn Féin did well in the next general election they would not form a coalition government with Sinn Féin's elected representatives.

I remember, some years ago, politicians saying that if there was an IRA ceasefire, Sinn Féin would be treated like every other political party. It does not seem like that to me. It is hypocritical of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour and the Progressive Democrats to tell Mr Paisley to sit down in government with Sinn Féin, while they themselves refuse to do so.

Edward Timmins,
Ballyfermot,
Dublin 10

New Treaty needed after Nice

A Chairde,

In our last press statement after the Amsterdam Treaty, the Peace and Neutrality Alliance stated that ``next time, we win''.

We were right. The Irish people have spoken. The Nice Treaty is dead. If the Irish political elite present the corpse to the people again they will be in for a greater shock, as it would be rejected by an even greater number of people. To be suggesting otherwise is just another example of the arrogance that led to its defeat.

As the European Economic Community is steadily transformed from an association of democratic states into a ``world power'', in the words of Commissioner Prodi, the number of Irish people voting against it has steadily increased. Not because they are ``isolationists'' or ``reactionary'' or ``greedy'', as the Yes advocates called them, but because they believe in Irish democracy, Irish independence and Irish neutrality.

For generations we were part of a ``world power'', the British Union and Empire. We fought successfully against that empire, in order to establish an independent, democratic state. While the elite support the newly emerging European empire, the people do not.

Our army should not become a mere battalion of the new Army of the European Union, nor should Irish citizens be expected to pay taxes for weaponry, when public services such as health and education are in need of investment. PANA therefore calls again for a new Treaty to be negotiated, which would include a protocol, which would exclude Ireland from paying for or involvement with the European Rapid Reaction Force.

While PANA accepts that the Irish people voted against the Nice Treaty for a variety of reasons and that our neutrality and independence were not the only ones, we believe they are and will remain the central issues.

Finally, the Irish people should not be the only people with the right to participate in the kind of Europe they want. The people of all the states of Europe should also have the right to vote in their own referendums.

Roger Cole,
Chair,
Peace and Neutrality Alliance