Lifting the bonnet and peering at the engine of the IRA
The new book ‘The Broad Church’ by Gearoid O Faolean (which was the subject of the News Letter’s front page, ‘Republic was the real engine for PIRA’, Friday, April 5) will prove to be an interesting read indeed.
It should, in fact, be compulsory reading for every unionist politician before they engage in any discusions involving the government of the Irish Republic.
It is well known, but usually unstated, that elements of the Irish government were involved in the creation of the Provisional IRA.
We hear much about the claimed failings of Northern Ireland, but it is the Irish Republic which can be identified as the only post-war western European state which established a terrorist organisation to attack its neighbour.
It is time for unionist politicians to demand a full international inquiry into the role of the Republic of Ireland in the IRA campaign, a full apology from the Dublin government, and compensatiom from the Republic of Ireland I for the victims of the state sponsored terror campaign.
Robert Wallace, Portadown