Sinn Féin MPs must sit in House of Commons

IF the nationalist community in the North, and we in the south, needed a confidence-building measure from the DUP then surely Ian Paisley’s visit last week was it in spades.

Let’s hope Gregory Campbell and Nigel Dodds start singing from the same hymn sheet as their party leader.

Much of the long delay in implementing the Good Friday Agreement has been caused by the tactics of Sinn Féin and the IRA, which have sought to avoid meeting key obligations at every turn. They have been forced, slowly but surely, to decommission IRA weapons and to recognise the legitimacy of the PSNI.

Republicans abandoned the armed struggle not because of moral considerations or a dawning abhorrence of violence and murder. Rather, it was a pragmatic decision taken after calm and measured analysis which convinced them that they were more likely to achieve their ultimate goal of a united Ireland through political rather than military means, and that the armed struggle was retarding their advancement on the political front.

The problem with such pragmatism is that in five, 10 or 20 years, should this analysis become discredited, there is no moral barrier to prevent republicans taking another pragmatic decision to return to the bomb and bullet approach.

Sinn Féin must take another confidence-building step to reassure the unionist community of its bona fides as committed democrats.

Elected Sinn Féin MPs must take their seats in the House of Commons and represent all their constituents properly. Currently, unionist electors in Sinn Féin seats have been deprived of their constitutional rights to representation in Parliament by this ongoing Sinn Féin boycott.

If de Valera could take the oath of allegiance, then so can Messrs Adams and Co. It will certainly expose Sinn Féin to some abuse from both sides of the political divide in Northern Ireland. That is a price Dr Paisley has clearly been willing to pay.

Peter Molloy

9 Haddington Park

Glenageary

Co Dublin