People need to speak up against the violence

The real question about Gaza is: Would we allow what’s happening there to happen in Northern Ireland? (Letters, July 22)

But we did, during the period when we turned a blind eye to Irish terrorists in Northern Ireland bombing and murdering innocent British civilians, which SF/IRA claimed it was doing in our name with our support. No one disputed the right of the British government to defend her citizens from these attacks. It was so successful at defending them that a defeated SF/IRA had to accept a ceasefire in 1994, or face complete and utter defeat. The first step in stopping those terrorists began when decent Irish people, in all communities, started to challenge SF/IRA claims that they were ever acting with the moral and practical support of normal Irish people.

No normal person can ever justify placing a bomb in a pub or a shop no matter what issues they are facing at home and those who claim the poor living conditions of nationalists in Northern Ireland were all due to unionist government policy, whilst ignoring the impact of Catholic social teaching on those communities, still need to be challenged.