Talking to all sides the only way to stable peace

Shane O’Doherty in his letter “We must condemn Hamas as we did the paramilitaries” (August 9) makes parallels with the IRA campaign and Hamas in Palestine. 

He praises the consensus in the Dublin establishment against the IRA and even the censorship of Section 31 as a good model to use against Hamas.

There are other parallels. The conflict in the North has its roots in the Plantation of Ulster when the British expelled the militarily defeated Irish from their homes and lands, replacing them with a population of English/Scots settlers.