When will SF show faith in democracy?

HERE’S a little sample, expressed as articles of faith, of the type of questions which Sinn Féin would only be too happy to answer, I’m sure.

1. Do you renounce the IRA? And all its works and pomps?

2. Do you accept the legitimacy of the Dáil, in which five of your own representatives sit? As a corollary, do you accept our Garda Siochána? And do you believe in the authority invested in the Government by the people who democratically elected it?

3. Do you accept that the killings committed by the IRA were crimes as legally defined in both jurisdictions on this island, even if this should conflict with the IRA’s own constitution?

4. Do you accept that the Irish people in the South have the right to reject you and your peculiar brand of nationalism as emphatically as the most recalcitrant of unionists, if we should so wish?

5. Did you really think we didn’t notice what you did to all the decent parties in the North? Before their very eyes, you metamorphosed like some strange creature from a Franz Kafka novel into a hybrid insect, part Mafia godfather, part Ku Klux Klan eejit, devouring the very people who afforded you shelter.

Don’t call us, lads. We’ll call you.

Richard Dowling

Patrick Street

Mountrath

Co Laois