Letter: Ulster blow

Sir: Derek J Cole (letter, 19 July) talks about "gallons of Irish blood shed in the past for Conservative Party `principles' ". What about the thousands who have been slaughtered in Ulster since 1969 by the IRA in the name of "Irish liberty"?

He says Michael Collins formed the IRA in 1916 in response to the Conservative and Unionist "armed threat". If that be true, can he inform us how this Irish hero died? Not by the guns bought and paid for by F E Smith, but by his own kind of freedom fighter in the IRA - a fate that must surely await the present-day negotiators Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams, should they dare to agree to decommissioning.

GEORGE R HALTON

St Helens, Merseyside