Letter: Sinn Fein is willing

Sir: There is one simple argument in favour of Mo Mowlam's decision to rule that the IRA has not breached its ceasefire. This is that it is obvious that the Sinn Fein leadership, by signing up to the Good Friday Agreement, accepted that constitutional change in Northern Ireland can only come about by consent.

It is equally obvious that an element within the republican movement opposes this huge change in dogma, and is striving to bring the agreement down by intimidation and even murder within its own community.

Armchair critics of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness complain that they are unable to bring these activities to an end; whereas the very core of the problem is that only a police service which is accepted in both sections of the community (and that can only come into being through the mechanism of a cross-community agreement) will be able to bring such activities to a final end.

TERENCE DONAGHY

Belfast