Letter: Speaking for the IRA

FOR MANY years I have admired the verbal dexterity of Gerry Adams and his colleagues - so much cleverer than the entrenched bloody-mindedness of most of the Unionists. But the latest example leaves us with a problem.

If one of the principal objectives of the peace talks is to bring the cycle of violence to an end, and if Sinn Fein now say that they should not be confused with the IRA, how can there be any reliable prospect of the IRA ceasing violence even if the talks succeed?

I suppose the same observation arises across the political spectrum in Northern Ireland. So the question is: whatever the representative politicians may say or agree, how can they deliver peace unless they declare that they speak for the men of violence? Isn't such a declaration rather an important point to have missed?

A S R WALKER,

Oaksey, Wiltshire