Letter: The conflict in Northern Ireland: origins and solutions

From Mr Thomas Hutchison McFadden

Sir: My experience as an "Irish American" in Britain has only confirmed and established the love and respect for Great Britain and the British that brought me to these islands to do my research years ago at Oxford. But it leaves me in the following quandary: everyone in Northern Ireland has guns (and bombs), or ready access to guns (and bombs), directly or indirectly.

So who is more in line with the principles I have learned from my British mates - justice, fair-play and good faith - armed parties who will sit down and talk about surrendering their arms, or armed parties who will not sit down to talk at all?

Respectfully submitted,

Thomas Hutchison McFadden

Dun Laoghaire,

Co Dublin

27 November