Letter: Unprovisional rage in Irish voices

Sir: As an Irish person currently residing on the British mainland, I wish to ask the following questions of the IRA (which is waging a war, apparently on behalf of myself and other Irish people who have no say in the matter of ruthless killings of innocent people).

1. What on earth does the IRA think it will achieve by such downright brutal and totally unmilitaristic means of fighting?

2. If - as seems to be the case - British civilian targets are fair game, how does it intend to explain the inevitable deaths, at IRA hands, of Irish emigrants? The usual 'apology', as in the case of the murdered Australians in Holland?

I want to conclude this letter by saying that it is my opinion, and that of 99.9 per cent of Irish people of my acquaintance, that the IRA has lost its patriotic reason for existing and is now motivated by money and power. Believe me, the IRA is killing innocents on behalf of a very small handful of hate-ridden bigots and not the majority of right-thinking Irish people; and as for Irish emigrants in England, IRA activity is merely making life more difficult for them. Thanks for nothing.

I wonder if I'll receive a response in writing, or perhaps I should fear a bullet, Irish or not Irish.

Yours faithfully,

NORMAN DOHERTY

London, NW1

22 March