Letter from Ireland: British block road to peace

Irish Independent:

Sir - The pretentious stance by the PSNI exposed the British evasion and skill in deceit and will be seen by the nationalist community as a further obstacle and hindrance to the search for a peaceful solution.

The trauma of the last 35 years has led many people on this island and in the United Kingdom to believe that Northern Ireland has failed as a political entity, and to recognise that democracy and its usual application cannot exist in a fundamentally artificial unit.

While the situation moved nearer the brink in Northern Ireland, we have the further spectacle of the British Government's bankrupt and inept policy.

In Northern Ireland where the Westminster writ is also supposed to run, we see the effect this has on the nationalist community: it is similar to that of an irresistible force meeting an immovable object.

Either the immovable object moves on this position, or the irrestible search for a solution becomes submerged in the rising tide of despair, and in turn degenerates into terrorism.

In this case the immovable object consists of those whose self-interest economically and politically lies in perpetuating a system whose ideologies are rigid and out of date.

Powerful entrenched interests are involved which obliterate reason, ignore justice, confound world opinion and dull any responsible inclination towards reconciliation.

Strange bedfellows can be thrown together in just such circumstances. Those who subscribe to the idea that democracy must use the methods of the enemies of democracy to defend it are the death knell of freedom.

Michae J Stokes,
Willington Green,
Templeogue,
Dublin 6W

Unfortunately, the British seem likely to continue pursuing their bankrupt and inept policy for the foreseeable future.