Letters to the Editor

"What 'principle' can there be when the sole criterion for determining an individual's prison status (i.e., 'political prisoner' or 'common criminal') is whether the accused was convicted before or after March 1, 1976. (Those convicted before March 1 are 'political'; after that date, they are considered 'common criminals.')"
     Kevin J. O'Connor, Readers Forum
     Irish People, 21 February 1981, 1

AIA Dig. ID 0026PL04

"There are none so deaf as those who will not listen, so may I please say a few words on behalf of the English presence in Northern Ireland. First, Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, and the majority of the people in Northern Ireland wish to remain part of it. Furthermore, democracy is what the British soldiers are supporting. Democracy is not perfect, but it does mean governing by the wishes of the majority. Second, the British soldiers are not in Northern Ireland to kill anybody. They are there to protect British people against murderers and other criminals, whether Catholic or Protestant."
     Dorothy V. Yewdall, Caversham, England
     San Francisco Chronicle, 10 May 1981

"During this period of emotional irrationalism generated by the suicide-martyrdom of Bobby Sands, your accurate appraisal of the "bleak testimonial" (May 6) was a welcome respite from the chronic rantings and wailings that infected the news media in general. Sands and his followers were apostles of violence and terrorism. As such, they merit only the opposite of sanctification."
     Thomas M. Edwards, San Francisco
     San Francisco Chronicle, 10 May 1981

"The May 3 editorial is probably the sickest thing I have ever read. Where the hell was the Globe with all its concern and advice when my sons were sent to Vietnam where one of them was killed (in a country he knew nothing about and cared less)? But that was America's war and that made it alright. Now you are telling the Irish to listen to John Hume! John takes care of John and the IRA is the People, whether you like it or not."
      Maureen Blanchard In response to "The Saga of Bobby Sands"
      Boston Globe, 11 May 1981, 13

AIA Dig. ID 0028PL04

"After having stomped on Ireland, Scotland, Africa, and most of Asia, the British are now posing as sainted heroes upholding the principles of democracy in Northern Ireland. The situation there is not 10 days old or 10 years old. It is 10 hundred years old and is the direct result of British incompetence, stupidity, and willful wrongdoing..."
      Morris W. Wills, San Francisco
      San Francisco Chronicle, 14 May 1981, 54

"Let the British government follow the example of French President de Gaulle as to how he set a withdrawal policy from Algeria in the post-World War II period. It was a difficult decision, but de Gaulle was determined to make it. To his everlasting credit he was successful. The world did not end when the French withdrew from Algeria. The world will not end when the British withdraw from Ireland. The world, however, will be a better place for the Irish people at that time."
      Timothy J. Scannell, Guernewood
      San Francisco Chronicle, 14 May 1981, 54

"As a British visitor to the United States, I have been dismayed at how recent events in Northern Ireland have been portrayed in this country. Northern Ireland is as integral a part of the United Kingdom as Virginia is of the United States, for the very good reason that the majority of its (Irish) inhabitants wish it to be so. For the past dozen years, the province has been subjected to a reign of terror by an organization that, although claiming to be the heir of Irish nationalism of years gone by, is disavowed by the government in Dublin, defies the moral teachings of the Catholic Church and has no support from any responsible quarter in Ireland, north or south."
      K.P. Whitney, Washington
      Washington Post, 19 May 1981, A12

"In the Irish Republic, prisoners convicted of politically motivated offenses are separately housed and do enjoy a special status. Neither violence nor sympathy for the IRA has grown. Britain knows this but insists on going its own stiff-necked way. Why? Fear of Orange violence-the 'blackmail' mounted by Bobby Sands is nothing compared with 70 years of Loyalist threats-explains a good deal. Contempt for and lack of understanding of the Irish probably account for even more. As the editorial implies, the British would like to forget the history behind their present predicament. The truth is that they are now making the same mistakes they made in 1916 and on countless other occasions in their dealings with Ireland. They deserve what they get."
      Eileen B. Gerrity, Columbia
      Washington Post, 19 May 1981, A12

AIA Dig ID 0015PL02

"Bobby Sands was supported by the great mass of Irish republicans in Ireland. Furthermore, the millions of Irishmen around the world whose ancestors have been forced by English oppression to emigrate from their homeland overwhelmingly endorse what Sands stood for and the republican movement. Our support is no less strong than is the support, say, of American Jews for Israel."
      David O'Connell
      Chicago Tribune, 4 June 1981, 1-13-4-L

"The Irish are a dignified race. Irish people all over the world have shown dignity and courage. That dignity and courage has been tested in recent weeks when a British Government allowed Bobby Sands, M.P., and other prisoners in Long Kesh to die. The Irish people have remained dignified in the face of British terror tactics. Irish-Americans, far from romanticizing, have shared the pain of their friends in Ireland and have shown compassion and courage in the face of British lies and propaganda."
      Rev. Joseph McVeigh, New York University
      New York Times, 8 June 1981, 14:3

"I do not approve or disapprove of their actions, but I stand in total awe of their complete commitment to their cause. For these young men at the prime of their lives to kill themselves slowly and exceedingly painfully through hunger strikes is, to me, a magnificent madness. May they rest in peace."
     Marie Devlin, San Francisco
     San Francisco Chronicle, 8 July 1981 42-2-C

"I cannot understand, however, why the British permit the hunger strikers to simply die without doing all they can to keep them alive by force feeding. If Mrs. Thatcher lacks the compassion to help keep a fellow human being alive, she should at least have the intelligence and imagination to realize that by saving those lives, she could defuse the entire issue, to Britain's advantage."
      Julius Haller, Forest Hills, NY
      New York Times, 14 August 1981, 22:5