It is understandable that the return to Brighton of IRA bomber Patrick Magee has provoked emotional reactions like those of DA Coles (Letters, October 18).

Those on the receiving end of political violence experience profound emotions of fear, anger, hatred and hurt. The violence feels like an attack not only on the people and places we hold dear but on the values which give meaning to our lives.

Those responsible are felt to lack any humanity so we turn them into hate figures and want to retaliate against them, whether by military force or through the power of our words.

Mr Coles' letter vividly expresses this kind of reaction and demonstrates how difficult it can be to go beyond it. Its vitriol is not reserved for Magee alone but extends to those of us who attended last week's courageous public meeting between him and Jo Berry, whose father he killed in the Brighton bomb.

Their dialogue is an extraordinary attempt to confront the emotional legacy of hurt, fear and hatred left by the war over Northern Ireland and to create a more humane understanding of its causes and consequences.

Those of us who attended did not go to "pay homage" to Magee but to hear what he and Berry had learned through talking to each other honestly about the Brighton bomb.

We also discussed with them what "conflict resolution" actually means and how it may be used to prevent violence. According to Coles, this discussion ought not to have taken place in our city and those of us who participated in it cannot be considered as "decent, law-abiding people".

The vitriol also extends to Jean Calder for her thought-provoking article (The Argus, October 9) about the British military repression of Northern Ireland's Catholic minority, including our state's systematic abuse of universal human rights.

This article breaks the near-silence in our country on these matters and invites a serious debate. Unless we know the truth about what has been done in our name during this conflict, how can we possibly contribute to resolving it?

Or make sure that similar policies generating comparable cycles of violence are not repeated elsewhere (in the current "war on terror", for example)?

Mr Coles can only denigrate Calder's article as "nauseating bile" which is "beneath contempt", while attacking The Argus for "political bias" in publishing it.

On the contrary, The Argus deserves to be congratulated for its enlightened editorial stance.

This has helped to make the anniversary of the Brighton bomb an opportunity, in Jo Berry's words, to "transform pain" into understanding so as "to bring something positive out of what happened 20 years ago".

-Dr Graham Dawson, School of Historical and Critical Studies, University of Brighton