While one applauds the efforts of all parties to bring peace to the troubled province of Ulster, Jean Calder (The Argus, October 9) cannot be allowed to get away with whitewashing the role of Sinn Fein/IRA in the Troubles.

Anyone reading her article would believe that it was all one-way traffic and innocent Nationalists/Catholics were on the receiving end of every wrong committed in Northern Ireland.

Right from the opening few paragraphs we could see where this article was going - when Alex Maskey was described purely as a Sinn Fein councillor now involved in the peace process and no mention was made of his past life as a prominent IRA man.

Calder then went on to tell us the IRA was defending its communities against sectarian attack but made no mention of its campaign of intimidation, sectarian murder and ethnic cleansing of loyalists/Protestants from their homes across the province or the murder of contractors and builders, Catholic and Protestant alike, working for the security services. This latter act has all the moral equivalence and bang up-to-date resonance of the terrible fate which befell Ken Bigley in Iraq.

The fact is that the biggest impediment to nationalist/Catholic raised aspirations over the past 35 years has been Sinn Fein/IRA and the lack of decent housing, inward investment and jobs can be laid largely at the door of Republicans, who throughout their murderous campaign, devastated the economy of Northern Ireland.

I welcome the fact that arms are being set aside and that peace and prosperity are slowly returning to Ulster but let's be clear about one thing:

The reason peace and prosperity are on the cards is that the IRA has stopped murdering people.

Ian Taylor

-St Aubyns, Hove