A selection of the best letters received from our readers this week. Email letters@newstatesman.co.uk to have your thoughts voiced in the New Statesman magazine.
CORK, IRELAND - FEBRUARY 09: Sinn Fein's Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (C) celebrates being the first TD elected to the 33rd Dáil, topping the poll ahead of Micheál Martin, Simon Coveney and Michael McGrath at Nemo Rangers GAA Club on February 9, 2020 in Cork, Ireland. Ireland has gone to the polls following Taoiseach Leo Varadkar's decision to call a snap election. In the last general election, no party came close to a majority and it took 10 weeks of negotiations to form a government with Varadkar's party Fine Gael eventually forming a coalition with Fianna Fail. Sinn Fein and their leader Mary Lou McDonald have made a late surge and could become the largest party according to the latest opinion polls. In order to win an outright majority and govern alone, parties need to win 80 seats - many political experts have predicted another hung parliament with exit polls showing the three main parties deadlocked. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
Ailbhe Rea writes that there is a misunderstanding between Sinn Féin and its voters: that the party sees no discontinuity with its IRA past, while the voters have decided that there is (Observations, 14 February). The reality is even more serious. It does centre on the normalisation of Sinn Féin – it becoming an Irish party among others – but the nature of that normality remains a matter for public discussion and an unavoidable decision.
There are two very different outlooks. The first, favoured by most Irish journalists, is that Sinn Féin’s IRA links are in the past and it is positive to welcome it into the establishment. The second, favoured by Sinn Féin, is that the actions of the Provisional IRA are to be celebrated and themselves made part of the establishment.
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