PERMIT me to reply to the letter of former chief superintendent Martin Crotty (Sunday Tribune, 30 April 2006) in which he criticises my "absurd" hypothesis that the alienation of young people in deprived areas from the gardai may have been a significant factor in the riots at the Love Ulster march.

Perhaps my theory is absurd.

The way to find out is for the Garda authorities to commission independent research into the attitudes of young people in deprived areas towards the gardai, information which, I think, is, in any case, essential in formulating policing policy in those areas.

He also, rightly, points out that I have frequently criticised organisations such as the Garda while remaining silent about the appalling abuses within my own organisation, the Church, as highlighted, for example, by the Ferns report.

Let me say that I am appalled by the sexual abuse of young people by priests, and equally appalled by the response of the church authorities (with some exceptions), to the revelation of that abuse. However, I do not work specifically with the victims of that abuse and so I do not believe that I have any 'added-value' to contribute to the reflections on the Ferns report.

I have worked for 30 years with young people from deprived areas, who have had many encounters with the gardai, and I believe that that experience gives me a perspective which can contribute some 'added-value' to the reflections on policing.

Fr Peter McVerry SJ, Jesuit Centre for Faith & Justice 26 Upper Sherrard Street, Dublin 1.

Castleknock . . . far from inner city homeless From Diarmad O Grainne

THE distance between the inner city of Dublin and Castleknock is not great but economically, socially and culturally they are miles apart.

Trying to get employment with an inner-city address is very difficult, which brings me to the point raised by Fr Peter McVerry about the alienation of inner-city youth. Of course they are alienated, they being shamefully disenfranchised.

Whether your Castleknock reader, Mr Martin Crotty, likes it or not this is a fact, and raising red herrings about clerical abuse to make a point is neither here nor there.

Not all clergy are bad. There are some great men among them and I have never ever heard of any member of the Jesuit order being accused of sexual abuse.

I take my hat off to Fr McVerry and the trojan work he is doing amongst the less well off in our society.

Diarmad O Grainne, Mullach na Si, Co Roscomain.

Redmond could have held out for more From Maurice O'Connell

I AGREE with A Leavy (Sunday Tribune, 30 April 2006). The flirtation between Ulster Unionists, the Conservative Party and the British army was an outrage. A very black chapter in the mottled history of the Tory Party. Bonar Law's conduct was extraordinary. Or the broader British political context: The Asquith Liberal government was proposing a raft of measures (Home Rule was only part of the show), which the Tory element in the British ruling class regarded as the end of civilisation. When Asquith got his mandate for that in 1910, the stage was set for a confrontation with few parallels in Britain itself since the 17th century.

None of this justifies the proposition that the Rising (as opposed to the setting up of the Irish Volunteers), was justified by the Ulster Volunteers.

Coincidentally, you run a letter from Martin Crotty (30 April 2006), on the alienation of young men from disadvantaged areas. The slide from personal or group alienation into political extremism does not need me to document.

Armchair ideologues like ourselves need to be very careful about the words and ideas which we fling around.

To attract the notice of DR O'Connor Lysaght (30 April 2006), is an honour from the doyen of Irish Left historiography. I stand corrected on the details of the results of the 1910 general elections, though my point about Redmond's overall mandate is confirmed.

(Incidentally, a detailed look at the CVs of the Nationalist MPs who served in that parliament belies the contention in the 'official narrative' that they were all wimpish covert unionists. John Dillon was not the only one to have 'done time' for sedition or cognate activities. ) The Home Rule Act was, at one level, only a scrap of paper in 1914. As a student of politics, I have long held the view that Redmond could have held out for more in September 1914.

However, despite the overwhelming majority which the British government had post-1918, and the comfortable position within it of Tories of the most extreme Unionist sympathies, that government did bring in the Government of Ireland Act of 1920, which attempted to implement (partitioned) Home Rule.

The leaders of the 1916 Rising had a right to an opinion on the betting chances of Home Rule seeing the light of day. However, their assessment that Irish nationhood was 'dead' the day George V signed on the dotted line bears all the marks of a 'cult' mass-delusion. It simply does not tally with the realities of Irish society at the time.

Whatever about offering their own lives in a blood-sacrifice as part of the 'cleansing' process of war, setting out knowingly (see Pearse's explicit writings and speeches before 1916), to kill other people (including 'wrong people'), is morally questionable. In the context of what had been happening to real Irish people for 20 months in real warfare, it is mildly bizarre.

Maurice O'Connell, Forge Park, Oakpark, Tralee, Co Kerry.

Independence here should be celebrated From B Hurley

LIKE some of those taking part in the recent 1916 commemoration, perhaps I am also out of step, but isn't it time we celebrated something positive and had an Independence Day commemoration. Perhaps 15 January . . . the date the Treaty was finally ratified . . . might be an appropriate day.

B Hurley, Douglas Road, Cork.

Lette Kathy grow up . . . she's still adolescent From Sean MacCann

IMAGINE if the white male author of a book ('wittily' entitled 'How to Kill Black Women') that tore strips off the 'failings' of black women admitted that: "I adore [white] women. I like to flirt with [black wo]men and I like to have sex with them, but I much prefer [white] female company."

Faced with such egregious bigotry, would we take his criticism of black women seriously? Would the Sunday Tribune nurture his seeming psychosis by affording him interview time in a serious newspaper?

Admittedly, dislike and conflict can feed short-term lust as much as affection and respect. Surely however, adult relationships and good sex are built on intimacy and trust. It's questionable how much Lette understands about men, or how, despite all her patronising talk of having sex with "them", how genuinely intimate she has ever managed to be with men, given her openly-sexist admission (delete the bits inside square brackets) that she much prefers female company.

Until Lette grows up enough to stop looking for scapegoats for her own inadequacies, and grows up enough to enjoy men as people and not primarily as mere sex objects, perhaps we should treat her 'he said, she said' adolescent views on men with the contempt they deserve.

Sean MacCann, Trillick, Co Tyrone.

E-vote system needs to be transparent

RICHARD DELEVANmakes the point in this week's paper (30 April 2006) that the success of the Revenue's on-line service (ROS) shows that e-government is eminently workable and that it is only fear of technology that stands in the way of electronic voting.

I feel his comparison is incorrect however. I use the ROS regularly and it is an excellent service. However, I know what I have entered into the system and I can check the outputs it creates; if the Revenue Commissioners take too much money from my bank account I will know about it pretty quickly.

This control is not present in the voting booth however. I can press a button and the machine can beep reassuringly at me but there is no way that I can be sure that my vote will be counted and that the end result reflects what has been inputted into the system.

The physical controls we have over paper ballots give this visible reassurance to voters.

Until this problem of visibility can be overcome I don't see how we as a nation can introduce e-voting.

Padraig Hall, 109 Madeira Wood, Enniscorthy, Co Wexford.