The traitors vs patriots slanging match, between supporters of the Real IRA and Sinn Féin, is based on the absurdly false notion that political violence is either good or bad depending upon timing and popularity. But, even for the ungodly, violence remains a crime against humanity.

Patriotism is best defined as true devotion to the nation. It entails service, never domination of the community. Patriots include all working to repair the effects of violence, and never those engaged in fratricidal use of bombs and bullets.

A builder, conscientiously laying bricks, is a patriot. A hoodlum throwing a brick unto the roadway is not. Neither is the passerby who deliberately leaves it lying there for someone else to pick up. Litter-strewn roadways, particularly in areas regularly festooned with national flags, show that for some, patriotism is neither properly understood, nor practised.

"War should belong to the tragic past, to history; it should find no place on humanity's agenda for the future," said Pope John Paul II.

Thirty years ago, the pope's teaching, that violence is an evil and unacceptable solution to political problems, was rejected by Sinn Féin – as were his passionate pleas for peace. Now they say the context has changed, so violence is presently wrong. The Real IRA says nothing has changed, so violence will continue until victory is achieved.

WB Yeats mused about living alone in a bee loud glade. "And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow." Unlike those permanently wedded to violence and those now expediently divorced from it, real patriots, living in the practical world, continue working for real peace in a just society – no matter how slow it drops.

Brian Rooney,

The Heights,

Downpatrick,

Co Down.