Southern voters who backed Sinn Fein should be made to watch Lost Lives as a wake-up call

PAUL Horan’s letter (Write Back, February 19), regarding the Lost Lives TV programme and the outcome of the south’s general election, struck a sharp chord.

With regard to politics, north or south, I have no particular axe to grind. Although from a Protestant/unionist background, I hold little truck with either of the two major traditions in our province and, equally, feel no loyalty to the two former main parties in the south.

I have lived most of my life in Northern Ireland, but, for six happy years,

I lived in the south and taught in its secondary education sector. The curriculum was rigorous, but I found most pupils well-able to meet its demands.

I also found the majority of people there to be enlightened — all of which makes the outcome of the election incomprehensible and disturbing.

Although I do understand the frustrations of the electorate, particularly the young, I would have credited them with greater wisdom than they exhibited in the election.

It beggars belief that intelligent people would fall for such an utterly implausible vision of a ‘utopian’ (all-) Ireland.

However, if the pure folly of voting for Sinn Fein’s undeliverable socialist policies cannot be recognised by its voters, perhaps the veil could be torn from their eyes with regard to the party’s hypocrisy; it condemns dissident violence and threats, while eulogising past terrorists.

To sharpen the perception of SF voters in the south, each and every one should be required to watch Lost Lives.

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