How SF can prove it’s a serious party

SINN Féin says it is serious and has the welfare of the people in Northern Ireland as its priority. If so, the party should reconsider its position relating to taking their seats in the House of Commons, Westminster.

The current seat numbers in the House of Commons are delicately balanced. The Conservatives have 315 and with the backing of the DUP’s ten MPs has a five-seat majority. If Sinn Féin took up their seven seats, the power of the DUP would be at worst diminished, but probably wiped out.

Abstentionism may be a principle suitable once but we are far more advanced now in both thinking and understanding the issues surrounding Northern Ireland. It is not in Ireland’s interest, North or South, to allow the current Tory government to run the Brexit show with the DUP.

John Colgan, Fairview, Dublin 3.