Furthermore, Mr Duffy's quite limited explanation for the anti-social behaviour, other than it was a "symptom of nationalists' refusal to accept the PSNI" is nothing more than self-delusion.

What Mr Duffy, who is now a representative of Eirigi, fails to understand, is that his total inability and failure of condemnation, and his general agreement for the anti-social behaviour and attacks in Craigavon by a small minority of misled young people, is not the general view of many nationalists and republicans.

More than 30 years of violence by the paramilitaries never resolved the problem, nor did it resolve the policing issue.

Dialogue, understanding, equality and mutual respect of each other's political and cultural identities, and an ending of all paramilitary violence, is what has now made Northern Ireland, particularly for our young people, a better and more peaceful place to live in. A place where friendship is now more coveted than hatred, and where people can live within their community free from the political instability that for so long allowed small minorities of people to hold their communities to ransom, as was witnessed only too recently in Craigavon.

The solution to policing and justice issues can only ever be resolved though democratic means, and through the final will of the people by the form of the ballot box at election time, not through attacks on the PSNI and publicly elected representatives who provide an invaluable contribution to our society.

If, as Mr Duffy claims, Eirigi is a fast-growing organisation, with increasing membership numbers, then the solution is very simple, take up your political mandate and put it to the people within your community. If you succeed, only then will you have the right to claim that you truly represent the will of the people within your community.

Patrick Clarke
Dundrum
Co Down