Sir, – Apart from those held by the DUP and Sinn Féin, there are 36 other seats in the NI Assembly. Perhaps this group should unite as a “Civic Coalition Party” and run their candidates in the local elections as a cross-party progressive entity that will represent the aspirations of those voters who wish to live in the present and build a peaceful society unencumbered by a fatally infatuated respect for the past.
Perhaps such a coalition would go on to form a political force which would influence or govern in an alternative assembly to that which is held to ransom by a fear of change and an underlying resentment of the fact that both main players are mirror images of each other.
In the event of the vote for the DUP and Sinn Féin increasing, then phrases such as “Not in our name” would be meaningless. – Yours, etc,
EUGENE TANNAM,
Firhouse, Dublin 24.