A letter in your paper on Friday 14th march 08 entitled "Letter shows arrogance of those trying to dupe the republican base" is a self-serving attempt by the individual concerned to demonise a vast majority of the people who remain part of and support the present leadership of the republican movement. I would remind this individual - who was not involved with the republican movement very long and certainly not during the hardest times of our struggle - that not all of the people who were involved in the struggle against the British presence in Ireland went to jail.

In fact Ireland is a big country and to say that a vote in the north west was a vote of no confidence in the republican leadership is disingenuous and certainly a slight on the integrity of present and former members of the republican movement and its support base of hundreds of thousands across Ireland.

I voted for Peggy O Hara myself but my priority was to keep the republican vote strong by giving my first preferences to my comrades in the republican movement who, like myself, spent time in prison, and those who have stood side by side with us through the hard times.

We ended up with two former prisoners getting elected - Martina Anderson, who spent time in jails in England and Ireland, and Raymond McCartney, a former prisoner and survivor of the hunger strikes, both dedicated workers on behalf of their community. Now what did that vote say to those organised against republican unity?

I am not going to dabble in the rights or wrongs of the IRA constitution, unlike those who chose to dishonour it by their ignominious and treasonable acts, simply because those entitled to do so are the IRA membership who actually fought the war. Obviously the vast majority of them have done just that through the years by supporting the evolving republican strategy which has brought us to the situation where we can pursue re-unification through political means in which no more of our finest young people will lose their lives of languish in jails.

That is what good leadership is all about – knowing when to change direction and having the courage to do so. It is about disciplined and organised revolutionary movement or forward thinking, something the letter writer clearly doesn't appreciate.

This individual then goes on to berate and slander IRA volunteers and fellow republicans right who work tirelessly on behalf of their communities, insisting that there is no such thing as a 'volunteer' anymore, "only people in highly paid jobs".

Misinformation like this is designed to destroy the community infrastructure by instilling doubts in people's minds about genuine well-intentioned community development workers who do not work normal nine to five jobs, much of it unpaid.