I lost my Mum in the autumn of 1981. she died the most hideous lingering death imaginable - Non hodgkinsons lymphoma. Its a sort of cancer that attacks the lymph system. It was coincident with these boys throwing their lives away for a cause which has many questionable aspects.

If you don't think they are questionable - ask yourself why so many of your countrymen DO question it. Apart from the reason always given that the other side are bigotted scum.

A couple of years ago, I got chronic heart disease. My profession of performing music (a craft I had worked hard at all my adult life) was whipped waway from me in days. This monday after unsuccessful surgery, my blood pressure dropped to less tham 40, my wife of 37 years was there watching me apparently just disappearing off this mortal coil. Luckily the nursing staff at Nottingham City Hospital saved my life.

Life is so precious, It is perhaps all we have, and its in the nature of things, that it is going to evaporate away at some point anyway.

I understand that some of you feel that you are still in a war situation. And the humourless vitriolic nature of many republican postings are perhps a natural response to those of us who have the luxury of being many miles away from the action- let alone the awful and insulting attempts at humour.

I would just ask you to think carefully before holding up the sacrifice of the hunger strikers as an example to younger folk.

Best wishes to you this Easter.