The following letter appeared in the Irish Examiner of 16th June

Within hours of the death of Charles Haughey the leader of the Labour Party again brought up the infamous Arms Trial. He forgets that Mr. Haughey was cleared of any wrongdoing. And he was cleared on the basis that he was implementing Government policy. If there was any wrongdoing, and I don‚t believe there was, the man responsible was the Taoiseach and not Haughey.

Pat Rabbitte and I come from the same stable. He cannot be unaware that our former leader Cahal Goulding along with my father, who was then on the IRA Army Council, met with Mr. Haughey and pleaded with him to get weapons and to get them quickly.

Mr. Rabbitte may be ashamed of his past, though he has not accounted for it. Those of us who attempted to arm the minority in the North which was under siege from marauding B-Specials and RUC take pride in our past.

Rather than being a stick with which to beat Charles Haughey, the Arms Trial was one of his finest hours. He was not prepared to stand idly by.