John Redmond should have accepted the inevitability of partition

Sir, – Michael McDowell is quite correct when he writes that the British government would never have agreed to an independence settlement for Ireland in 1922 that drove northern unionists out of the UK (“An independent Irish State was never a foregone conclusion. Nor is a united Ireland now”, February 18th).

We should acknowledge, however, that John Redmond and the Irish Party could have had a home rule parliament in Dublin in 1914 – and again in 1916 – if they had been prepared to accept partition. They would only accept it on condition that it would be temporary – strictly time-limited – and unionists would not agree to that.

If Redmond had accepted the inevitability of partition, as Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins did, we might have been spared 1916 and all that followed, with its legacy of political violence in Ireland throughout the 20th century. Of course, home rule was a more modest measure of independence – but, no less than the 1921 Treaty, it would have given us freedom to achieve freedom. – Yours, etc,

FELIX M LARKIN,