Sir, – The border of each county in Ireland should be sacrosanct. It defines and protects the history of its past generations and the hopes for the future of its present generation.
Recently the Constituency Commission put small advertisements in the newspapers reminding people of the closing date for submissions in relation to matters on Dáil and European Parliament constituencies.
No commission should have authority to put part of a county into another and allow the people from another county to represent that area. By doing so, they are denying the people their democratic right to elect their own representatives, and history is turned on its head.
Part of my native county, the rich historic lands of south Mayo, were included in the Galway constituency in the last general election, without the people being properly consulted. The result was three people from the Galway constituency representing my people from south Mayo in the national parliament. This wrong must be corrected immediately, and the Mayo border and the people therein in represented by their own kith and kin.
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South Mayo was the final battleground over the ownership of the land of Ireland under the leadership of the county’s greatest son, Michael Davitt.
The people finally defeated the hated landlord system and in so doing gave the land of Ireland back to the people of Ireland and gave a new word to the English language, “boycott”. In the event of the commission not rescinding this decision, the people of south Mayo have the solution in their own hands. Boycott the election. – Yours, etc,
THOMAS A BOURKE,
Galway.