Sir, - Austria is strictly neutral and has closed its air space to NATO aircraft. However, in contrast to Ireland, it has agreed to take up to 10,000 refugees from the Kosovo. Indeed, voices can already be heard saying this figure is too small and recalling the numbers admitted in 1956 and 1968. This is a small country (population 8 million) where several hundred thousand people from the former Yugoslavia are already living. Private donations to relief initiatives in the last few weeks have reached millions of pounds. Army units have been sent to Albania to work in the refugee camps.
I think the Irish commentators who have been lecturing the world on neutrality should shut up until Ireland begins expressing its neutrality in some practical way. They should also reflect deeply on how much the safety of our little republic has depended on the deeds of Bomber Harris and Stalin. A tincture of understanding of the fate to which the eastern half of Europe was abandoned a generation ago is the best antidote I can think of to the current outbreak of nauseating, grotesque, national self-righteousness. Ireland is not between a rock and a hard place. In Monty Python parlance, it is between a comfy armchair and a soft cushion - and still it is doing nothing. - Yours, etc.,
Ben Hemmens, Karl-Schoenherrgasse, Graz, Austria.