Sir, – Paul Bew's interesting article (Opinion & Analysis, February 8th) about Winston Churchill's attitude to Ireland was accompanied by a photograph of Churchill and Éamon de Valera. In a book about de Valera's life, published by The Irish Timesin 1976, the caption to the 1953 photograph quotes de Valera describing how Churchill "went out of his way to be courteous. After lunch . . . I spoke first of a possible reunification of the country. To this Churchill replied that they could never put out of the United Kingdom the people of the Six Counties so long as the majority wished to remain with them. There were also political factors which no Conservative would ignore."
Which, for all Churchill’s wishful sentiments, is precisely the bottom line Prof Bew has described in his piece. – Yours, etc,