Madam, - The exciting thesis by Roger Cole (November 8th) to the effect that advocates of the EU Reform Treaty are actually resuscitated Home Rulers may turn out to be more apposite than he realises. Nevertheless, it is puzzling coming from him and the Peace and Neutrality Alliance.
My understanding of the Home Rulers ( and their predecessors) is that they believed fervently that what somebody termed "the good government of Ireland" could come only from a separate parliament elected by the people of Ireland, and achieved without bloodshed.
They were opposed to unaccountable socio-economic, political and, particularly, military elites. Their most bitter opponents up to 1914 were the members of the aristocratic military clique which not only ran the British Army but was hand-in-glove with the Tory leadership. Those nice people were fully prepared to execute a military rebellion against their king and country.
After 1914, the most bitter, and almost totally successful, opponents of the Home Rule Party were the members of another completely unaccountable military elite. Unlike the Home Rule Party, which had won 80 out of the 105 Irish seats in 1910 (the last election before the first World War), they did not have even one MP. These well-intentioned, but completely undemocratic people carried out what was in effect a coup d'état against Irish public opinion. The result was our bloody and deeply divided 20th century Ireland, and our divided island.
Roger Cole may be surprised to learn that I agree with him that this planet is run and exploited by unaccountable elites. I have always believed this. The difference is that he and his merry band of green ostriches believe that the way to fight that system is with the stubby old bows and arrows of 1848 vintage Ballingarry cabbage-patch nationalism. By contrast, those of us who support the European process believe in treaties, laws, courts, constitutions - and a firm commitment to shared justice and democracy (and real sovereignty), which goes beyond empty, frothy rhetoric.
Hence the EU Reform Treaty. - Yours, etc,
MAURICE O'CONNELL, Oakpark, Tralee, Co Kerry.