Legacy Of Pearse

Sir, - Cathal Mac Gabhann (August 15th) makes a fair point

Sir, - Cathal Mac Gabhann (August 15th) makes a fair point. Ireland would never have achieved her present success within the political and economic structures of early 20th century UK. But those structures have now changed radically, and they might have changed more rapidly if Irish nationalism had been more moderate.

Pearse and his comrades saw things, in polarised terms, as Ireland against England, when actually the problem was that a multinational state had political institutions and state ideology that denied that fact. This allowed a small, mainly English and mainly land-owning, elite to rig the system in their favour. Their power was broken during the next half-century by the emergence of mass democracy; but it took the rest of the century for the multi-national character of the UK to be reflected at an institutional level. If Ireland had remained within the Union, reform would probably have come much more quickly. Unionists who refused to recognise that there was a problem can be blamed, but nationalists who put forward exaggerated and extreme demands must share it.

As a Scottish nationalist, I find much to admire in Irish nationalism, including the bravery and self-sacrifice of the people who fought in 1916 (particularly since one of them came from Edinburgh, my native city). But I admire even more the Irish nationalists of today who recognise that we have all moved on; that we share an archipelago and a European Union with the English, and that we all have responsibility for each other's prosperity and progress. Maybe if stupid militarists had not shot Pearse he would have come to see that too. - Yours, etc.

(Dr) Bob Purdie,

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Ruskin College,

OXFORD,