Northern unionists’ perspective

Sir, – Andy Pollak's comments (Letters, October 29th) on Fintan O'Toole's article, "Northern Ireland is being detached from UK" (Weekend Review, October 26th), end with the opinion that, "But we, citizens of this Republic, have to learn to treat them, (unionists), as equal human beings".

Surely many people living in Northern Ireland did not feel, for many years, that they were treated equally and the Belfast Agreement was meant to solve that and to ensure parity of esteem for everyone.

I voted for that agreement because I recognise the right of anyone from Northern Ireland to be “British, Irish or both”.

An overwhelming majority of voters in the Republic agreed. – Yours, etc,

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MICHAEL C O’CONNOR,

Waterford.

Sir, – Further to Andy Pollak’s argument (Letters, October 29th) that the backstop was anti-democratic, it is widely recognised in the EU that Northern Ireland is a special case.

As for Southern bigotry towards unionists, Northern nationalists have had long and bitter experience of the unionist variety, since the colonisation of the region.

The “open-minded Northern politician” asked the Fianna Fáil senator, “You are asking me to give up my country. How would you respond if I demanded that you give up yours”?

This question is several centuries too late. In the new United Ireland, all its subjects, North and South , would be recognised as equal human beings, respecting each other’s beliefs – “equal” (Sinn Féin’s oft-demanded “parity of esteem”) being the operative word. – Yours, etc,

VERA HUGHES,

Moate, Co Westmeath.

Sir, – Andy Pollak is surely right to argue that those in favour of a united Ireland should listen more sympathetically to unionist concerns, but he is wrong to contend that the currently debated Brexit border solutions are anti-democratic (Letters, October 29th).

The majority in Northern Ireland who voted for Remain has been expected to accept the majority vote for Leave in the United Kingdom as a whole.

Surely it is not unreasonable to expect the minority of leavers represented by the DUP to accept the decision of the British parliament about customs relationships, whether it be Boris Johnson’s deal or some other similar arrangement.

Decisions about trade in Northern Ireland were reserved for the UK parliament in service of the very union the DUP exists to defend. – Yours, etc,

TERRENCE

McDONOUGH,

Emeritus Professor of

Economics,

NUI Galway,

Moycullen, Galway.

Sir, – Andy Pollak writes that there are 900, 000 Unionists in the North who want to remain British and are being disenfranchised. What unionists have for 100 years been adept at, is disenfranchising an equal number of nationalists/Catholics who want to join the South.

In the overall scheme of things, the unionists have only approximately one seventh of the population of the island of Ireland, and have by loud and long belligerence, succeeded in defying the will of the vast preponderance of people who want a united Ireland. The northern statelet was artificially created in 1920 with disastrous consequences, whose chickens are finally coming home to roost, and no amount of wishful thinking is going to persuade the British to save their bacon: to mix metaphors. – Yours, etc,

MAURICE

O’CALLAGHAN,

Stillorgan,

Co Dublin.