Sir, Euclid, I believe, said that to define a problem is to be halfway to solving it. Garret FitzGerald did a very good job of defining the problem in Northern Ireland (June 1st). A starker definition would be as follows.
The British decided in 1920 that the "Irish problem" was that there were two nations in Ireland a Catholic nation and a Protestant nation. The solution decided on was to set up two states, each with its own parliament. The large body of Catholics trapped in the new Protestant state went into a state of fermentation that brought forth a third nation the Northern Catholic nation that stood up to be counted in 1969. In 1972, following the failure of internment, Ted Heath pulled up the Protestant state by the roots when he "prorogued" Stormont.
Since then we are trying to graft the two Northern nations together since the unionists reject a three nation state. Unfortunately they also reject the two nation state. This rejection, if persevered in would eventually mean repartition, a solution considered by Mrs Thatcher but rejected as impractical. What is needed now is a psychological breakthrough off Garret FitzGerald's "orange glass wall" which exists not just between Belfast and Dublin but between unionist and nationalist in the North.
John Taylor defined himself in October 1994 by saying "We don't play Gaelic football" this at a time when his county were All Ireland Champions. I am convinced that John Taylor knew at the time that Down were All Ireland Champions, but it wouldn't have been politically possible to admit this. This deep rooted unionist distaste for the "weed" nation of Northern nationalism prevents the grafting of the two Northern nations the unionists being convinced that the nationalist "weed" would flourish on a unionist root stock and take over the garden. Yours, etc., Murmod, Virginia, Co Cavan.