Sir, – Is The Irish Times intent on demeaning and even demonising the English?
Anglophobia is dead, declared Fintan O’Toole in this paper in 2011. Unfortunately not. Anglophobia is alive and well, and Brexit shows it.
The Irish political and commentariat class has revelled in Brexit. A majority of headlines in Irish papers appear not only to oppose Brexit, but to stand in a sneering condescension to it.
Most worrying is the latest piece by Nicholas Boyle ("Brexit is a collective English mental breakdown", Opinion & Analysis, January 16th), who has attempted to pathologise a perfectly legitimate referendum result as a "collective mental breakdown".
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This is outrageous.
Pride in your history, concern for your borders and cherishing your national sovereignty are perfectly legitimate views. These matters do not make you a dewy-eyed imperialist with a mental health problem. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN JOHN SPENCER,
Belfast.
Sir, – In Nicholas Boyle’s heartfelt paean to the EU, we find out that this noble institution is actually the protector of relatively small nations and not the ogre that the dastardly tabloids have painted it. I am sure the Greeks will be delighted to hear this.
Of course, the Brits only voted to leave this venerable institution because they secretly pine for the old days of the Empire, the Raj and Carry On movies in the local cineplex.
He concludes with a prediction that all those monocled old duffers with cravats and beastly northern English with tattoos and white vans will soon see the error of their psychotic episode and plead for readmittance to the utopian embrace of our beloved European Union.
Can I humbly suggest that the only breakdown any objective observer can see is that of the Euro-luvvies and a small but overrepresented coterie of London’s pampered, entitled and embittered Islington set?
Brexit remains the largest single plebiscite in the history of the United Kingdom. We all know that there would be no such articles cluttering up The Irish Times on a daily basis if the "correct" (ie Remain) side had won.– Yours, etc,
SIMON O’NEILL,
Dublin 3.