Rejoining the Commonwealth

Madam, - Ed Kelly (April 16th) believes that Geoffrey Roberts (April 14th) is incorrect in suggesting that unionist parties …

Madam, - Ed Kelly (April 16th) believes that Geoffrey Roberts (April 14th) is incorrect in suggesting that unionist parties have expressed a desire that Ireland should return to the Commonwealth. I refer him to a quite lengthy recent article by Iris Robinson of the DUP in the Belfast News Letter.

As for Mr Kelly's suggestion that membership should be tied to "a sovereign united Ireland", it seems to me that Iris Robinson was calling for something very different - that the Irish Republic as now constituted should rejoin the Commonwealth.

This, as Prof Roberts argued, is in the interests of the new north-south relations, of pluralism, the recognition of the Irish and British communities and better inter-island relations in general.

- Yours, etc,

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ROBIN BURY, Ballybrack, Co Dublin.