Sir, – Contrary to what is asserted in Michael J Donnelly’s letter (December 27th), there had been reform in Northern Ireland under Terence O’Neill prior to 1968.
From the very start of his premiership, O’Neill embarked on a modernisation programme – encouraging industrial investment, implementing infrastructural development and creating a second university in Northern Ireland. He also sought to bridge the sectarian divide, and he set out his objectives in this regard in an important speech at the Corrymeela Centre in Ballycastle in 1966. His government recognised the Northern Ireland Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, and the Nationalist Party became the official opposition in Stormont.
Most important of all were his meetings with Lemass in 1965, and with Jack Lynch in 1967 and 1968.
With hindsight, these may appear to represent modest progress.
They did not, however, seem so modest at the time and they raised expectations within the nationalist community and provoked a backlash from some elements of the unionist community.
This fuelled the atmosphere that gave rise to the civil rights movement, an unmistakeable instance of a “revolution of rising expectations”. – Yours, etc,
FELIX M LARKIN,
Cabinteely,
Dublin 18.