Sir, - I was born in Belfast of English parents. My father served in two world wars. I was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and Trinity College, Dublin. Sometimes I feel British. Sometimes I feel Irish. Often I feel neither. The agreement allows me to feel more Irish, more British and, just as importantly, more "neither". It makes it possible for everyone to relax into enjoyment of more than one cultural affiliation.
Green Ireland and Orange Ulster are shown up for what they have always been: inadequate, impracticable, dangerous concepts. Ulster faces in two directions and is extremely complicated in itself. A complex agreement was required. The one we now have is a triumph of political imagination. Those who brought it into being deserve our gratitude and acclaim. I shall be giving them my vote. - Yours, etc., Michael Longley,
Osborne Gardens, Belfast 9.