Madam, - John A Murphy (October 6th) hits the nail on the head when he says that the "real" British were the pre-Saxon Celts, our own people.
The German invaders from Saxony were never called "British" by the Irish, Scots or Welsh; they were called "Sasanach" - Saxon.
To this day people with the surname "Welsh" mysteriously find their names translated into Irish as "Breathnach" - British! The reason the Irish never called the Welsh "Welsh" is because the word "Welsh" is a Saxon word meaning "foreigner". - Yours, etc,
PETER GIBBONS, Leemount, Carrigrohane, Co Cork.
Madam,- The correspondence about the inclusion of this country in the term "British Isles" would be better served with more fact and less silly huffing and puffing from both sides of the Border.
The term may well be "hallowed by long usage" (John A Murphy, October 6th), but not when it includes the island of Ireland.
Some 85 years ago a British prime minister, in a letter (August 13th, 1921) to Éamon de Valera, then president of Dáil Éireann, made this very clear, decisively settling the issue long before the controversy arose.
David Lloyd George wrote, inter alia: "The geographical propinquity of Ireland to the British Isles is a fundamental fact." - Yours, etc,
EOIN NEESON, Blackrock, Co Dublin.
