Sir, - I would like to congratulate Ruth Dudley Edwards on her excellent appraisal of the situation for Northern Protestants (Opinion, August 24th). Hers is, I fear, a lone voice.
If our Government is serious about working towards a united Ireland by consent, it must work harder to understand the ordinary Protestant, unionist viewpoint. Even more important, it must stop treating Protestants as foreigners.
In an article on the front page of our issue of Wednesday, 23rd August, you report that the modern Ireland section of the history syllabus for the Leaving Certificate will be widened to include "anti-Irish sentiment in the US and Britain and the role of the church and the GAA in sustaining a sense of Irishness". Who exactly is this meant to help? What message does it give to Protestants in the Republic or to those in the North who genuinely believe that they are both British and Irish? - Yours, etc.,
Geraldine Watts, Lawnswood Park, Stillorgan, Co Dublin.