LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
PARTITION AND THE CROWN
Sta,—Despite such utterances by Southern Irish politicians as Professor Savory quoted in his letter last week, I just ddn't agree with him that allegiance to the Crown is now the fundamental issue between North and South. Mr. de Valera quickly got rid of such links with the Crown as displeased him, yet voluntarily (for he was paying scant respect to the treaty) retained the connection, in the External Relations Act, for diplo- matic reasons. There is therefore still a foundation for a United Ireland within the Commonwealth. Professor Savory mentioned—clearly he didn't regard the point as controversial—the Unionists' "rights as forming part of the United Kingdom." But Nationalists unhesitatingly deny that any part of the island has a right to opt out of a United Ireland. That is the fundamental dispute.
It is no less a dispute because the North of Ireland Government is satisfied with the status quo. It doesn't always take two to make an argument. I was trying to show that because there has never yet been even an approach to settlement both sides stilt call their hands as high as possible. Neither must appear to be the first to yield. Nationalists say independent republic or nothing ; Unionists retort with a crescendo of affection for the Crown. (It should not be forgotten that the first Irish Republicans were Belfast Presbyterians, er that, in the days when Westminster threatened to coerce the North, Ulster's first loyalty was to herself.) Incidentally, I did not gratuitously call Northern Unionists, whose difficult position I do appreciate, " those firebeating Northern fellows." .1 wrote, " The Southern Nationalists, who . . . have lost much of their antipathy for the English, must . . . persuade their fire-eating Northern fellows . . ," The point here is that temperate Southern Nationalists— and there are more than a few—realise that tht out-and-out demands of Nationalists in the North are --as stiff an obstacle as the out-and-out refusal of Unionists to listen to them.—Yours faithfully, Killitragh, Greystones, Co. Wicklow, Eire. . RAWLE KN9x.
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