Letters
Ulster's record
Sir: Charles Moore opines (Politics, 26 May) that `everyone knows, of course, that he [Mr Prior] feels the customary Englishman's contempt for the province [Ulster]'. I for one do not know what Mr Prior's feelings are about Ulster; but if in fact it were `customary' for Englishmen generally to hold that province in contempt, then surely they would be both unjust and ungrateful. Within a few months of the outbreak of the first world war, the 36th (Ulster) Division, consisting of three battalions of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, nine battalions of the Royal Irish Rifles and one battalion of the Royal Irish Fusiliers, together with divisional artillery, Royal Engineers, Army Service Corps, field ambulances and Pioneers, had been formed, all volunteers and all Ulstermen. Within the year they were in France, and in 1916 they lost 5,500 officers and men in the battle of the Somme; and they won nine Victoria Crosses. Ulstermen fought in other divisions and in all won 23 VCs. The record of Ulster in the second world war was as impressive.
The inhabitants of Great Britain may well feel irritated that Protestants and Catholics in Ulster cannot live in harmony as they do elsewhere in the UK and in the Republic itself; they may feel regret that the majority in the province will not unite with the Republic, perhaps within the Common- wealth; but contempt surely not.
Gilbert Longden
39 Cornwall Gardens, London SW7
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