Ulster dissent
Sir: There are two nations in Ireland today, the British-Irish nation, and the Irish-Irish or Gaelic Irish nation. There never was one Irish nation, never even a feudal kingdom of Ireland. There was a land of warring chieftains, one of whom pleaded with Henry II to come to his aid with his Norman Knights. The Pope of the day also pleaded with Henry, who, after years, and reluctantly, sent over his Knights, one of whose tombs, that of Strongbow, lies in the Crypt of Christ Church Cathedral today.
I come of the British-Irish nation, for such was my upbringing in Dublin. Very early I realised there was another nation, and that ' it ' went to Croke Park to watch Gaelic football, while I went with my father to watch rugby at Lansdowne Road. With my father, too, I watched the last of the British regiments leave Dublin North Wall in 1923 (I think I have the date right) and because of the tears in my father's eyes I was angry at Britain, or, if you like, the British government. My father, very English, tried to make a case for the withdrawal of the legions, but he did feel let down, I knew. I felt a cold dislike of the GaelicIrish, a compassion for my father, and an anger at Britain.
Today it is on my own behalf I am angry at Britain, or rather, at the British Government's 'White Paper on Ulster. It is a nasty piece of work if ever there was one. Very subtly, it undermines the British-Irish nation in Ulster, their whole position, while pretending it is not doing any such thing. It enlarges the new Stormont Assembly in order to give more seats to the Irish Republicans, while keeping the Westminster MPs at the present number. Both Mr Paisley and Mr Craig are right to reject it. It is a nonsense, and a nasty nonsense.
Once upon a time, I set out to try to find a ' moderate ' Irishman. I walked a great deal, as far as Cork and Belfast and back to Dublin, but I never found a single one. No Irish person, of either nation, worth his salt or her salt, is a 'moderate.' Yet the British Government bases its White Paper on 'moderate opinion' on a fiction. How irrelevant can you get?
An independent British-Irish Ulster will have to be formed, sooner or later, and the sooner the better, so that soldiers' and civilians' lives may be saved. You can create a new Border, cannot you? You can create watch-towers and minefields and electrified fences, as they do in Europe — where we now are, incidentally. Why the hell don't you start to do it, and stop hankering for an 'Irish unity' that never did exist, never will exist, simply because both nations in Ireland want to develop in their own ways, their very different ways. Look, Britain, and you, the British public, let them, both of them, do so, help them to do so by separating them, not by trying to join them in a matrimony they will neither of them ever accept.
Ewart Milne
46 De Parys Avenue, Bedford
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