A UNITED IRELAND?
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In your issue of August 31st, 1934, in reference to Mr. O'Duffy and Lord Craigavon, after referring to some of Mr. O'Duffy's statements you go on to say : "But when Lord Craigavon declares that A United Ireland is not only impossible but unthinkable, and from the highest of Imperial interests undesirable' that is sheer nonsense. Unity is obviously thinkable, and few people in this country doubt that, in happier circumstances, it is necessary to the best interests• of Ireland aid the Empire."
We in Ulster wonder sometimes how long it will be before Englishmen will really understand our point of view ? When our Prime Minister makes a perfectly clear statement representing the considered opinion of every Unionist man, woman and child in Ulster we do feel, to say the least of it, a little annoyed, when we are told by people who do not in the least understand the true situation that our Prime Minister's statement is "sheer nonsense."
I wonder if people in England realize that had we been foolish enough to join the Free State, that by this time the whole of Ireland would have been severed from the Empire. And I ask you what would be gained by the Empire today, if we did join the Free State. We have made up our minds once and for all to remain part and parcel of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and yet we are being constantly urged to join a State, the only one connected (or supposed to be connected) with the British Empire, that has not the King's Head on its postage stamps, that will not fly the Union Jack, and will not play "God Save the King," that insults the King and the King's repre- sentative in every possible way, and in fact shows its hatred in every possible way to Britain, and yet we are told that by joining this State, they would by some miracle become after centuries of hatred, the most loyal portion of the British Empire, No, Sir, this dream is "sheer nonsense" if you like, and we who live next door to them, and know them, (which you in England do not) are not going to be so foolish
[The Spectator has told Ulster nothing of this kind at all. Nor has it urged her to join the Free State in existing cirT cumstances. What it did say was that to declare that never at any time, under any conditions, would a united Ireland be "thinkable " was sheer nonsense.—En. The Spectator.]
Previous page
