POLITICS IN NORTHERN IRELAND
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sin,—Congratulations on your superb Irish number—most invigorating and interesting to read throughout. Lord Charlemont, in his excellent article, seeks to find the division in Ireland in racialism—suggesting the two races " should be referred to Anglo-Saxon and Celt. May I suggest that Ireland (apart from religious division) can be best divided into :—
(1) Those who desire a never-decreasing connexion with England. (2) Those who seek a more or less constant independence from England.
In the formulae of political writers, Ulster; as regards West- minster, is Federal and centripetal : while the South no less Federal is centrifugal.
As for racial cleavage what Anglo-Saxon or Anglo-Norman blood remains in Ireland has been absorbed into the South. The North is really the more Celtic of the Provinces. Surely Orangemen like Flanagan and O'Kane will rise from their graves to refuse Lord Charlemont's appellation of Anglo- Saxon. Ulstermen often find themselves more un-English in England than Southerners—in spite of their noble devotion to England. The Belfast mob is in its emotions and gestures a study in Celticisin. The stolid Anglo-Saxon temperament survives in Meath and parts of Wexford. For good I believe the races have been thoroughly mixed in Ireland. I only hope every politician in Dublin and Belfast has read your Irish number as carefully and gratefully as I have.—I am, Sir, &e., SHANE LESLIE. Glaslough, Co. Monaghan, Ireland.
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