Sir: I am baffled by the inability of Andrew Roberts
to grasp why I favour internment of Irish terrorists only if it is simultaneously introduced north and south of the Irish border. I argued at some length and in sim- ple language that while it would be disas- trously counter-productive for the British Government to act unilaterally, in time, Irish public opinion would accept that the IRA had to be dealt with toughly, thus enabling the two governments to act together effectively against their common enemy.
Mr Roberts is a busy man and cannot be expected to immerse himself in the Irish history he appears to have skipped at Cam- bridge, but may I recommend that rather than make an ass of himself once again when writing about Northern Ireland — he read Conor Cruise O'Brien's brief and brilliant Ancestral Voices (Poolbeg). He would thus learn enough about the psychol- ogy of Irish nationalism to understand why the British cannot defeat the IRA without help from the people it claims to represent.
Ruth Dudley Edwards
40 Pope's Lane, Ealing, London W5
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