25 JUNE 1954, Page 16

SIR,—In his , article entitled Northern Ire- land' in your

issue of June 4th, Mr. Skelton seems to labour under thC delusion, shared by many inhabitants of England and Northern Ireland that 'Eire' is the name of the twenty- six, counties of Ireland, as distinct from the other six. Eire' is simply the Irish for Ireland, and Belfast is as much in Eirc as Dublin is.