Sir, – I was puzzled by many aspects of Rónán O'Brien's opinion piece, "Why Redmond and Adams have much in common"(August 30th).
The only thing John Redmond and Gerry Adams have in common is their detestation of partition, the former in trying to prevent it (a “decapitation”), the latter in attempting to undo it by violence for most of his life.
Otherwise, in terms of class and social background, and their perceptions of British-Irish relations, the two could not have less in common.
Redmond, like the majority of pre-1916 nationalists, would have been happy with subordinate 32-county Home Rule status, posing no threat to imperial integrity.
Mr Adams remains an uncompromising separatist, articulating some tactical approaches to unionists only within the last year or so.
Redmond, as well as being a genuine nationalist – indeed, “the leader of the Irish race” – was quite at home as well in a British and imperial setting.
For Mr Adams, on the other hand, as is evident from his numerous memoirs, a visceral hatred of England is a central component of his nationalism.
The Sinn Féin reaction to the post-Brexit situation is purely opportunist. The call for a border poll is not justified by any shift in public opinion, unionist or nationalist. The old argument, trotted out again, that a united Ireland would make economic sense, is a rehash of 1940s and 1950s anti-partition propaganda, and is no more convincing for unionists now than it was then.
Similarly, Mr Adams’s suggestions of “interim and transitional” arrangements are old de Valera hat. By their very expression they intensify suspicion, and ignore the central fact that what unionists want is not a special position within a united Ireland but a guaranteed Britishness outside it.
More fundamentally, nationalists should belatedly accept that there two nations on the island of Ireland.
As that strong nationalist, Liam de Paor, acknowledged, partition was a condition of, not a flaw in, Irish independence.
Finally, Ronán O ’Brien, in referring to the obstacles to unity, says “surely when there is a will a way can be found”.
But at the moment there is no will. Public opinion at large is happy with the Belfast Agreement and with the flexibility of the new Article 3 of the Constitution.
The northern unionist community remains as fiercely opposed to unification as it was during the decades of conflict.
The new rhetoric of unity simply copperfastens that opposition. – Yours, etc,
JOHN A MURPHY,
Cork.