Sir, – Ian d’Alton is quite correct to point out that many Irish Protestants in the Free State/Republic shared socially conservative values with their Catholic compatriots (Letters, September 24th). The Church of Ireland, and Irish Protestants in general, were appalled at King Edward VIII’s plan to marry a divorced American in 1936: they disapproved of divorce in principle. As I point out in my recent book on Catholic Ireland since 1922, The Way We Were, the Free State of 1922 went to some trouble to include a large cohort of Southern unionists, almost all of whom were Protestants, in the first Senate. The Free State had a secular constitution and separated church and state, even if the people and elected politicians supported traditional Catholic (and broadly Christian) values. – Yours, etc,
MARY KENNY
Deal,
Kent,
UK.