Madam, - Liam Ó Géibhannaigh's grasp of Irishness and how a nation controls its destiny (January 9th) strikes me as being stunningly outdated. In particular, the idea that our membership of the European Union is somehow a return to colonial status is just plain wrong.
The Irish people have chosen to share decision-making powers with other (like ourselves, mostly small) nations because it is the best way of shaping the global environment to our mutual benefit.
The idea that a small country can survive on its own, without any of the modern methods of interaction the EU has created, has been proven by history to be deeply flawed. The Belgians, Danes, Dutch, Poles and Czechs didn't share sovereignty with anyone in 1940, and it didn't help them. Yet today, the idea of one EU country invading another is just plain ridiculous. Which model protects real national sovereignty better?
As for the idea that foreigners living in Ireland will change our national identity, he is right up to a point. They will change our national identity, in the same way the Danes and the Scottish and the French (and one particular Cuban-American) did. But we don't spend our time sitting in the pub giving out yards about the "bleedin' Vikings". I suspect that Mr Ó Géibheannaigh's anxieties aren't so much about the EU or foreigners as about that perennial cause of stress to us all: change. - Yours, etc,
JASON O'MAHONY, Coppinger Glade, Stillorgan, Co Dublin.