Sir,- Congratulations to Tom Quinn (An Irishman's Diary, May 14th) on the funniest piece of writing in many a long year. His hilarious paeon to Britain, the Empire, and all that we have lost made Kevin Myers look positively republican!
Any chance of bringing this to the stage? - Yours, etc.,
PAUL GAVAN,
Elton Court,
Meelick,
Co Clare.
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Sir, - At last the unmentionable has been mentioned by Tom Quinn: on balance it was unwise to take another road in 1921, a road that brought about the deaths of some 10,000 Irish people that led to mass emigration, delayed free education, and a poorer welfare system than our neighbours in the North. Not to mention a poor infrastructure. Architecturally, we lost most of the country's finest mansions, which were built by Irish people for Irish people. The French and Italian insurgents, in contrast, had the style to leave the brilliantly designed architecture of their nobility to be treasured by future generations of natives and tourists.
Perhaps most important of all, had we been wise enough to opt for Home Rule after the first World War, we would have been strongly influential in running two liberal, multicultural islands and not have ended up creating the grey monolithic state that was Sinn Féin's legacy to the Irish people. - Yours, etc.,
JOHN ROCHFORT,
Earls Court,
Waterford.
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Sir, - To the letters on the benefits of independence, I would like to add another viewpont: this "independence" has no more existence than, for an atheist, the god he does not believe in. Ireland has never been, is not, and never shall be independent. - Yours, etc.,
BEN HEMMENS,
Graz,
Austria.