Sir, – Tom Cooper is unduly sensitive in questioning the invitation to Cardinal Brady to a dinner for cardinals from Commonwealth countires (March 25th). He suggests that “(the cardinal’s) attendance could be regarded by some as Ireland’s return to the Commonwealth”. Very few people nowadays would regard the actions of an unelected churchman, however eminent, as determining or expressing the secular policies of the Irish State. Any doubt that may have lingered on in that respect was surely removed last year by the Taoiseach.
It follows from the 1998 amendment of our Constitution that the people of Northern Ireland are entitled to be Irish, British or both, as they choose. We should extend that entitlement to the See of Armagh, a cross-Border institution founded by a Briton! Cardinal Brady’s dinner did not compromise his office.
The separatist ethos of Irish independence should not be used to strengthen the separation between North and South. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL DRURY,
Avenue Louise,
Brussels, Belgium.