Sir, I am a student at Trinity College, born and bred in Belfast, more or less sympathetic to "the nationalist cause" - though I did once stroke an orange cat. In Dublin, I have noticed a strange phenomenon: I do not speak the language I thought I did.
If I am "with" someone, it is not as innocent as I intended; if I "go out" with them, I am practically married; and if I say I am British, I mean I am an Irishman who has not yet been fortunate enough to be enlightened as to the happy event of my being Irish. Can you appreciate my problem? The work "imperialism" has at last been explained for me - before, I thought it referred to the British Government's assumption that it has the right to be respected as authoritative. Now I know that the term also includes the blind assumption of Irish people that all unionist claims are naive and based upon prejudice. I wonder which type of imperialism is more arrogant or harmful?
If nationality is to be anything other than a legal appellation, it must refer to both a feeling of identity (e.g. I feel Irish/British) and some form of shared cultural character. Yet, after 27 years of violence, the grounds for claiming cultural affinity between Northern Ireland and anywhere else are very shaky indeed. Perhaps it is time for the Irish people to recognise that the past has, however regrettably, occurred, and that the people of Northern Ireland are not "their" people, nor is it benevolent of them to assert the contrary. - Yours, etc.,
Richhill Park,
Belfast.