Sir, – Graham Gudgin describes talk about a united Ireland as being harassment of unionists ("Stop harassing unionists about a united Ireland", Opinion & Analysis, August 25th).
It is not harassment of political opponents to have an ambition, to pursue that ambition in a peaceful way and to voice that ambition in the media.
Politics is the art of persuasion – to bring people with opposite views around to a position of agreement. In Northern Ireland, republicans are entitled to aspire to Irish unity and to pursue that unity peacefully, especially given that their electorate constitutes almost half the voters in the North. The size of the republican voting bloc is too large now to cast it aside as just a group of cranks living in the past. A united Ireland is on the agenda, will be written about in the media, and will stay on the agenda, even if unionists consider it to be harassment. They just need to develop strong counter-arguments in the debate.
Besides, it appears here “Down Under” that Northern Ireland should be a lot more worried about policies being pursued and decisions being made in London than in Dublin. – Yours, etc,
BRUCE MITCHELL,
Gregory Hills,
Sydney, Australia.