Sir, – Prof John A Murphy is right to state that the parallel drawn by John Bruton between Scotland today and Ireland a century ago is "unhistorical" (September 22nd).
It is, however, much less “unhistorical” to observe that Irish Party leaders such as Redmond and John Dillon were interested in dominion status and that they had first-hand knowledge of political developments in the self-governing parts of the then British Empire; it is also worth noting that one senior colonial politician, Edward Blake, the former Canadian Liberal Party leader and premier of Ontario, was an Irish Party MP from 1892 to 1907. The suggestion that Home Rule as offered in 1914 might have been a stage to greater autonomy, even eventually to dominion status, is hardly implausible or ridiculous. – Yours, etc,
CDC ARMSTRONG,
Belfast.