Sir, – In your editorial "Sinn Fééin grapples with normality" (August 3rd), you write that this party is committed to a united Ireland. More precisely, its commitment is to a united Irish republic, which is almost a paradox.
If uniting the people of Ireland is its highest aim, it should drop enough of what you call its “historical baggage” to get back to the original thinking of its founder Arthur Griffith – a dual monarchy to make possible a united sovereign Ireland. A later president of Sinn Féin (de Valera) was to identify the republic as a “straitjacket”.
Today’s Sinn Féin is well placed to lead us out of that constraint. It is the only party active in the South which has experience, apparently satisfactory, of serving in a “royal” parliament and government, so it can explain to all the Irish people, North and South, that accepting what some would see as a bitter pill is a price worth paying if it brought true national unity.
By all means, let unionists be guaranteed powersharing too, asNewton Emerson recommends (Opinion & Analysis, August 4th). – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL DRURY,
Brussels.