Madam, - I beg to comment on the ongoing discussion in your columns regarding the presence of Irish-born personnel in the ranks of the British armed forces.
Some years ago, as a younger man, I joined our own Army, taking an oath of allegiance to Bunreacht na hÉireann and pledging to defend it, this nation and my fellow-citizens.
I wore an Irish uniform and served both at home and overseas, ever conscious that I was (and was proud to be) an Irish soldier.
The persons under discussion in your columns could easily have done the same. Instead they reneged on their citizenship, swearing oaths of fealty to a foreign monarch, as whose subjects they became mercenaries, in Britain and elsewhere - including the possibility of Northern Ireland.
No amount of little-empire rationality can change the facts. I was an Irish soldier. They are not. - Yours, etc,
SÉAMUS UA TRODD,
Greendale Court,
Dublin 5.
Madam, - I was perturbed to read Niall Tierney's glorification of men and women who take up arms (September 9th). His lurid description of one such fallen unfortunate as "a true gladiator for freedom" made me almost bring up my breakfast.
Freedom? There will never be freedom as long as there are paid gladiators around - poor pawns on a chessboard; and men who praise, and thereby perpetuate, their pathetic posturings are also to be pitied. Lay down your arms, you foolish, fighting men. Start talking! - Yours, etc,
GABRIEL ROSENSTOCK,
Gleann na gCaorach,
Co Átha Cliath.