A chara Taken by itself, the use of Irish to christen, or rechristen, State bodies, as in the recent, grotesque, "Met Eireann is pretty pointless. This purely token use of the language is no doubt intended as a painless means of asserting, for such bodies, a distinctive Irish national identity, significantly different from England. But neither such linguistic juggling, nor indeed even the politically independent status of the Republic, can alter the fact that the Irish people, to an ever growing extent, are disposed to follow the lead, in thought and in action, of England and America. And although Irish nationalists are, in theory, opposed to English influence, and are quick to reject the label of "British", they appear, in practice, to be quite unperturbed by Ireland's psychological dependency on England, even though it is becoming daily more evident that such mental dependency makes nonsense of mere political independence, whether on a 26 county or a 32 county basis.
This state of affairs must led, sooner or later, to the voluntary re incorporation of the 26 counties into the United Kingdom, presumably to the accompaniment of the downgrading, if not the total dismantling, of our present independent apparatus of government and administration.
It is scarcely necessary to add that, with this prospect, the, hopes which nationalists place the current peace process are doomed to disappointment, save insofar as the process may, just possibly, lead to some alleviation of the running sore of the second class status of Catholics in Northern Ireland. Do chara Baile on Teampaill, Baile Atha Cliath 14.