Sir, - Indications that the Labour/Democratic Left merger will specifically exclude membership from Northern Ireland (The Irish Times, August 4th) are both worrying and callous.
The Irish Labour Party's submission to the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation stressed the need to develop a "third strand" - neither unionist nor nationalist - in Irish political life. It had, within recent memory, active branches in Derry and Newry. If the substance of the Good Friday Agreement, including NorthSouth bodies, is implemented, the logic of allowing a Northern Labour membership is obvious.
Without overestimating its potential effects, opening up Labour membership in the North would at least allow those who wished to gravitate away from communal bloc politics to do so.
Labour membership in the North could be organised in a way that takes account of functional realities. A parallel exists in the Irish Congress of Trade Unions - an island-wide labour body with a largely autonomous Northern Ireland Committee. This arrangement was agreed to by a Unionist administration in the 1960s and does not unduly disturb Northern Protestant trade unionists. Could Labour and Democratic Left not borrow from this arrangement?
So is the "third strand", which exists in the society, to be given political effect by Labour? Or must Labour wait, again? Over to you, Ruairi! - Yours, etc., Cllr Mark Langhammer,
(Ind Labour), Shore Road, Whiteabbey, Co Antrim.