Sir, - When all the explanations (and excuses) for Ireland's failure to ratify the Nice Treaty have been exhausted there remains one inescapable fact. When we were asked to send a clear signal to countries in Eastern Europe that we supported their right to gain access to the same opportunities for social and economic prosperity that have been so beneficial to us over the past 30 years, we refused. It should be remembered that many of these countries have a history as poverty-stricken as our own and our failure to support European enlargement last Thursday says much about our current priorities and our development as a modern European nation. - Yours, etc.,
Kevin Kenny, Roseburn Maltings, Edinburgh.