Madam, - I believe a new mood is growing in Ireland, a mood of impatience with those who are content with a negative defence of the status quo.
Partition has had profound effects in Ireland - but arguably its most striking impact was in this part of Ireland rather than the North. We have been deprived of the vigorous witness of almost one million Northern Protestants, who are as Irish as we are, but do not share the particular religious beliefs or specific cultural orientation of the majority in the Republic.
Can we at last abandon our past determination to impose the narrow range of cultural values of each community upon the other? I believe this may yet be possible. A significant minority of Northern Protestants are now thinking in these terms; very many people in the Republic are starting to do likewise.
This could be the time for the emergence of a movement for a New Ireland, in which Catholic and Protestant could join together, from all parts of our island, in search of peace and justice for our people. - Yours, etc.,
MICHAEL J. STOKES, PC, Willington Green, Templeogue, Dublin 6W.