Sir, – I agree absolutely with the sentiments expressed by your correspondent EF Fanning (June 28th). Having been born in Dublin in the 1940s, I know exactly what it's like to be "isolated in a sectarian statelet". – Yours, etc,
ALAN O’BRIEN,
Barnhill Avenue,
Dalkey,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – When EF Fanning wrote of a sectarian state and about a large number of people being selfishly abandoned, I thought perhaps he had in mind the millions failed by the Irish State, the so-called “surplus population” whose remittances kept thousands of families afloat in the dark decades. Or perhaps he was going to go on to mention the thousands subjected to cold internal exile in our austere institutions?
It is long past time that we decided on a national jigsaw whose pieces, even approximately, accorded with reality.
Scotland eschewed violence. What a pity Ireland didn’t. – Yours, etc,
PADDY McEVOY,
Ardmore Road,
Holywood,
Co Down.