Madam, - I have often met people from Northern Ireland who complain about high prices in the South. They are right: we in the South live in a rip-off republic, as brilliantly demonstrated by Eddie Hobbs in his recent TV series. However, give me a life in the rip-off Republic any day compared with a life of sectarian, hate-filled violence as seems to be the norm in parts of Belfast and Derry.
We in the South love to moan and complain about what is wrong, but as your excellent Editorial of September 16th stated, "we should be grateful that diverse elements in this society rub along well and are prospering". In the North both loyalist and republicans have been living side by side for hundreds of years and they still seem to hate each other as much as ever.
Do we really want a united Ireland that incorporates that sort of outdated and shameful attitude? I know I don't. - Yours, etc,
DANE TYGHE,
Killeens,
Wexford.
A chara, - The present surge of violence should shake those who have long regarded republicans as the sole obstacle to peace in the North of Ireland. In the lead-up to the 1998 Good Friday agreement, and in the years since, unionists and their cheerleaders in Westminster, the Dáil and the Irish and British press have piled the political and moral pressure on the IRA and Sinn Féin, demanding that they change. Now we have seen, in the most vivid colours, that loyalists have guns too. I have yet to hear one establishment politician or journalist ask: where did they get the guns?
The double standard looks especially glaring given the IRA's July declaration that its armed campaign is over and that it will lay down its arms. As republicanism moves into a new phase, loyalism and unionism remain in the cruel past. It is not the fault of Irish nationalists that fewer than 2 per cent of working-class unionists go on to third-level education. It is not the fault of Irish nationalists that a bloody feud tore the Shankill Road apart during the month of August while the people of the Falls Road celebrated Féile on Phobail. It is a failure of political leadership in unionism. It could also be said to be a failure of British rule in Ireland. - Yours, etc,
SEÁN BROSNAN,
Stráid na Trá,
An Daingean,
Co Chiarraí.