Madam, - Even though Pearse flew it over the GPO in Easter Week, even though it customarily drapes IRA coffins, and despite Sinn Féin members acting as if they had a special claim to it, surely the Tricolour has the same meaning today as it had in 1848 when Thomas Meagher presented it to Ireland?
Then, with its white strip symbolising "a lasting truce between Orange and the Green", it was dedicated as "Ireland's tricolour, as a sign that the Protestants of the north and the Catholics of the south will unite in demanding the rights of their country".
Today and especially so in the light of history, does that symbolism not persuade us to question the patriotic validity of a traditional republican doctrine - that Irish men and women have a right to use "physical force" in the cause of forcing a British government withdrawal from Northern Ireland? - Yours, etc.,
JAMES McGEEVER,
Dublin Road,
Kingscourt,
Co Cavan.