Sir, – Donald Clarke's recent article as to whether the unionist community depicted in Kenneth Branagh's newly released film Belfast would have considered themselves Irish in 1969 ("Branagh's Belfast is right, unionists didn't have a problem calling themselves Irish", Culture, January 29th) prompted me to take down from my bookshelf a now battered Her Majesty's Stationery Office publication from 1970.
It was passed to me a number of years ago by a friend and, while the content for someone born and raised in South Down is fascinating, it was really the foreword that caught my eye.
Complimenting the survey work carried out by the Northern Ireland Ministry of Development, the then minister, Brian Faulkner, wrote the following: “The Mountains of Mourne occupy a special place in the affections of Irishmen everywhere and are known in song throughout the world.”
We are left to wonder of course whether Mr Faulkner, who later became leader of the Ulster Unionist Party and last prime minister of Northern Ireland, had any views on how Irishwomen in 1970 felt about those far-famed mountains! – Yours, etc,
AP O’HARE,
Warrenpoint,
Co Down.