Sir, - Is it fair that our Foreign Minister, David Andrews, must retract everything he says that upsets the unionists?
All of us want peace on this island but we certainly will not get it by deceiving each other about what we expect from the present negotiations in Belfast.
We know what Mr David Trimble wants, for he recently stated on GMTV that "Northern Ireland is, and will remain, part of the United Kingdom". To support his position, a proposal for a London-based "think-tank" was agreed recently by delegates from various unionists groups at a conference at Hatfield House in Herefordshire. Presided over by Viscount Cranborne, Conservative Leader in the House of Lords, the delegates hoped that the "think-tank" will help consolidate and strengthen pro-unionist opinion in Britain and Ireland.
With regard to Sinn Fein, we know from their position paper sent to Mo Mowlam on August 6th last that "British sovereignty over the Six Counties, as with all of Ireland before Partition, is self-evidently the root cause of division, political instability and conflict. Consequently, and with due regard to real difficulties involved, our objective is to bring about a change in British government policy in regard to this and an end to British jurisdiction on this island".
A third participant in the talks, Mr Paul Murphy, the British Minister of State for Northern Ireland did not help nationalists very much when, in a letter to the Daily Telegraph on September 15th, said that "there will be no change in Northern Ireland's constitutional status as part of the United Kingdom without the consent of a majority of its people" and that "any settlement must be approved by the people of Northern Ireland in a referendum".
Since the Six County state was deliberately carved out to give a perpetual majority to unionists, the result of such a referendum is a foregone conclusion. But in the interests of peace, we must listen to Mr Murphy's remarks anyway.
Really, the big question is what should the Irish Government expect from these talks? If David Andrews and others have certain aspirations, they should be allowed express their honest opinions without being silenced all the time. - Your, etc.,
Bantry Road, Dublin 9.