LETTER: Britain for the British, Ireland for the Irish

The previous week it concerned, to the effect, “Is Northern Ireland bad for religion?” As one Muslim put it, he was asked: “Was he a Catholic Muslim or a Protestant Muslim?”

Towards the end of the week, a gentleman more rationally put it: “It is nothing to do with religion. The Catholic Community believe in a Free United Ireland.

The Protestants cling to a few centuries of historic union with mainland Britain.”

As A.J.P. Taylor, a celebrated TV historian of my youth, once put it: “If de Gaulle could bring back one million French civilians from Algeria, the flag waving Unionists of Northern Ireland should be repatriated to the British mainland where they historically belong.”

They were deposited from the then slums of Glasgow by presumably William of Orange (in any case a foreign secretary) to take over the lands of the Irish who had been there for centuries.

“Britain for the British!”, but then, “Ireland for the Irish!”

ROBIN PARKER,

St Chad’s Avenue, Chatburn