Sir, –Further to your editorial "Abrupt U-turn raises suspicion" (August 2nd), Mary Lou McDonald is not the first leader and politician to clarify a party policy position the day after a press interview. For your paper to claim that " an inner circle of the republican movement" dictates Sinn Féin policy on an ad hoc basis is clearly misjudged and reflects the well-rehearsed conservative view on the Irish unity debate. Most Irish voters are not fooled by this rhetoric. To assume, as your editorial does, that after a two-year debate, since June 2016 , that people in the North – both nationalist and unionist – do not know the detail, implications and advantages of both staying in the European Union and of Irish unification only underlines the view that the establishment in the South neither respects nor values the views of those us living in the North. – Yours, etc,
MARTIN KEENAN,
Belfast.