Sir, - It may come as a surprise to Tom Sheridan of the UK Unionist party (February 10th) that, as an incoherent Irish nationalist, I am still quite prepared to accept that there are many people living in Ireland who are unwilling to see themselves as members of the Irish nation. Sadly, however, this recognition alone gets us nowhere in terms of dealing with the causes of the conflict in the North of Ireland.
Even Tom Sheridan must be aware of that there are a considerable number of people - up to 43 per cent of the population - living in Down, Antrim, Derry, Fermanagh, Armagh and Tyrone who do identify themselves as Irish. Now, while the present constitutional arrangement copperfastens Tom's position by force of law, Northern nationalists can only cling to the aspirational nature of Articles 2 and 3. This is not a satisfactory situation and that is why I had hoped that full engagement in the talks process might have led to new and imaginative proposals with the ambition of reconciling the conflicting identities of unionists and nationalists.
Sadly, at present, Tom Sheridan seems to view such optimism as "empty rhetoric". One can only hope that there are others, more imaginative and more courageous, who can offer positive leadership, within the unionist community in the search for a peaceful settlement. - Yours, etc.,
From Robert Ballagh
Dublin 7.