A chara, - Roger Garland writes (July 11th) that re-partition is one possible solution to the problems of the North. His basis for this is the fact that there are now nationalist majorities in four of the six counties, Derry, Armagh, Fermanagh and Tyrone west of the Bann. There is also a nationalist majority in Derry City and some observers predict there will be a nationalist majority in Belfast by the time of the next local elections in the North.
Thus, at first Mr Garland's idea (not, I might add, an original one) might appear to have some merit. In fact, he is proposing a dangerous and failed solution to the constitutional issue of the Six Counties. Partition has failed, failed utterly. The proof of this is evident in the institutionalised discrimination against Catholics which still exists in the North and the violence which has pervaded the Six Counties since its inception. Partition was not a solution in 1921. It is not a solution now. It would, in fact, only foster the divisions already in existence in the North. It would again isolate and abandon the nationalists of Down and Antrim who were left on the wrong side of the border once before and must never be so betrayed again. - Is mise,
Justin Moran,
Maigh Nuad, Co Cill Dara.