A chara, - In the wake of the IRA statement and the Republican movement's commitment to use exclusively peaceful and democratic means to achieve its goals, we have seen a small but vocal minority express the idea of the Irish people "giving up on the idea of a United Ireland". I take Dick Keane's letter (September 29th) as an example.
As Mr Keane is no doubt aware the majority of the Irish people, and all of the Southern political parties, aspire to the goal of a united Ireland and the ending of partition. There are many differences of opinion as to the form that new entity will take, but the reality is that unity is a popular concept.
Mr Keane's idea that we renounce those goals is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the reasoning of, and the relationship between, the two main traditions who share this island. Stating that "the newcomers never assimilated" to our island is a complete distortion of history, ignoring the reality that countless figures from the Presbyterian faith became leading lights in the struggle for Irish self-determination and in the fields of sports, culture and arts. It also ignores the role the British government has played throughout history in dividing our people and instilling within the unionist community a base fear, the results of which we have seen on the streets recently.
Renouncing the shared goal of a united Ireland, and ignoring the will of a majority of our peoples, is not the answer to national reconciliation; it is the only sure guarantee of history repeating itself. - Is mise,
CHRIS Ó RÁLAIGH, Drumcondra, Dublin 9.