Sir, - Ben Walsh (December 15th) objects to my use of the word "reconnect" in association with those of Irish extraction living in the Commonwealth. Fair enough. However, my main point still stands. Within what he calls the "silly club" some 17 million Irish people still live, with whom the representatives of the people of the Irish Republic would presumably find much in common.
I did not raise the "spectre of Commonwealth membership as a Unionist precondition" - a precondition, I presume, for entering a united Ireland. The Unionist population as a whole has given no indication that it will join a united Ireland under any circumstances. I was merely hinting that if expansionist Irish nationalists like Mr Waters and Mr Walsh wanted to persuade the Unionists otherwise, then surely it would be helpful if the Republic could bring itself to join a political grouping which recognises in a low key way some former connections with Britain - or at least discuss the issue reasonably.
It is a reductio ad absurdum for Mr Walsh to imply that by joining the Commonwealth a now selfconfident and commercially-flourishing Irish Republic would be reduced to the status of Belize, the Gambia and Kiribati, though it might provide another forum in which to help such undeveloped countries. - Yours, etc., Simon Partridge,
East Finchley, London N2.