Madam, - I am astonished and appalled at the report in your edition of June 28th that the Government is to request that Ireland is to be renamed "Éire Ireland" at EU meetings. It has taken us years to wean our nearest neighbour off using Éire as shorthand for the Republic of Ireland. The term "Free State" still lingers on, while the battle for the abolition of "Southern Ireland" still rages. Why confuse matters still further?
This renaming of the country is also contrary to the Constitution. To quote the official Irish Government website, www.irlgov.ie, "The name of the state according to Article 4 of the Constitution is Ireland in the English language, and Éire in the Irish language". This is clear and unambiguous and can only be changed by a referendum.
In any event, do we really want the name of our country to sound like an airline? - Yours, etc,
GREG CARLEY, Killiney, Co Dublin.