Madam, - "What kind of Ulster do we want? A happy respected Province, or a place continually torn apart by riots and demonstrations, and regarded by the rest of Britain as a political outcast?" Terence O'Neill's question to the people of Northern Ireland 33 years ago, mirroring the aspirations of Carson and Craig, is equally relevant today.
Easter has passed and the hopes and aspirations of the leadership of Sinn Féin lie in tatters, as their efforts to move on from 150 years of violent struggle to modern influential politics has foundered.
Their military masters, a few hundred rabid terrorists wedded to violence, have not found it possible to embrace the Mitchell Principles. They have renewed the sentence on Sinn Féin of rejection from their corridors of ministerial power in both Belfast and Dublin. De Valera, when faced with the same problem, stepped down as leader of Sinn Féin to form Fianna Fáil, the party that subsequently brought him to power.
In the North the opportunity is now there for the SDLP to retake the swathes of voters who increasingly felt Sinn Féin were making the pace, and thus were worthy of their support. If he can muster the necessary vibrancy and appeal, Mark Durkan could pull off a remarkable resurgence of support at the May elections.
It is now 18 years since the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement marked the low point in Unionist fortunes. But there has been a remarkable resurgence, and those who supported and carried the Belfast Agreement forward now find themselves part of a powerful coalition with the British, Irish and American governments, determined that terrorism will not succeed and that the way forward in Ireland, North and South, lies in engagement and not containment and division.
Yet just as the pro-union population of Northern Ireland has gained the wider tide of opinion and support, those clustered around Ian Paisley and the DUP seek to break with governments that are at last viewing matters favourably. How better to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory? - Yours, etc.,
JAMES McKERROW, Springhill Road, Bangor, Co Down.