Sir, - In the light of the Northern talks it is interesting to note that UK media are describing the referendum result in Scotland as "the most significant Constitutional change in the United Kingdom for the past 300 years".
It must be of very little reassurance to unionists to note that neither the Act of Union nor the creation of the Irish Free State or the parliament in Stormont can compare with the Scottish referendum. It might clear things up a bit if unionists finally accepted that no part of Ireland has been, is, or ever will be accepted as British by the group most entitled to decide - the English.
The only people who consider the unionist population as "British" are a minor rump of the Conservative party and the Unionists themselves. While pride in your heritage is one thing, delusion is another. The people of Northern Ireland may be Catholic or Protestant, Orange or Green. Their heroes may be from 1690 or 1916, their genetic origins may be Gaelic or from the Scottish Lowlands, but they are all Irish now.
The most scary point is that there is only a small window of opportunity to take advantage of even that identity before the bulk of Ireland rejects Northern Ireland as a lost cause - a place to be abandoned to its own sectarianism and bigotry. If there is no resolution in Northern Ireland fairly soon the place will become a no-man's land, neither British nor Irish, an area where hating your neighbours is the only defining feature of the culture. That would be a pity. - Is mise,
From Hugh Sheehy
Stevinstraat, Den Haag, Netherlands.