Sir, - While it is not my wish to dampen the current sense of euphoria and hope for a peaceful future, I wish to express a view contrary to the prevailing consensus. It was with great sadness and disappointment that I witnessed an Irish Government deleting Articles 2 and 3 of the 1937 Constitution and replacing them with a woolly definition of the nation, albeit stretching out a hand of friendship to the diaspora.
The original articles were a reasonable and understated assertion by the Irish people that the partition of Ireland was illegal and unacceptable. It seems that partition and Britain's continued jurisdiction over the North has now been accepted as legitimate.
The Irish people were offered little real choice in the referendum of May 1998 as the choice was portrayed by the political establishment and endorsed by the media as one between war and peace. I note with dismay the Taoiseach's recent statements that the change to the articles is irreversible no matter what happens in relation to the Belfast Agreement.
While it is difficult to swim against the tide I am sure there are many Irish people who believe that a core principle has been hastily cast aside, merely to placate intransigent unionism. - Yours, etc.,
Mark Urwin, Mulhuddart, Dublin 15.