Sir, - I am shocked and horrified that the Irish Government is preparing to delete Article 2 of the Irish Constitution. It is dangerous nonsense to claim that it is only people, not territory, that matters. You cannot separate a people from the land in which they live. We are Irish simply because we live in Ireland and/or were born here. How can the Irish Government consider telling Northern nationalists that the land in which they and their ancestors have lived for millennia is not Ireland?
Both sides in the peace talks have a bottom line. For unionists it is that they are British and live in Britain, for nationalists it is that they are Irish and live in Ireland. It is unbelievable that the Irish Government could have been so foolish as to allow themselves to be manoeuvred into accepting the discarding of the nationalist bottom line in return for some minor, as yet unknown, concession from the British government. It is time for the Irish Government to go back to the negotiating table. - Yours, etc.,
Summerhill, Dublin 1.