Sir , – A few years ago I was on holiday on the Isle of Wight. During a tour of the island with one of the locals, we reached a hill and stopped to look over the sea at the busy port of Southampton and Hampshire. “That’s what we call the North Island”, my guide informed me.
It’s never what you look at, but always what you see. – Yours, etc,
DERMOT O’ROURKE,
Lucan,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Hugh Linehan's tirade against the uniqueness of Irish culture is appropriately rounded off with an inexplicable attack on Gaelscoileanna as merely "bulwark[s] against cultural globalisation" ("What have the British ever done for us? Quite a lot", Analysis, September 14th).
Can we not even express a healthy concern for our native language and its vitality without being dismissed so witheringly, as if such concern is rooted only in petty defensiveness and paranoia? – Yours, etc,
CONOR MAGUIRE
Graiguecullen,
Co Carlow.
Sir, – Thomas O'Brien is incorrect in his belief that his parents from Co Cork are "entitled to British citizenship as they were born before the formation of the Republic" (September 15th). This is a common misconception. In fact, people born prior to 1949 in what is now the Republic have a right to register as "British subjects", but that is quite distinct from obtaining British citizenship. British subject status would give them the right to live in the UK, but they would then have to live there for five years before they could apply for British citizenship.
Conversely, Mr O’Brien himself should have no difficulty acquiring British citizenship if he wishes to do so, as he has been legally resident in the UK for over five years. – Yours, etc,
JACK NORTHWOOD,
Murrumbeena,
Victoria,
Australia.