Sir, - Gerry Adams is coming to Enniscorthy on Sunday to commemorate the United Irishmen rebellion. Wolfe Tone had a simple theory: to break the link with England by means of uniting Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter in the common name of Irishman. The Provisionals have inverted Tone's theory, arguing that the unity of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter comes after breaking the link with England, not before it. Like most who put the cart before the horse, they have ended up moving backwards, away from their objective instead of towards it.
When Mr Adams condemns the murder of Catholics, but refuses to condemn the murder of Protestants, can we be surprised that Tone's reality, a united rising by Presbyterians of Antrim and the Catholics of Wexford, could today occur only in the realms of fantasy? For the republicans of Wolfe Tone's day, "our people" were the people of Ireland regardless of creed. When Mr Adams uses the term it seems that what he means is the Catholic population only. In such circumstances, is it any wonder that phenomena such as the "Two Nations" theory are taken seriously?
Mr Adams may be a follower of Tone, but he follows at such a respectable distance as to have lost sight of not just the man, but also of his principles. - Yours, etc.,
Walnut Grove, Wexford.