Madam, - I disagree with Geoffrey Roberts's suggestion (April 14th) that Ireland should rejoin the Commonwealth.
Ireland was in the Commonwealth from 1922 to 1949. It was during this time that the whole apparatus of discrimination and repression against nationalists in Northern Ireland was developed and no unionist ever showed the slightest interest in reunification on the basis of Commonwealth membership at any stage during this period.
Nor did the idea of Commonwealth membership for the Republic feature in unionist demands during the negotiations either at Sunningdale or for the Good Friday Agreement or, more recently, the St Andrews Agreement.
What did feature was a demand for the creation of a body linking the British and Irish governments with the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which was accepted and which has been operating for a number of years without controversy. This was intended, among other things, to provide unionists with a continuing link with Britain in the event of a united Ireland ever coming into existence. The joint parliamentary conference between the Oireachtas and Westminster provides another link.
The Good Friday Agreement establishes a mechanism to bring about reunification as and when there is an electoral majority for it in Northern Ireland, which is not the case at present. To create such a majority, nationalists will have to engage with the unionist community and address the concerns of at least some of its members; but up to now, there is no evidence that eventual Commonwealth membership for a sovereign united Ireland is among those concerns. If it is, then unionists are perfectly capable of saying so and do not need Geoffrey Roberts to argue on their behalf. - Yours, etc,
ED KELLY, Szeged, Hungary.