Sir, - Niall O'Dowd was quite correct to suggest that nationalists have reason to be concerned about the Bertie Ahern/Tony Blair heads of agreement for the Stormont talks (The Irish Times, January 15th).
The suggestion that Britain would make changes to Section 75 of the Government of Ireland Act 1920 in return for the Irish deletion or amendment of Articles 2 and 3 of the Irish Constitution needs careful examination. For instance, would any change in the Government of Ireland Act of 1920 reduce in any way Britain's claim to the Six Counties?
According to David Trimble, writing in Parliamentary Brief in 1994, "Section 75 was a saving clause. It provides that nothing in the Act, which created devolved parliaments, affected Westminster's legislative omnicompetence. The legislative powers of the Parliament of the United Kingdom derive not from the 1920 Act, but from the Treaty and Acts of Union of 1800.
"Moreover, there are already two consent provisions in British statute law. One is in Section 1 of the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973 and is the basis of the oft-repeated ministerial statement that Northern Ireland will remain a part of the UK, because that is what the people want. The other consent clause is to be found in the Treaty establishing the Irish Free State in 1922."
Mr Trimble continued: "There is, incidentally, no reason why Section 75 need remain on the statute book; virtually all of the 1920 Act was repealed by the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973".
I am indepted to Roderick Crawford, editor of Parliamentary Brief who, in a letter to the Daily Telegraph on January 14th, drew my attention to this matter.
Incidentally, the Act of Union of July 2nd, 1800 was introduced in response to the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and the persistent agitation at that time in Ireland. The Act brought to an end the separate Irish Parliament and established the constitutional union between Ireland and England which most of us thought ended in 1921. But maybe it didn't. Maybe David Trimble is right! - Yours, etc.,
Bantry Road, Dublin 9.