Sir, – A large majority of voters favour a united Ireland but are opposed to a new flag, a new national anthem, paying higher taxes or curtailing public spending to facilitate it. How generous of them. Not only do they want their cake and to eat it but they want to choose the flavour, the icing colour, the candles and have someone else foot the bill. As for the unionist population? There’s always the crumbs. – Yours, etc,
DAVID CURRAN,
Knocknacarra,
Galway.
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Sir, – Your editorial "The Irish Times view: Ipsos/MRBI poll on a united Ireland" (December 13th) correctly concludes that "the professed desire of the people of the Republic for a united Ireland does not run particularly deep when set against some of the practical issues that could be required to make it possible."
This chimes with the apparent national cognitive dissonance regarding combatting climate change, as may be evinced from recent findings published in your newspaper. See, for example, “Irish people have strong appetite for scaled-up climate action, survey shows” (News, December 9th) and “Poll shows high degree of public resistance to many potential climate action measures” (News, October 8th).
Such inconsistent attitudes bring to mind Tom Waits’s lyric, “the large print giveth and the small print taketh away”.
It would appear that what the Irish people want regarding climate change and a united Ireland are deals in large print only. Unfortunately, that is not the way life works. The devil is in the detail. – Yours, etc,
ROB SADLIER,
Dublin 16.