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A UNITED IRELAND?

Sir,—I think your editorial (HI 30.1, Jan./Feb. 2022) somewhat misses the point regarding opinion polls. I think that a united Ireland may well come in the not-too-distant future, but it will not be the sort of Ireland we would want. It will not be decided by referenda, or the will of the people or any such guileless concepts, but by the Deep States, in this case England, Ireland and the USA. England has no interest in Ireland except as a military asset (think Treaty Ports). I think it was Peter Brooke, as secretary of state for Northern Ireland, who spoke (but did not write) the words ‘Britain has no selfish(,?) strategic or economic interest in Northern Ireland’—very ‘Sir Humphrey’ ambiguous language, whose import depends on whether one hears a comma. The subtext is that nobody would believe that Britain’s strategic interests would be selfish!

I think the formula for a united Ireland will be that Ireland joins NATO (having already signed a ‘co-operation’ agreement with NATO) and England continues to control Irish air space. (Territorial waters around the North are still an unresolved issue.) In this scenario England could still have her troops and military facilities in a united Ireland with NATO hats on, and the Treaty Ports would effectively be handed back. The USA would entirely approve. Maybe their Trump-supporting Irish diaspora would even get to elect the president of Ireland. Referenda might be run, but if they do not give the desired result they will simply be re-run until they do.—Yours etc.,

BRIAN MacLOCHLAINN
Glenarm, Co. Antrim