Ireland and violence
Sir: I have read what Dr Conor Cruise O'Brien has to say about Terror, law and Press freedom (4 December) with great interest and a large measure of agreement. But as a mere onlooker, when he answers the query about what does the Irish Government want to see now in the North, and he says 'Devolved government. That can only Come from the communities themselves . Ihe Catholic minority wants it, and so [he thinks] does an increasing section of the Majority,' this seems to me to imply that the Irish Government, just like the British Government, is prepared to sit on its backside while the work of bombing and murdering the majority section (if not the minority also) is done by the Provos, quite content, that is, that the initiative remains in the Provisional hands. I utterly deplore the complete inaction of the British Government in the North, reject it and despise it, and while I think the Irish Government has shown a greater toughness in dealing with the IRA than the British, it seems to me they should be tackling their counterparts in Westminster about the whole matter, as an urgent matter of state.
It is because, like Mary Kenny, I turn completely away from those 'bitter and wicked persons' that long ago I gave up listening and looking in at the BBC and ITV programmes devoted to the North, where the murder of a Catholic was described as 'sectarian' whereas that of a Protestant was 'political,' and I find in the Peace People an attitude that leads me to hope for an end to the violence, which is simply blasphemous. But while I believe the Peace People must remain absolutely non-political, there is no reason that I should not ask a political question, now that 'devolution' is all the rage. Why should we not all work towards a confederation of these islands? And why should Eire not actively take part in this? I mean a Confederation of England, Eire, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and the Isle of Man? And if the C'ornish do desire a Parliament of their own, then who am I to say them nay ? Some people may laugh this suggestion to scorn, but I was never more earnest in my life. I am absolutely sick to my stomach by the attitude of the British Government, just allowing the killings to go on, until, as they think, the Protestants will collapse, and then they will get a Catholic-Protestant ministry (with a majority of Catholics) to rule Ulster! That is their only-too-obvious strategy, but it won't work. The British Socialists hate the Ulster Protestants as much as, if not more than, they hate the Rhodesian whites, but that, as far as I'm concerned, is simply a very good reason for hating them. They pollute the waters of justice and truth.
Ewart Milne 46 De Parys Avenue, Bedford
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