Article in defence of partition was woefully misguided

Brian John Spencer’s paean to partition (December 16), while informative, was woefully misguided.

(The article can be read here: ‘Official Ireland still excludes the British from its story, and so proves that partition was needed’)

Firstly, there has been minimal commemoration of ‘fighting the British’ by what he terms ‘Official Ireland’ in recent months. Rather, virtually all commemorative events organised by government or establishment bodies have been of incidents in which republicans or nationalists were either the victims of violence or else engaged in passive resistance.

In that context it is hard to see what the current Irish government could do to satisfy Mr Spencer.

Secondly, it is not true to say that the ‘soft culture’ of the Republic of Ireland, as it pertains to our dearly beloved pubs, excludes unionism.

On the contrary, given the political leanings of the Guinness family, and the enduring popularity of the black stuff from St. James’ Gate, our pub culture is a shining example of the integration of pre-1921 unionists into the society of the state their tradition had previously opposed. We live in hope,

Thomas Tormey, Mount Merrion, Co Dublin

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