Perhaps London avoids criticising Dublin because it realises that the Irish are an ancient martyred race

Ben Lowry (‘We will soon find if the UK is for once going to criticise Ireland,’ July 10, see link below) writes: “One thing that is truly extraordinary is how passive London is in the face of relentless criticism from Dublin on a range of interests.”

One answer might be London realises of the Irish in today’s Republic what the Reverend Mother of a Religious Order had come to realise of an earlier Ireland in Kate O’Brien’s ‘The Land of Spices’: “It had been shown to be politically useless for an alien temperament to wrestle with them ... They were an ancient martyred race, and of great importance to themselves ...”

France’s Minister for European Affairs, Clement Beaune, may also be about to discover this in asking of Dublin that it should not be the odd one out in his plea to Dublin for EU solidarity on corporate taxation (see The Irish Times, letters, July 6).

Despite the Reverend Mother’s advice I don’t think silence is the right response.

WA Miller, Belfast BT13

Ben Lowry: We will find out soon if UK is for once going to criticise Ireland

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