Your editorial (20 November) on the threat to the UK’s integrity says: “In the worst case, the union might be rent asunder.” That may be the case, and it is undoubtedly true that “Conservative Brexiters have long shown they simply could not care less about Ireland”. In an accompanying piece Fintan O’Toole (Don’t blame the Irish: this chaos is all about England, 20 November) points to the rise of English nationalism as the cause of this seismic shift in attitudes to Ireland. However, there are deeper issues about the future of this rather disunited kingdom. The majority of the Irish people never consented to the partition of their country, and it should not be forgotten that the current border was so drawn so as to ensure a permanent unionist majority in the six counties it encompassed. If the people of the north of Ireland decide their future lies in reuniting with the Republic and playing a full part in Europe, I would have thought that is something to be welcomed, not seen as a “threat”. Declan O’Neill Oldham
• In his excellent column, Fintan O’Toole notes the rights of everyone in Northern Ireland to have Irish, and therefore EU, citizenship – and this will continue after Brexit. That ironically even the most committed unionist will continue to be able to have such special ties with the EU is just one example where Northern Ireland is treated differently from the rest of the UK, something the DUP leadership says it deplores in the context of Theresa May’s EU withdrawal deal.
I could add another example – Ireland’s rugby union players, who last weekend beat the All Blacks for the first time on Irish soil. Perhaps the two Irish football teams would do better if they, too, came together and consisted of players from the whole island of Ireland. Richard Norton-Taylor London
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