A letter to the Times which was published around 30th August 1984.

As is not unusual in articles on Ulster, Phillip Whitehead (August 28th) talks of the Ulster Unionists’ “fear” of joining the Republic of Ireland.

Individual Unionists will speak for themselves, of course, but in my view Unionists see their Britishness and specifically, loyalty to the Crown, as fundamental to their national consciousness.  Doubtless most present Labour party politicians find this difficult to comprehend, being themselves pretty lukewarm about these concepts, but a large number of Britons on the mainland recognise and respond to the devotion of the Ulster majority to their British heritage in the face of terrorism and the grudging support from the Government at Westminster.

Phillip Whitehead correctly discerns that there are two nationalisms in competition for space in Ireland.  What he does not seem to recognise is that one of the nationalisms is British – ours.

It is about time that the fight against terrorism in Northern Ireland should be seen as our fight, not just some local squabble, with the British Army holding the ring.  The Unionists in Ulster are, by and large, descendants of English and Scottish settlers from the seventeenth century.  Proportionately they occupy much less territory in Ireland than the nationalists.  The legitimacy of their political status is older and greater than that of most states in the New World and not a few in Europe.

Ulster people have made their full contribution to British national life, most notably in the military and technological spheres.  Besides our people there, the land itself, the corresponding continental-shelf mineral rights and airspace are valuable assets for the United Kingdom which should be vigorously, not half-heartedly, defended against acquisition by the Republic of Ireland.

Contrary to much political and media opinion the Republic of Ireland, whatever the views of its individual citizens, is not a particularly friendly state.  Throughout its sixty years’ existence as free state and republic it has taken a generally anti-British stance in foreign affairs and has consistently acted as a haven for wanted terrorists.  In EEC matters it is usually ranged against Britain.

To surrender Northern Ireland to it would be another abject British defeat and seen as such by friends and enemies alike.