The Irish Mess

My “Reflections on Violence” in this space [June 12] seem to have aroused the ire of some readers. One of them thought my echoing of Margaret Thatcher’s “a crime is a crime is a crime” in the case of the death of Bobby Sands meant that my Union Jack was showing. “Under the guise of condemning terrorism,” said the reader, Mr. Joseph J. Hester, “[Mr. Crozier] makes a plea for the legitimacy of British control of the six northeastern counties of Ireland.” [See “Letters,” page 1223.] Mr. Hester’s charge is perhaps worth some space in this column, because it is relevant to its permanent concerns.

In fact and in law, Northern Ireland is politically part of the United Kingdom, even though it is geographically part of the island of Ireland. When General Sir Harry Tuzo arrived in Ulster to command the British forces there, a formidable local Protestant lady buttonholed him at a reception and said, rather fiercely: “You English must understand that we Northern Irish want to be British.” The Ulster problem in a nutshell.

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Brian Crozier

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My “Reflections on Violence” in this space [June 12] seem to have aroused the ire of some readers. One of them thought my echoing of Margaret Thatcher’s “a crime is a crime is a crime” in the case of the death of Bobby Sands meant that my Union Jack was showing. “Under the guise of condemning terrorism,” said the reader, Mr. Joseph J. Hester, “[Mr. Crozier] makes a plea for the legitimacy of British control of the six northeastern counties of Ireland.” [See “Letters,” page 1223.] Mr. Hester’s charge is perhaps worth some space in this column, because it is relevant to its permanent concerns.

In fact and in law, Northern Ireland is politically part of the United Kingdom, even though it is geographically part of the island of Ireland. When General Sir Harry Tuzo arrived in Ulster to command the British forces there, a formidable local Protestant lady buttonholed him at a reception and said, rather fiercely: “You English must understand that we Northern Irish want to be British.” The Ulster problem in a nutshell.