Letter: ​Who exactly does Wallace Thompson speak for when he says a united Ireland is inevitable?

A letter from Dr Clifford Smyth:

Wallace Thompson, the evangelical Christian, on BBC One's The View saying that a united Ireland is inevitable, during an interview with Mark Carruthers last month

Wallace Thompson is the darling of Irish nationalists.

His oft repeated assertion is music to their ears: "A united Ireland is inevitable."

A moment's reflection reveals that this statement is nothing more than fortune telling; and a strange preoccupation for an evangelical Christian whom we might presume believes in the sovereignty of God.

Letter to the editor

The best guide to this subject is M W Heslinga's seminal work, ‘The Irish Border as a Cultural Divide’.

Today the Republic of Ireland supports the Palestinian cause while many in Ulster uphold the right of the Israeli state to exist – yet another source of division on the island.

It is a serious error of political analysis to mistake the factionalism among unionists as weakness.

This has been a characteristic of the Protestant and loyalist communities down through the generations, and helps to explain the role of the Orange Order as an over-arching organisation uniting those who might otherwise go their separate ways.

Dr Clifford Smyth, author of ‘Ian Paisley, Voice of Protestant Ulster’, Belfast BT6