HOW crass of DW Lacey to ask the question “why must the Irish continue to make a meal of their battle for independence?”(HAS, May 20), when surely the question should be “why can’t the British Government acknowledge the cruelty inflicted on the Irish nation over the centuries?”

We in Britain have many things to be proud of, but we should be utterly ashamed of our treatment of the Irish.

No one can reasonably expect the Irish to relinquish their fight to be an independent nation.

In relation to his comments regarding the Germans he should bear in mind that despite the deaths and suffering we have inflicted in Ireland we have never been at war with them as we were with the Germans.

Norman Smith, Newton Aycliffe.