Partition was a crime against Irish people

VIEWPOINT (November 7) stated: “If police are to pursue historic crimes, they must be permitted to pursue all crimes where there is an evidence trail.”

But who are the legitimate authorities? Consider partition as a crime committed against the Irish people by the imposition of Britain’s 1920 Government/Partition of Ireland Act, which destroyed the political order of Irish government for Irish people in what became Northern Ireland.

To quote Arlene Foster: “Happy Ulster Day! Remembering the day when those who went before us showed their opposition to Home Rule in 1912 by signing the Ulster Covenant and not forgetting the women who signed the declaration. Proud of NI.” (News Letter, September 29).

Or a quote from Austen Morgan’s book, The Belfast Agreement: “The Belfast Agreement is a partitionist settlement: better and less controversially, it is located firmly within the 1920-22 constitutional arrangements, whereby a new state was legally created in 26 of Ireland’s 32 counties. It is entirely fanciful... to try and infer that it provides for joint sovereignty, or authority, in Northern Ireland.”

Not joint sovereignty but equal sovereignty for two equally legitimate peoples; equally legitimate in terms of national identity and allegiance.

MALACHY SCOTT Belfast