Letters: Why I love Warhammer

Troubles ahead?

Sir: Jenny McCartney’s article ‘Border lines’ (1 October) was a profoundly depressing one. Perhaps there will be a united Ireland within the next 30 years; but will it be a peaceful and happy place? I have my doubts. Might not areas such as overwhelmingly Unionist Antrim, north Down, north Armagh, east Belfast and indeed much of Co. Londonderry become no-go areas for the new Irish governing authorities – rather in the same way as Derry, west Belfast and south Armagh were for the British in the times of the Troubles?

Most of the wiser commentators observe that the Good Friday Agreement was only a truce, not a perpetual cessation of hostilities. Some pro-nationalist observers mocked the loyalist paramilitaries for ‘fighting to remain the same’. Once they become the ‘occupied areas’, might they not have a clearer target to fight against? The Irish police and military will become targets, just as the British authorities were during the Troubles. Further, the loyalists have a significant following in Glasgow and, to a lesser extent, Liverpool. We in Great Britain will not simply be able to cut ourselves off from what is going on across the water.

Andrew Macdonald

London W3

The plot against St Benet’s

Sir: As a non-Catholic member of the final cohort of St Benet’s Hall undergraduates, I am grateful for – if somewhat alarmed by – the analysis from Dan Hitchens about the demise of our former college (‘Marching order’, 1 October). It is crucial that the truth about what happened to the Hall is in the public domain, and I commend you for exposing this opaque and damaging decision to proper scrutiny.

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Zoe Strimpel

The trouble with Harvard

St Benet’s was, in my sadly limited experience, a place of friendly community for those of all faiths and none. In my own group last year, we had a wonderful blend of Roman Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, agnostics and atheists.