Northern Ireland

Yes, the failed coup and Boris Yeltsin’s heroism were a triumph for freedom and national self-determination. Indeed it was a triumph as great as any in this century.

But how hypocritical it is for Margaret Thatcher, former British prime minister, to say that “the lesson of this century is that countries put together artificially will fall apart” and not admit that Northern Ireland is an artificial, contrived entity created by the British in 1920.

Just as Soviet troops must leave the Baltics, British troops must leave Irish soil. It was a tragedy of Thatcher’s reign that she never learned that no amount of British arms can ever subdue the spirit of Irish freedom.

ROBERT E. FORD, Executive Board, Irish Rights Committee of San Diego