Flawed case against accepting honours

TOM COOPER (Letters, June 9) showed a common prejudice when he claimed acceptance of a British title by any Irishman amounted to a direct attack on Irish sovereignty by the British nation.

His argument is either rooted in a xenophobic outlook towards the British state or is based on the misguided notion that any acknowledgment of a non-citizen’s achievements amounts to an invidious encroachment on our right to self-government and on the constitution.

Both arguments are flawed. The first would appear to be that a title or honour granted from Britain alone is unacceptable. This is a form of post-colonial inferiority which one would have thought had long since perished.