Politicians know the importance of words and slogans — what is said and what is implied. Words such as “colonisation” carry meaning beyond 12 letters.
In the past week we’ve seen councillors say things that have come from the mouths of fascists. We’ve seen councillors not speak, those who kept their heads down and remained silent, allowing others to amplify their message and dominate debate.
These councillors think they are being “cute”, but cowardice and fear are on their minds. As with many in the Dáil, there is a failure to understand how fascism develops.
So, what of those who don’t know if it’s time to stand up and speak out?
Across Europe and here, we’ve seen the far right and fascists target black men from Africa, and increasingly people don’t speak up for them. As that group has been dehumanised, the fascists are lumping single men from eastern Europe into their narrative — and people are beginning to look away.
Now they say the Ukrainians should go home, and some only whisper their rebuttals.
Emboldened, the fascists grow confident. The owners of some hotels are threatened and are scared and the silence is palpable. Next they will target the security guards — and people might harumph.
What’s next? This time next year will we be saying the following?
They came for the “do-gooders” — and people just watched more streaming services.
Then they came for the librarians — and people kept looking at their phones.
Then they came for the environmentalists — and people didn’t know what to do.
Then they came for the “weak” councillors and TDs — and people nodded.
Then they went for the journalists and radio presenters — and people went further into their rabbit holes.
Then they came for the national newspapers — and people went clicking elsewhere.
Then they will go for the letter writers — but by then it will be too late and letters to the editor will dry up.
It’s time to stand up, speak out and deal in facts. If we don’t, others will follow, and no one really knows who will be next.
Damien Tiernan, Lower Newtown, Waterford
Roscrea locals are maligned by media
Sir — The good people of Roscrea have been portrayed in a maligned way by the national media and even TDs in the Dáil. Why? They used their democratic right to protest peacefully about the latest bungled operation in the Government’s handling of the housing of refugees and asylum- seekers.
I have listened all week to Fran Curry on Tipp FM. Before the media and politicians launch into phase two of reporting on this important ongoing situation, I would suggest they listen back to Fran’s Friday programme, where a more balanced discussion took place.
One participant in particular was able to give a clear description of what happened on the day the refugees arrived as she was there to witness it. Viewers on TV only saw an edited version.
Norah Brown, Cloughjordan, Co Tipperary
West paying price for asylum policy fiasco
Sir — The entire asylum process by this Government has been an unmitigated mess from the off. While fully agreeing with our support for Ukraine, we simply weren’t able for the numbers.
We added to our difficulties with benefits out of kilter with the rest of the EU. In order to make space, the Government looked west, and to areas they had long abandoned.
Forgotten communities with closed shops, businesses, post offices, garda stations and hospitals now had strangers filling closed convents, schools and other buildings, with no consultation.
The residents of those abandoned western areas ask one question of the Government: where in God’s name have ye been since the decline started in the 1930s?
John Cuffe, Co Meath
Children consuming a hateful message
Sir — With the way things are changing so fast in our beautiful country, I worry about the effect all this is having on our children.
I’ve retired from a school principal’s position for a good few years now, but I see children being exposed to dreadful happenings more and more every day.
With all the towns around the country saying “No” to refugees and places being burned down to stop people from accessing accommodation, children must be very confused. They are getting messages in school to make friends and not to judge or hurt others. I can’t remember a time when children were hearing and seeing such negative and hateful speech.
I appeal to parents to exclude their kids from politics and protests. Let them make up their own minds at the appropriate time.
Pat Burke Walsh, Gorey, Co Wexford
TDs set to fall for ignoring concerns
Sir — I would like to reply to Leo Varadkar’s article (Sunday Independent, January 14) in which he outlines the Government’s “robust and rules-based asylum process”.
He regularly accuses people of spreading misinformation about the asylum process. Since 2018, only 15pc of deportation orders were either enforced, or the applicant was known to have left the country. Last year, 76pc of people who applied for asylum did not apply at an airport or port and Leo claimed we do not have open borders.
The Government continuously claims disinformation is being spread about the asylum process, but most people can see what is happening, and the Government has lost the majority of the Irish people on this issue.
I predict in the general election a lot of high-profile government TDs will lose their seats as they have failed to listen to people’s concerns on immigration.
Peter Woods, Drogheda, Co Louth
Leo Varadkar’s figures simply don’t add up
Sir — An Taoiseach’s opinion piece last Sunday made for interesting reading, especially his contention that most Irish families have a positive experience of outward migration.
In this regard he is at odds with reality, as from the Great Famine onwards, most Irish migration abroad was driven by economic failure here, with the 1950s, 1980s and post-Celtic Tiger crash evoking painful memories for many (two of my uncles had little choice but to leave for Birmingham in the 1950s).
He goes on to stress that our immigration policy is based on rules, which may be news to his justice minister, as in December of 2021 she introduced an amnesty scheme for illegals here and also gave leave to remain to 3,000 people over two years in the asylum process.
The road to hell is often paved with good intentions, and this is a classic case, as most of the 3,000 granted remain in international protection accommodation as they cannot or will not leave due to our housing crisis.
I would argue that these amnesties, combined with minister Roderic O’Gorman’s foolish decision to advertise own-door accommodation for international protection applicants, has greatly contributed to the asylum numbers surge of 2022 and 2023.
Having worked in the area previously, An Taoiseach’s assertion that nearly 1,000 deportation orders signed in 2023 (840 in reality) is the highest ever is utterly wrong — in most years up to and including 2019, between 1,000 and 2,000 orders a year were signed (Justice Parliamentary Question reply of 26/10/2022 to Deputy Catherine Martin).
He is correct in stating that enforcing them is difficult, but given that the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service and the Garda National Immigration Bureau have not managed a charter flight anywhere in close to five years (the one action that shows the State is serious in enforcing removals), no wonder the process is losing credibility.
I foresee the history of 24 years ago being repeated when hundreds of staff (myself included) were assigned to work in the asylum area and the legal profession made a lot of money at taxpayers’ expense by judicially reviewing most negative decisions.
Back then the parentage of an Irish-born child stripped out around 80pc of all asylum claims, but there is no such release valve this time around, so challenging times are ahead, and not just in accommodating people.
Michael Flynn, Bayside, Dublin 13
Moral decay rooted in economic woes
Sir — In light of recent events — the siege of the Oireachtas, the Dublin riots and now Roscrea — should we be asking ourselves what is driving our moral decay? I ask this question because we are told “we are better than this” — presumably in the sense of kindness, honesty and basic human decency.
According to Leo Varadkar, the problem is related to the fact that “we now live in an age where information is abundant. But wisdom is scarce. We’re inundated with misinformation and disinformation”. From this perspective, our moral decay is down to bad actors, false information and poor messaging.
For conservatives, such as your own columnist David Quinn, our moral decay is related to the decline in traditional control structures, such as Christian values and the family. He has also argues that the Government’s promotion of “social justice” ideology undermines Irish society.
These ideas do not highlight the importance of public services, economic vulnerability or deprivation — in short, resources. The cost-of-living crisis has precipitated economic insecurity, which has adversely affected low-income families and renters.
Communities are struggling for housing, facilities and access to essential services such as doctors, schools and dentists. Immigration has highlighted and exacerbated these socio-economic divisions.
The Government’s economic integration policy — it may be disinformation to give it this description — appears to be developing daily and on the hoof, the politics of resources supplanting the normal discourse around immigration.
The Government is losing the political and economic arguments. The Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks poll underscores this thesis.
Andy Hales, Kenmare, Co Kerry
Ireland is only full of nonsensical speech
Sir — We are a strange people, at times a silly people with extremely short memories when it comes to the series of events that shaped us as a nation and gave us a place on the world stage that for a country of our size we should not have.
We have expended energy on the decade of centenaries, and rightly so. Now it is time to expend energy on the story of Irish migration and how it shaped our identity. It is time to counteract the nonsense encapsulated in the phrase “Ireland is full”.
Between 1800 and 1855, millions of people migrated from Ireland, mainly to North America. It is estimated that six million people migrated from Ireland in the 19th century, the Great Famine being the largest rupture of population in that period. The Irish were fleeing economic collapse, famine, war and religious discrimination.
They were in large part economic migrants. Most went to North America or to our neighbouring island, and were met with fear, discrimination and violence. Ireland in the decades between the 1930s and 1970s was a nation of migration. The mailboat generations arriving in Britain were confronted with “No Blacks, No Dogs, No Irish”.
In the same period, the Irish abroad remitted £4.8bn back to this island. The amount remitted was so large it had to be included in our GDP.
Now, despite what some people might tell you, we are an extraordinarily rich country with a well-educated population and where migration from the island is largely voluntary, but only one economic hiccup away.
Where is our welcome for those fleeing the very events that scattered our people? It is time to re-educate ourselves. Look at your family tree and see the many relatives who migrated. Where are the academics, the summer schools, the state-backed seminars and public education programmes to remind people of their past and their obligations?
Ireland is far from full. Indeed, it will be to eternal shame and a blight on our past generations if we don’t call out that nonsense.
Vincent Duggan, Bandon, Co Cork
Work visas should be made available
Sir — RTÉ’s Prime Time last Tuesday had an interesting debate on refugees and asylum seekers. There was an interview with a young man from Egypt who arrived in Ireland to find no state accommodation available.
This man said he paid €10,000 for his transport. Given accommodation for women and children fleeing war-torn areas is at crisis level, is it still reasonable for this country to be expected to accommodate and process “international protection-seekers” from relatively peaceful countries like Egypt?
Ireland badly needs workers and work visas should be made available for people to come here — and let their employers help with their accommodation.
People traffickers are exploiting the vulnerable with a promise of a great life in Ireland.
Brian Lube, Co Meath
Strong Constitution a crucial part of society
Sir — I read the interesting and thought-provoking article by Shane Ross in last week’s Sunday Independent. He correctly states that “every change in Irish society will need recognition, a referendum and a divisive debate”. One has only to think of divorce, same-sex marriage and abortion to confirm his assertion.
He also states the Constitution is redundant and not suited to a modern Ireland and legislation is the way to go. Yes, the Constitution is outdated in some areas, and there are deficiencies in terms of what is not there but ought to be.
However, I dread to think of what politicians might get up to, and I leave it to Brian Farrell, who expressed it so succinctly when he wrote: “In the wrong hands Ireland could have gone the way of other European states in the dangerous Europe of the mid-1930s.
“De Valera… could, by the simple act of the single parliamentary chamber dominated by his party, make whatever constitutional changes he wished. It was a classic opportunity to establish a dictatorship. Instead, his mind had already turned to writing a new constitution for modern Ireland.”
Yes, modern Ireland in the 1930s was different to modern Ireland now, but a lot of the fundamental rights embodied in the Constitution are never time-constrained.
Bert Ahern, Bishopstown, Co Cork
Liadán Hynes’s fears echo across the nation
Sir — I would like to compliment Liadán Hynes on her article (‘Living in financial fear’, Life, January 14).
I am sure the fear and paralysis she experienced is being echoed in many homes throughout Ireland. She is right: the Government has done little to help people. In fact, it has exacerbated the situation by reprimanding people for not being in control of their finances.
Elections are coming. Pick a political party that offers a radical approach.
Donal Reynolds, Co Wicklow
Church would not exist without women
Sir — I have been writing letters to the editor, to several different newspapers, for over 60 years now. I have written to the Sunday Independent many times on women’s roles in the church, but the letters were not printed. So here I go again, after watching The Last Priests In Ireland on RTÉ One last week.
There would be no church but for women. Women, for a start, keep the church spick and span. They are ministers of the eucharist in church and also bringing the eucharist to many who are sick in their homes.
They read the word of God at mass. There are female sacristans and we have a wonderful one, Ann Marie, in St Bridget’s Church in Kill. We have a great parish secretary in Valerie, and Jean who works hard when communions and confirmations are on. All vibrant women spreading the word of God.
Why were women left out of the Last Supper painting of Jesus and his Apostles? Were they left cleaning the kitchen?
Didn’t Jesus choose married men as his apostles?
If Pope Francis was around another 20 years, I think we would have married priests, women priests, celibate priests and non-celibate priests. We would have a wonderful, vibrant Catholic Church.
I don’t understand priests having to be celibate. It’s against human nature. I’m afraid the Catholic Church is going down the Swanee and it is men who are responsible.
Terry Healy Riordan, Kill, Co Kildare
Too often fleeced when fine dining
Sir — Reviewing a menu in a well-known Dublin restaurant, the steak, pan-fried fish and the cheapest bottle of red each start at €40. I can cook both dishes for less than €10 while quaffing my €8 bottle of red.
Fine dining for me is now a once-a-year treat when I seek to try something I can’t cook myself — and even then I struggle to enjoy it because I feel guilty if I get a second or even a third bottle of wine at a minimum of €40.
I have great sympathy for restaurants doing their very best to survive in a cruel environment, but the model is broken. I am fortunate in Dublin 6 to have access to a range of public houses that provide very good, reasonably priced food.
Dr Michael Foley, Palmerston Gardens, Dublin 6
Recycling scheme is so short-sighted
Sir — In relation to the new deposit return scheme starting on February 1, I am among thousands of shoppers who have groceries delivered. I will now have to get in my car to return my plastic water bottles to my local supermarket every week.
Has anyone thought about how this scheme will impact on CO2 car emissions? Where is the sense in this?
And what about elderly citizens who have groceries delivered and may not be able to drive to the supermarket to return their empty bottles and cans?
This scheme should not be compared with the one that introduced the levy on plastic bags. That scheme was not a major inconvenience to anyone and was easily adopted. The new scheme is inconvenient to retailers and consumers.
Incentivise, via the green bins, those who don’t recycle. This new scheme is madness.
C O’Donovan, Dundrum, Co Dublin