Letter from Cooley

national | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis Sunday April 11, 2004 15:04 by Sean Crudden sean.crudden at iol dot ie 5 Anglesea Terrace, Greenore, Co Louth 0879739945

Xenophobia and Racism

Humbly, I am posting this letter to indymedia. The letter is really intended for submission to The Dundalk Democrat. Sean.

5 Anglesea Terrace
Greenore
Co Louth


11 April 2004


The Editor
The Dundalk Democrat


A Chara

You often get the impression that a lawyer is prepared to concoct and cobble together a glib confabulation to support any cause however shoddy or unworthy. The lawyer may have the excuse that he has a large family to support or a small wife with expensive tastes. That could hardly be said of Micheal McDowell TD, Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform – although my feeling is that a lot of his lawyerly speeches and the legal provisions emanating from his department have a smell of parchment and scarcely seem to come from a warm and generous heart.

I hardly ever read a newspaper now (or anything else) - except for an odd glance at indymedia. However I notice that it has been reported that the Garda Siochana has rounded up some children, born in Ireland – and, therefore Irish citizens, and sent them away by night into exile in the country of origin of their parents who are “illegal” immigrants here. It seems, too, that the Irish people – in a referendum on June 11th this year, are going to be asked to change the Constitution so as to withdraw the privilege of some children born in Ireland to be regarded as Irish citizens just because their parents are immigrants without themselves the status of citizenship.

The provisions relating to immigrants in this country say as much about us as the do about immigrants. It is not a true characteristic of the Irish nation or of genuine Irish people to conserve and hoard the resources of this fertile island for the small and genetically impoverished population that occupies it at present.

It is false logic to point to other EU nations and quote their restrictions on immigrants to justify more restrictions of our own.

Mr Editor, I hope I have not stars in my eyes – and, indeed, despite effort, one is never sure whether one is right or wrong. My ideas on immigration are not based on the concept of “the noble savage.” People coming to this country are human beings and are likely to have the same distribution of faults and failings as those of us who are already “here.”

Mise le meas

Sean Crudden