Sir, - My gratitude to Aine Ni Chonaill (April 29th) for finally clarifying the political philosophy of the Immigration Control Platform. She states "Any rational human being would learn one lesson from these ethnic conflicts [Balkans/Zimbabwe] - namely, that a country which has not had an ethnic mix should avoid it like the plague."
It was a variation of this very understanding (or lack of) that brought about the Holocaust and countless other atrocities. These ethnic conflicts are not caused by the ethnic mix in itself; rather, they are attributable to one group's misguided belief that it is entitled, divinely or otherwise, to ownership of the resources in a region. If not racists, such people are certainly demographic supremacists.
Would Ms Ni Chonaill recognise a famine-stricken Ethiopian as an illegitimate economic refugee? Must one be at death's door before it is recognised that to leave one's homeland, friends and family in search of a safe and economically viable way of life is a legitimate and highly courageous prerogative? - Yours, etc., Barry J. Higgins,
Portmarnock, Co Dublin.