When at the height of the IRA bombing campaign in Britain, Irish people travelling to the UK were harassed by immigration officials simply because they were Irish, there were justified howls of outrage.
But now that the Irish authorities are following the same policy of selective immigration control, targeted at foreigners from outside the EU, where are the voices of protest?
How else are the immigration officers to do their job, other than by singling out those faces which are black, or yellow, or in some way different from the Irish norm? This is the practical effect of the curbs on immigration introduced by the former minister for justice, Mrs Owen, and approved by the outgoing government.
The new regulations were introduced without consultation, either in the Dail or with international bodies, and they seem to conflict with the spirit and letter of international agreements and Irish legislation. Yet the new Minister, Mr O'Donoghue, has said they are here to stay.
Under the new regime, an immigrant can be stopped at any point of entry to the State by a garda acting as an immigration officer. If the person entering from the UK is from outside the EU and does not have the required visa, he or she may be sent back.
On the surface, this seems fair enough. But it ignores the harsh realities of the refugee world, as well as the requirements of international conventions.
In his statement on Wednesday, Mr O'Donoghue said he was "very concerned" about the level of "unlawful entry" to the State. Yet this is how most of the recognised refugees now in Ireland came here.
In addition, as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has pointed out, the new regulations are deficient in several respects. Immigrants who are detained have no right to a lawyer; their fate hangs entirely on the say-so of an anonymous Department of Justice official. Neither have they any right to an appeal.
In effect, the new curbs catapult immigrants into a world of faceless and unaccountable bureaucracy.