Day by day, police officers and immigration officials are stopping non-white people at Irish border control points to inquire whether they have valid permits to enter this State. They are following new regulations introduced last year by the outgoing Minister for Justice, Mrs Nora Owen, to cope with the increased number of refugees seeking asylum by breaching the free movement area between Ireland and the United Kingdom.
Ireland is so monocultural that these new controls have been relatively uncontroversial, even though they are inherently racist and deeply offensive to these visitors, many of whom are Irish citizens or closely related to Irish people.
The accumulation of such controls cannot but affect Ireland's international reputation as a tolerant and welcoming country. The gathering public controversy on the matter is, therefore, a welcome opportunity to raise the issues involved and to work out their wider implications. These are not confined to ethnic or racial questions - central though they are for multicultural diversity - but include the capacity to come to terms with multiple identities thrown up by the Northern Ireland peace process and to escape from the cultural essentialism that has confined Irishness to those who are Catholic and gaelic as well.
Such a singular identity has been taken so much for granted for many years that it comes as a double shock to many that it should be challenged by growing multiculturalism as well as a greater tolerance and liberalism in Irish public life. Ireland has been an emigrant not an immigrant society, whose experience of ethnic diversity and commingling has been for the most part abroad not at home. Generous missionary or developmental efforts have similarly been directed outwards, not matched by a greater variety or experience of diverse cultures in Ireland itself.
The growth and development of recent years have punched holes in these cosy self-definitions by attracting many emigrants back to our shores, by creating a demand for skills which are not matched by the domestic labour supply and by spreading throughout the world the (increasingly false) message that refugees will receive a generous welcome in Ireland.
As always, such transformations of identity will not be accomplished without a struggle. This week protesters confronted a group setting up an Immigration Control Platform in Ennis. Ms Aine Ni Chonaill, its moving spirit, insists that immigrants, whether from the European Union or further afield, will destroy the fabric of Irish life. Although she has attracted only minuscule support, she could strike a chord with others who are prepared to push a racist, closed or exclusivist agenda when faced with growing immigration to a more prosperous Ireland.
In fact, the Irish are a more than usually hybrid people, despite the historical factors which have encouraged narrow and singular identities over the last century. As our society matures and comes to terms with a more normal European multicultural framework, we can expect to see more controversy about these issues. It is essential, both for our self-respect and international reputation, that the Government should review the ad-hoc, racist controls at border points and implement the Refugee Act to bring a fairer due process to handing applications for asylum.
A good start would be to consider seriously the amnesty proposal floated by the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, and make a new start in handling the question. The numbers concerned are small, the delays and build-ups are the fault of the administration itself, and the matter demands a determined effort to resolve it in a more generous fashion.