Sir, – Thank you for Alison Healy’s powerful and balanced article about those departing Dublin Airport after spending the Christmas and New Year break with their families and friends in Ireland (“Emotions high at Dublin Airport as emigrants fly out”, (Home News, January 3rd).
The article is as much a tale of two mentalities about emigration as it is of two Irelands.
The article should be mandatory reading for those smug technology types who constantly pontificate that “emigration is good for us” without having the graciousness to acknowledge that the reality of being reduced to a “Skype Dad” or a “Facebook Grandson Friend” has a very real human cost. – Yours, etc,
ULTAN Ó BROIN,
Half Moon Bay,
California.
Sir, – January: trips to airport, empty beds, silent rooms. Ireland 2014 in many homes. – Yours, etc,
MOIRA BAXTER,
Applewood,
Maynooth,
Co Kildare.