Madam, - It is hard to know how to begin to respond to as ill-informed a letter as that of Liam Ó Géibheannaigh (June 6th), but he should at least get his facts right.
He claims that "within another decade or so one quarter of the residents of this State will be foreign born". This is pure fantasy. I do not know of a single serious source which makes this claim. Moreover, even those models which do predict relatively high numbers of foreign-born people in the population - an example is the recent NCB report which talks of one million immigrants by 2020 - are seriously flawed in their calculations. They do not sufficiently acknowledge the fact that many "immigrants" are not immigrants at all, but returning Irish migrants, that many "foreign-born" children are actually the children of these returning migrants and that, most importantly, most migrants do not remain in their new societies, but work hard for a few years and go home again. In other words, foreign-born migrants in Ireland behave pretty much the same as Irish migrants elsewhere; some stay and some go home.
Talk of experiments in social engineering is scaremongering. As for the nature, identity and cultural values of our nation, I would not wish to belong to the fearful, inward-looking and defensive one with which Liam Ó Géibheannaigh seems to identify. We should be proud of our nation, culture and history, as well as recognising its flaws. While cherishing the best of its values, we should be open to change. Unlike the appropriately-named Uasal Ó Géibheannaigh, we should not be fettered by the past. - Yours, etc,
PIARAS MAC ÉINRÍ, Department of Geography, University College Cork.