Sir, - I write on behalf of a group of ladies composed mostly of "economic migrants" from Ireland who came to the UK during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, seeking the opportunities which were not available to us at home. We were successful; but all of us have memories of the tough struggle we had to achieve a decent life. We did it for ourselves, for our children and we suppose for those we left behind.
We have a view not often appreciated or even understood in Ireland - that our emigration made the living more bearable and manageable for the remaining population. If the 1950s emigrants, for example, had stayed and demanded jobs, education and social justice, the likely result would have been social and political unrest. Without the sacrifice of generations of emigrants, would today's Ireland look so attractive to the world's political and economic migrants?
We see the Moldovan schoolgirl Elena Cernei as an inspiration and we pray that she can get what was denied to us - and the millions like us. We ask the Irish Government to stop this nonsense and allow this young woman (and any others in the same position) to have an education, to fulfil her potential and to make Ireland her home if she so wishes. Ireland has lost so many of her young to emigration (not just those who left, but their children and their children's children). Maybe we can now have hope in the futures of Elena and others.
Can we now stop talking about "economic migrants"? Among all the thousands of Irish emigrants we have come across in our combined years in the United Kingdom we have never meet a political migrant, but we have meet - and were ourselves - economic migrants. Ireland does seem to look outwards when the times are hard and inwards when the times are good. - Yours, etc.,
Maggie Scanlon, Bedfordshire Irish Pensioners, Kingsley Road, Bedford, England.