Sir, - I was born and raised in Dublin. I left Ireland in 1990 and spent six years in Sydney, Australia, and all my time there I was smug, proud and overt about being from Ireland. I lapped up the compliments about my people and my country and never thought that they were other than deserved. Now I have returned to a more selfish, more materialistic and most worryingly a racist country. I am still proud of being Irish - we have a lot to be proud of - but this emotion is slowly being eroded, I am sickened and ashamed by what I see, hear and read every day.
I am also sickened by what I do not hear. I have not once heard our Taoiseach tell his people that refugees and asylum-seekers are welcome in our country. I have not heard him once decry the racist attacks and actions that take place every day. I am still sure that for every person who commits a racist act there are many more who are repelled by such behaviour. Such people must not remain silent, otherwise it will never stop and in five or ten years we will start emigrating again, not for jobs this time but out of desperation and shame. - Yours, etc.,
Orla McGrath, Stoneybatter, Dublin 7.