Madam, - "Celtic and Christian" would be the generic description used by any disinterested commentator if asked to provide a brief overview of Ireland. The four Irish provinces have played for several years in the Celtic League rugby competition (now Magners League), without demur from our Northern cousins. However, to the clique of neo-liberal, politically correct, pedantic media commentators, these descriptors conjure up, with horror, a narrow nationalist outlook.
Intrigued by the reaction to the recent Kenny speech on immigration, I actually took the trouble to go back and read the full text ( The Irish Times, January 25th). Far from being a right-wing, nationalist diatribe, I found it to be a moderate and balanced call to develop coherent policies and delivery mechanisms to help immigrants. These include measures to prevent the exploitation of immigrant workers, more language teachers to help with immigrant children and adult language classes for the older cohort. Also, the appointment of a minister with specific responsibility for co-ordinating the variety of services provided by different government departments and agencies.
Mr Kenny does mention the high proportion of foreign nationals imprisoned in our jails and killed on our roads, but not in any right-wing, reactionary or inflammatory way.
He also points out that there are at least 50,000 Chinese language students in the country - you'll see many of them working as shop assistants and contract cleaners. His comment is that "rather than viewing these people as a source of cheap labour. . . we should engage closely with the large Chinese community to develop links with the fast-growing economies of China and the wider Asian markets". Narrow-minded, racist nationalism indeed! In the same week, Minister for Justice Michael McDowell, addressing a public meeting at the Law Society, accused Mr Kenny of "playing the race card" and then put forward his own proposal of detention centres for dealing with immigrants and citizenship tests for applicants. Hardly a word from our liberal commentators on that one.
If media commentators succeed in stifling reasoned debate on this important topic, they will greatly increase the risk of social and racial problems in future years. - Yours, etc,
PETER MOLLOY, Haddington Park, Glenageary, Co Dublin.
Madam, - Now that it seems to be unacceptable to call ourselves a Celtic and Christian people, there are a number of matters that need to be attended to in order to bring things into line.
1. St Patrick's Day should be abolished. We have no business having a patron saint at all and certainly shouldn't have a national holiday associated with him.
2. The blatantly Celtic and Christian Book of Kells should be kept hidden in storage instead of being on open display as if it was something to be proud of. Imagine the terrible impression of the country it must give to the many unsuspecting visitors who are exposed to it each year.
3. Similarly, something needs to be done about all those high crosses throughout the country. Unbelievable as it may seem now, I know a man who in less enlightened times actually published a guide to these offensive monstrosities. I trust he is now suitably ashamed of himself. Difficult as they are to hide because of their sheer size, perhaps the only solution is to demolish them as part of the National Development Plan.
4. The Ardagh and Derrynaflan chalices and Tara brooch should likewise be removed from public display. I'm sure they could be melted down and recycled into some nice, modern, inoffensive jewellery.
5. The harp emblem should be removed from all official stationery and documents It is possibly not strictly Celtic, but better safe than sorry.
6. The National University should shut down its department of Celtic Studies. It is obviously still under the delusion that this is something central to our heritage and identity.
7. The term "Celtic Tiger" is far too narrow and should not be used. An acceptable alternative might be the "Celtic-Norse-Norman-Planter-Anglo-Irish-Foreign-National Tiger". - Yours, etc,
JACK MONTGOMERY, Ard Na Mara, Blackrock, Co Louth.