Sir, - I cannot express how deeply saddened I am to read about the current spate of protests by villages and towns in rural Ireland at accepting refugees. In Clogheen, Co Tipperary, for example, residents say they do not have the facilities to cope with 40 extra among their number.
I would like to point you and your readers to the website www.amireland.com/clogheen which outlines all the activities one can enjoy in this town and also helps the descendants of emigrants from this village to trace their roots. I wonder if the webmaster of this site should post that it cannot cater for an excess of 40 tourists at any one time this summer and I wonder how the descendants of emigrants would feel that the welcome that was presumably offered to their ancestors is not available in this town. The same points revisited, but surely fear of refugees is a topic worth revisiting.
I do not want to single out this one town as the problem appears to be current in many urban and rural communities. I suggest that all towns and villages in Ireland which profit in the summer months from foreign visitors should consider their community policy on refugees and how it will affect them in the future if they publicly present an unwelcoming image. It is time for people to realise the huge opportunity for towns to replenish numbers so savaged by emigration, and for policy-makers to look at means of integrating rather than temporarily housing refugees. - Yours, etc.,
Sarah Glennane, New Market Square, The Liberties, Dublin 8.