Madam, - Walter Ellis's Irishman's Diary of October 24th is both naïve and disingenuous.
He cites a litany of examples of Irish-American nonsense that most of us find nauseating. He focuses on that segment of Irish America in love with bagpipes and Guinness posters, yet ignores the facts that Irish-Americans are taking up hurling and football in huge numbers, that many are working to foster stronger cultural, educational and economic ties between Ireland and the USA, and that thousands of us have moved back "home" and are carving out lives and livelihoods in modern Ireland.
If paddywhackery was Mr Ellis's main gripe, fair enough. Much of it is ridiculous. His complaint, however, is that we Irish-Americans are "obsessed" with maintaining a special relationship between our two countries and a special status for Irish-Americans in the political process.
If he thinks we are going to cede our place at the table, obtained by the graft of my own Irish-American political family and hundreds more just like it, he is dead wrong. If he thinks we can achieve more on the issues that matter to us, especially the plight of the undocumented Irish in my city (Boston), his (New York) and elsewhere, by ignoring our distinct ethnic identity, he is foolish.
Mr Ellis's logic is flawed, his reasoning irrational and his conclusion infuriating. - Yours, etc,
LAWRENCE DONNELLY,
School of Law,
NUI Galway.