Sir, – May I congratulate you for your Editorial (“The reality of emigration”, September 4th)? It was most welcome for its comment on Minister for Finance Michael Noonan’s “lifestyle choice” explanation for Irish internal migration and external emigration.
After being an emigrant in London in the 1950s, I too offered your "Emigration is a reality and one for which the State could better prepare citizens" comment when I returned. We Irish would own Britain today if our emigrants over the generations had had enough basic literacy and numeracy. Since then I've worked – most notably via a Studies 1959 essay – for acceptance of this fact: about 50 per cent of each Irish generation of Irish people must emigrate to maintain the economic viability of our State, and to let those who emigrate and those who remain have the mid-to-upper-income American lifestyles to which, following the example of our politicians, they aspire.
Taoiseach Seán Lemass accepted that fact in a January 1960 discussion that I had with him. But his problem was – and it continues to be the problem of all politicians to this day – “how do I publicly say that and [get] my party re-elected?”
More specifically: how do politicians publicly say that if media commentators don’t say likewise, particularly via the State-subsidised RTÉ outlet? Because of your newspaper’s pivotal Irish media role, your Editorial, 54 years later, is a welcome helpful step in a long overdue direction. – Yours, etc,
JOE FOYLE,
Sandford Road,
Ranelagh, Dublin 6.