Sir, - I returned by ferry recently from the UK to be greeted at the East Wall ferry port in Dublin by two large men shouting at the bedraggled foot passengers as we made our way through Immigration Control on a cold and damp Tuesday morning. I nearly jumped out of my skin when one of them eyed me, for he did look a tough cookie. As I watched him fearfully he roared at me, "What nationality are you?".
Thankfully, his interest in me evaporated when I said I was Irish. I had wanted to show off my passport to make sure he wouldn't shout at me again but my word was good enough for him. Perhaps I sounded valid. He repeated the performance on an American couple and sure enough he lost interest in them when they told him where they came from.
It went on and on, the two big men shouting like sergeant-majors on a parade ground. There were moments of added excitement when black people failed to sound valid and had to confirm what they said with official documents which they carried with them.
I went home and I thought about what had happened and it came to mind that there must be big men at our other ferry ports and our airports shouting at disembarking and bleary-eyed passengers who are wondering if they have died, and what did they ever do to St Peter.
In my mind's eye I can see hundreds of big men scattered across the border counties shouting at cars as they enter from Northern Ireland. Maybe they are the same big men who kept the dreaded mad cows out of the South during the great BSE crisis of 1996.
Embarrassing as our past may be, your younger readers might be interested to know that before Ireland became an important nation gardai were sometimes seen but never heard at ferry terminals. Long live the Minister for Justice. - Yours, etc.,
From Brian Corcoran
Botanic Rd, Dublin 9.