Sir, - We are appalled at the ease with which so many correspondents over the last few months have taken it upon themselves to defend bigotry. These "patriots" wish to exclude refugees from Ireland and to subject East European or African travellers to Ireland - and indeed all non-white Irish citizens - to continual harassment from the authorities to preserve the purity of our national "character". They have sneered at those who do not share their shameful views as "unelected" and "politically correct".
If these people are so concerned with the welfare of the nation, they might pay more attention to its bigotry, which, if it teaches us anything at all, should teach us: that people do not lightly decide to leave their place of origin; that we shouldn't rely too heavily on the popular distinction between political refugees and economic migrants (after all, the economic circumstances which have motivated successive generations of Irish men and women to emigrate are no less real than political repression); that to be treated as an object of suspicion by the authorities and to be called continually to account for one's movements is demeaning and destructive of the mutual respect which ought to characterise a democratic society; and finally, that a morbid concern with the preservation of a community's "heritage" or "identity" which demands either assimilation or exclusion has caused enough suffering in this country already. - Yours, etc.,
Bethune Road, London, N16.