Sir, - I can't help making comparisons between the asylum seeking/refugee community here and the Rose(s) of Tralee. The latter are, by and large, the children and grandchildren of, let's be honest about it, Ireland's economic emigrants. Post-Famine, post-Civil-War, post-second-World-War, the 1980s. Now the Dome of Tralee welcomes them annually from the four corners of the globe. From Dubai and Darwin, Newcastle and New York, Germany and Japan. Long may the cead mile failte continue.
I wonder if the future roses of Romania, Angola, Somalia, Nigeria, Kosovo, Chechyna, Croatia, the Congo, Vietnam, Togo, Bosnia, Burundi and many more countries and ethnic minorities will star on their respective countries' equivalent of RTE's Rose of Tralee, with Irish accents, proudly recounting the opportunities that Ireland gave their parents.
I live in hope. - Yours, etc.,
Loraine Hayes, John Dillon Street, Christchurch, Dublin 8.