146 Comments

• newnation | Jan 07, 2013, 11:32 AM EST

  Shatter needs to be removed from office, he is beyond useless in his job

• BananaRepublic | Jan 07, 2013, 09:20 AM EST

  What can "We" Irish both living there and elsewhere DO to voice our concern and put a stop to this wholesale overunning of our Country ? I know that it is always possible to e mail TD's and Senators , one has just got to use thier first name then dot , second name then dot and then @oir.ie for example alan.shatter@oir.ie bUT I suspect that the loest rung of the support staff get to read and deal with these e mails or letters.Emigrants should get thier Irish relatives to lobby Politicians , both local and National about this issue before it is too late ( I fear it already is).Emigrants , of which there are approx 2 million living still ( amazing figure) , if you want to have a "homeland" to come home to then write to Taoiseach Enda Kenny and tewll Him there is no point coming home for "The Gathering" to a land where you do not recognise it anymore as it is now full of East Europeans , Africans and Asians.In most Hotels now you do not get served by Irish Staff.There is no "authentic" Irish experience anymore.I know that is partly our own "fault" because Irish people turned thier noses up to lower paid hospitality sector jobs during the good times as well as some , don't know how many , opting to claim the dole rather than work in hospitality and the net income was much the same.That is as much a fault of the over-generous welfare system as the "lazy" tag applied to these people.I think many would snap at these jobs now !There will be more and more inter-rwacial violence going forward , there are numerous recent examples of Countries being taken over by immigrants eg Fiji(Indians) , Singapore (Chinese from Malays), it almost happened to the Baltic States as Stalin forceably moved Russians into Latvia , Estonia and Lithuania.Ireland watch out ! You are in the same danger zone !!!

• seamus60 | Jan 07, 2013, 04:06 AM EST

  Theres more than the educated natives flooding out and possably lost forever. A great piece to read is Giving away family silver or reaping a bonanza? By: John Hearne - Irish Examiner. Unbelievable that we the Irish stand for this.

• IrelandNorth | Jan 07, 2013, 03:30 AM EST

  EU Supremo President Kenny's Irish coalition government party passed legislation some years ago to exclude foreign nationals from labour law protection - ie minimum wages, union representation, pension entitlement, holiday pay etc at the behest of the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC). Never doubt, racial integration and multiculturalism are sanctified euphemisms for cheap labour. The EU has prevailed upon the Irish political establishment to turn Ireland into an glorified FAS/TEFL occupational training ground/language laboratory for immigrants. Try getting a seat at the local library you spent you working life paying taxes to fund, only to find yourself being jostled aside by dangerously competitive foreign language students who seem to wonder why you're there as an somewhat older minority Irish native.

• Smyrnian | Jan 06, 2013, 07:36 PM EST

  Jacers - no worries pal. Sometimes I get a little too into things but I should always remember my manners. Cheers!

• falconflash | Jan 06, 2013, 06:06 PM EST

  Far into the 21st century countries like Germany, Japan, China, and Italy will continue to be a homeland for their own people. But not Ireland. Ireland has decided to worship at the altar of multi-culturism. Even Vietnam with 89 million people did not allow the French, Americans or Chinese to dismantle their country. The Vietnamese fought wars to keep their country! The Irish surrendered....

• Curitiba | Jan 06, 2013, 05:08 PM EST

  WoundedKnee: In addition to what you have just said, places like Kuwait, UAE, Qatar only allow foreigners to work on temporary visas. There is no chance of getting citizenship or permanent residence there ever, even if you are born there of foreign parents. I don't know if there is an exception if you marry a local citizen, but the chances of that are slim, since the local citizenry segregate themselves socially and culturally from the guest workers.

• Curitiba | Jan 06, 2013, 04:28 PM EST

  Precisely, Madeliene. The official party line is "You're only Irish if you are not Irish."

• Madeliene | Jan 06, 2013, 04:11 PM EST

  I guess they will be welcome as long as ghey do not say they of Irish descent, or American Irish.

• WoundedKnee | Jan 06, 2013, 04:02 PM EST

  2ndRepub: A friend of mine became a citizen of Spain, so it was he who told me the requirements there. You mentioned Denmark, so I checked out Danish citizenship. Turns out to be naturalized in Denmark you need to be named in an act of parliament! And you must have lived in Denmark "for a continuous period of at least 9 years." Why not look up a few more countries on line--you'll find that Ireland is a patsy as regards citizenship. There are quite a few countries which have more migrant workers than Ireland--places like Singapore, Kuwait etc. But in those places the migrant workers will not walk into citizenship--and full access to benefits--within a space of just five years. And they won't be able to exercise a right to "family unity" after five years. That is what has set the clock ticking for the Doomsday of 2040 or so--the date when the Irish become a minority in their own homeland.

• WoundedKnee | Jan 06, 2013, 03:51 PM EST

  jacers; Who is this "Immigrant Council of Ireland" and why do they wield so much influence over who gets citizenship? Do they put councillors up for election so that the Irish people can vote on their policies? Why has such power been handed to a quango or pressure group with no democratic mandate. Also, just thought you might like to know that 800,000 council houses in the UK have been handed to foreign citizens ahead of British citizens. I am sure that the same sort of thing goes on in Ireland, it is inconceivable that it does not.

• 2ndrepubalik | Jan 06, 2013, 03:48 PM EST

  continued :: entities that deal with each stage of the application process.As the first stage is reched and rejection of application is made an "appeal" is longed and so on and so on.The Legal profession love this process as they get paid out of Taxpayers monies all the way along the line .Eventually the 5 year limit is reached and , bingo , you have Citizenship ! For the 5 years or more the Taxpayer pays for feeding , housing and clothing etc ALL the people caught up in the process of which there are tens of thousands.The authorities bury these figures because there would be a public outcry if it was publically known how much this is costing the Irish taxpayer.Apart from this the Irish Taxpayer is paying over 1.25 Billion in aid to Africa over the past two years - and the Ugandans were recently caught pocketing the money allocated to them for the Senior Governments personal use.The Danes also caught another African Countries officials up to the same thing.It is wholesale fraud.There are over 7000 registered charities in Ireland , many of them focussed on Africa because it is easy to put pictures of starving Black babies and Women in the papers and raise lots of money.The CEO's of these entities are highly paid head honchos who jet back and forth to Africa telling everyone here in Ireland that we "have to do more" etc etc .Since when did Ireland become responsible for sorting out the Third Worlds problems ? Methinks our charitable nature is being taken for a massive ride.

• 2ndrepubalik | Jan 06, 2013, 03:38 PM EST

  I am confused - perhaps someone could clarify this for Me - Is there a " 5 year rule" for automatic Citizenship in all EU Countries or does it vary from Country to Country ? In correspondence here there is reference to Spain being 10 years and the UK and Ireland being 5 years.This is a crucial issue because the way Ireland currently "handles" ( if you can call it that) Asylum applications it is almost impossible for the authorities to fully process each application within 5 years because there are several different

• WoundedKnee | Jan 06, 2013, 02:59 PM EST

  What is most important about of the death of the African juvenile Toyosi in Dublin, is the sad circumstance of a young man dying on a street, thousands of miles from his homeland. But I will briefly deal with some of jacers’ inaccuracies. He claims that the Dublin men started the fight. Yet the African man Kuti explicitly told the court that he threw the first punch. The court was told that “A fight broke out resulting in Michael and Paul (the Dublin men) being kicked and punched and Michael believing one of the youths had taken his mobile phone.” “The group of (African) teens were still mouthing off and one of them started to taunt us with a screw driver”. A witness deposed: “at one stage the smaller of the two (Dublin) men was on the ground being kicked by the black teenagers.”. No knife was ever found. The juvenile Lupepe, supposedly the owner of the screwdriver that has been cited as possibly used in the killing, refused to go back to Ireland from England to give evidence. Jacers says “Paul B had been convicted of racial incitement about 10 yrs before”. I’ve checked that, and as far as I can see from the online records, wrong again. The incident in question was an atrocious attack on an English tourist in downtown Dublin, for which several men received jail time, but I see no record of Paul B being convicted for it. Care to back up what you said, jacers? It is pretty obvious that none of those involved in the affair that led to the killing of Toyosi was an angel. In fact I am sure that several of the actors were pretty reprehensible people. This tragic death was just another part of a pretty brutal street scene that has developed in Ireland in the past decade or so—there are countless reports of quite shocking casual street violence. But it was not something from 1960s Alabama or Mississippi. The Dublin men involved may very well have been thugs, but they were not KKK, and the African youths were not Civil Rights marchers.

• WoundedKnee | Jan 06, 2013, 02:48 PM EST

  I agree that Mr jacers’ posts are tiresome. I stopped reading his latest baloney after I saw him claiming that there is an EU obligation to grant citizenship after 5 years. Wrong. Spain has a ten year residency rule, I am sure there are lots of other examples I could cite.

• jacersagain | Jan 06, 2013, 01:31 PM EST

  (…more) Last year, it was reported that employment of immigrants in Ireland fell by 40%, putting the unemployment rate amongst immigrants at 18% as opposed to the national average of 14%. It is bad enough that unemployment benefit is paid by Irish taxpayers to a huge number of its own people but to have to fork out unemployment benefit for 18% of Ireland’s immigrants, as well as pay for their social housing, just cannot go on. The Irish taxpayer just doesn’t have that money available – something that anyone, with or without an MBA qualification, should know. And I believe the ICI, which does sterling work on behalf of immigrants, should make that clear to foreign people making enquiries about coming to Ireland. How about the ICI using words like “You’d be better off not coming to Ireland”?

• jacersagain | Jan 06, 2013, 01:26 PM EST

  As an aside bit of info, the Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI) has just this very day called for a review in the decision-making process for granting citizenship so as to make it easier for foreign people to get Irish citizenship. It reported a huge increase in numbers (up to 64,000) of people from (get this!) no less than 145 countries enquiring about gaining citizenship in Ireland last year. That is a frightening statistic because, when families members associated with each enquirer are added, the 64,000 could be bumped up to 300,000 seeking citizenship - and that’s just in one year. The ICI also said that the queries it received from foreigners included information on work permits, residency rights and on becoming an international student in Ireland. The ICI also highlighted the number of international students coming to the end of their studies seeking to remain in the county as citizens. So from that, one can safely assume that some foreigners are using the international student ‘route’ to surreptitiously gain Irish citizenship (More…)

• jacersagain | Jan 06, 2013, 01:22 PM EST

  What an interesting question by casualMBA (it can be coupled with seamus60 and curtis’ comments). I don’t think immigration concerns will feature much on the agenda for Ireland’s Presidency - the biggest concern today is getting Ireland out of its economic crisis. We will probably first and foremost use our presidential position to negotiate better deals on Ireland’s debt. However, casualMBA’s question raises the point that the EU obligations on Ireland to accept immigrants and refugees and grant Irish citizenship after 5 years could be up for negotiation at EU level while we hold the Presidency, IF we Irish pressed our Government to make an issue of it. Perhaps if we brought the UK Govt (which is also bound by the 5-year ‘residency-to-citizenship’ rule for immigrants) on our side on the issue, we could get somewhere. As a small country, we cannot continue to absorb immigrants as citizens at the current rate; it is just not sustainable. There are not enough jobs for native Irish, let alone immigrants.

• jacersagain | Jan 06, 2013, 01:19 PM EST

  Smyrnian – apologies accepted *shaking hands*. You’ve got a point about ICentral being leftist. It gives people like you and me great opportunities to lambast the agenda of its journalists.

• seamus60 | Jan 06, 2013, 01:03 PM EST

  The racist angle whatever side you`re on, takes away from the real issue. That is numbers that don`t add up for the good being of those already here regardless of their origion and or the natives. Side arguments are down to where they come from in the respect of issues like " will they respect and acknowledge the recognised pitiful minimim hourly rate" and not work for less etc.

• curtisjohnson | Jan 06, 2013, 09:51 AM EST

  Racism/supremacism is a degeneracy rooted in toxic anglo-dutch materialism. However, it is not racist to take the position that mass immigration without adequate assimilation has historically been a disaster in both antiquity and the modern world. Of course, the modern reasons for it are the needs of the commercial elite for cheap labor rather than true humanitarian concerns. Indigenous populations should have a right to preserve their culture.

• falconflash | Jan 06, 2013, 09:39 AM EST

  stevenoh, I am not ashamed to be a racist. Much worse to be an abortionist or a thief or a murderer but not in the eyes of the immoral media. Again, how could the IRA stand by and watch the invasion and destruction of the Irish Nation???? The disunity of the Christian religions has caused the destruction of whites in America, Europe and now Ireland. Nigeria has 90 million people and Ireland 5 million so get used to more and more and more black immigration....Germans, Italians, Chinese, Japanese, Arabs will not go down on bended knee to what the liberals want. Can you imagine giving away your country because you don't want the liberal media to call you a racist....Hey, I'm an Irish American and I'll hate whoever I want to and more of that attitude is needed by the Irish.

• Smyrnian | Jan 06, 2013, 07:06 AM EST

  Jackets - I have never tried twitter. apparently you have a lot of time on your hands, which I do not. As for IC , it exists to push a lefty agenda and everyone knows this. I do apologize for my comment, though, it was a bit unfair.

• casualMBA | Jan 06, 2013, 12:02 AM EST

  Aside from the "acquiesce to the inevitable" comments, I am curious. Just curious, if you will. Would the President of the EU, albeit for six months, have the wherewithal to put an immigration, sovereignty, or member access issue foremost, lastmost, on the European Union's Agenda?

• jacersagain | Jan 05, 2013, 11:43 PM EST

  @ Smyrnian, no apologies to you if you find my posts tiresome reading; you should have gone to Specsavers. Pls provide proof that they are tiresomely without substance. Most posters here on ICentral are well able to intelligently argue points over more than two-liner comments and I do bother me barmy to read the depths of them in order to appreciate what they are saying from their hearts. Irish Central exists for reasoned and unreasoned debate. Go back to twitter if you can’t read or write more than one or two derogatory smart-alec lines.

• jacersagain | Jan 05, 2013, 11:41 PM EST

  @ seamus60 – you’re quite right to draw attention to Sinn Féin’s campaign to encourage immigration. The SF party survives on votes from angry people with little education (including some Irish people), to whom they (the SF party) portray themselves as their saviours, fighting for their immigrant rights (and votes, whatever colour of skin they may be of).

• Smyrnian | Jan 05, 2013, 09:40 PM EST

  Jackers - lots of volume and too many word but no substance. Your postings are tiresome.

• seamus60 | Jan 05, 2013, 09:25 PM EST

  Yet hardly a poster has a problem with Adams and his party wanting the flood gates opened even more. The blind loyalty knows no bounds. Gives great credance to RULING BY FOOLING.

• jacersagain | Jan 05, 2013, 08:01 PM EST

  Apart from what I posted below, I’m not going to answer any further comment by Alara or Wou’knee on the Toyosi case as I’ve had my say, refuting Wou’knee’s ridiculous claim, supported by Alara, of me lying, but may comment further on the subject of the article above. Actually, I mightn’t ‘cos many posters are saying what I might offer… that Ireland’s immigration problem is getting too big for such a small country like ours and needs proper addressing, perhaps by being specially excused from the EU inter-country rights for citizens of its member countries. It is one thing to support Human Rights; is it another thing to fear to address the Irish people’s equality of Human Rights in their own small land?

• jacersagain | Jan 05, 2013, 07:56 PM EST

  (... more) In an extraordinary twist in the story, Paul B died a few days before the court hearing into the murder charge, speculated but not proven to have been suicide, so he never faced the court. The other brother, Michael B, the man Wou’knee says “walked away free” was acquitted, not by the jury, but by order of the judge. After several days of evidence, the judge ruled there was an insufficient case to show that Michael B knew his brother carried a knife and so the trial collapsed. Furthermore, in a related later interview in the Irish Times, an African youth said “Racism is hiding everywhere. It is in the schools. Everywhere in Ireland is racist, it is just being hidden. This country is crazy.” So now, Wou’knee and Alara – you see why I said in response to bobby's post (Jan 4, 6.30pm) that life is not more civil in Ireland for all immigrants (as opposed to England). For further proof, google Stormfront Ireland. And read again ICentral’s John Spain’s excellent article “Ireland of the welcomes… and racism” on the Toyosi Shittabey case (At top right of yr ICentral screen, type the name in the google search box).

• jacersagain | Jan 05, 2013, 07:41 PM EST

  jaysus Wou’knee you sure twist things around. I never post lies. I might be mistaken on some points but they’re not deliberate lies (eg me saying Toyosi was on way home from football training; he and friends had actually been at the local swimming pool. Mea Culpa). Everyone can google for the Toyosi ‘Toy’ Shittabey murder story & court evidence. The teenage boys started the fight? No, they didn’t, the adult Barry brothers (Michael, 23 & Paul, 38) did, in calling the teenagers ‘a bunch of nigg*rs’. A screwdriver carried by one black youth was used to kill Toyoshi? No, it wasn’t – it was a kitchen knife with a black handle and a steel blade (all court evidence). Paul B had a history of racial aggravation, having been convicted of racial incitement about 10 yrs before in another incident in which a man was stabbed in Dublin’s Pearce Street. Paul B was the one who plunged the knife into innocent Toy’s chest (Yes! Toy was innocent because he stepped in to stop Paul B attacking one of his friends with the knife; instead, Paul B turned and instantly stuck the knife into Toy. It’s too horrific an incident to ponder on, what with a seemingly common racial verbal altercation, started by the drink-fuelled Barry brothers, ending up in murder). (More…)

• 2ndrepubalik | Jan 05, 2013, 07:09 PM EST

  A BIG part of this problem is that Illegal Immigration is BIG BUSINESS , in fact it's an INDUSTRY with BIG BUCKS being made out if it by some of the following * The "Fixers" in Ireland , France and Britain that organise the illegal or asylum entry in the first place * The Lawyers who plunder the Free Legal Aid Fund in Ireland to "defend" Thier Clients ( The Illegals) * The Landlords who let out thier Hosues at high prices to house the illegals for years wwhilst applications are processed * The PIMPS who use the Women to generate income * The Black Economy "Employers" who pay cash and sub minimum wage to workers amongst illegals * The Taxi Drivers and Bus Companies that ferry the illegals down from Belfast to Dublin. These are only some of the people who are selling what was OUR Country down the river.They do not care one iota about Culture , Laws or Bankrupting the Country. This stream has now become a flood and with all new "Citizens" now gaining residency they are applying for "Family Reunion" visas and permits for thier relatives to follow them to Ireland.This fact along with a high Birth rate will ensure the continued rise of immigrant numbers.Ireland as you knew it is already dead.They should never have been let in by the authorities in the first place but "bleeding hearts" and others who think we owe the thrid world a living howled against this being done.

• pagey17 | Jan 05, 2013, 03:07 PM EST

  Its insanity us British are getting sick to the back teeth of it the worlds population will be 9 billion in just a few decades and guess where everyone will wish to come. Ireland & Britain must now come together and demand action from this disaster to befall our people.

• IrelandNorth | Jan 05, 2013, 03:00 PM EST

  Population of All Ireland is c6m! 20% immigration into a state with 15% unemployment is 35% insanity. Ireland has an free travel agreement with the EU, and the EU with cheap labour economies. Ergo - Ireland has a de facto free travel arrangement with Nigeria. The more competitors there are for a job, the less the labour cost. That street fight in west Dublin was about foereign lads dating local girls, and manipulating them to slag off the local lads. I've personally witnessed an African chap controlling and manipulating naive and impressionable local lads. And Arabic chaps hitting on a lone unescorted shy Irish girl.

• falconflash | Jan 05, 2013, 11:32 AM EST

  stevenoh, you're right on --- but the blame must start at home.... where is the IRA??? 800 yrs. to beat the English, and then complete surrender to the NEW WORLD ORDER crowd... t

• BananaRepublic | Jan 05, 2013, 11:12 AM EST

  People are waking up but too slowly.There are large parts of recessionary hit Ireland that are untouched by Austerity and live in a bubble.People at the higher end of the Civil Service with incomes above $100k , the MultiNational Sector , the Agricultural and Agri Business Sector , those in the black economy.They are all OK and don't give a damn about what is happening in Ireland because they think that as long as they have a good income they can turn a blind eye to everything else including emigration and immigration. There is a good site to keep track of what people are trying to do to change things in Ireland ,called Call for a Revolution in Ireland on Facebook , worth looking at.Soon "native" Irish People will become a minority in thier own Country , it's not that far off.There are Africans visble in most working class housing estates now and this will spread.Chinese come to Ireland easily through so called "Language Schools" which are a scam.They are officially allowed to work for 20 hours but nthey work ALL hours in the black economy.Again young Chinese are having babies because there is no "one childonly" policy.Ireland is recognised as the easiest Country to get into as the passport control and asylum system is a shambles and does not work.People find themselves out on the street very quickly with benefits.apart from the cost of these "asylum seekers" , Ireland has spent 1.25 BILLION EURO on African Aid over past two years !!! How can a Bankrupt Country do this ??? This money is borrowed and the Ugandan Leaders were found to be pocketing the Money. It's unbelievable what is happening in Ireland , truly unbelievable !

• stevenoh | Jan 05, 2013, 10:58 AM EST

  There is something really bizarre about a country that forces the emigration of so many of its young people because of lack of jobs, yet allows so many immigrants into the country-I include the immigrants from Europe in this calculation. It is as though Europe wants to destroy the very fabric of Irish Society. It is a deliberate ploy to lower wage rates and destroy nationalist sentiment. I have witnessed the pauperisation if Irish people, whilst immigrants from Europe get the jobs. For instance, there is a factory in Tuam County Galway, that replaced the local workers who had been working in the factory for 20 or so years, and replaced them with Polish workers. This is just one example of what is happening throughout the country. I have met many immigrants, via my work, who are blatently abusing the social welfare system by using false identities, false PPS numbers etc. One cannot say, 'well the Irish have found jobs in other countries and sometimes fiddled the system' because the sheer numbers involved are not on the same scale. There are a maximum of 5 million Irish people, but there are now many millions of Europeans who now claim the right to live in Ireland. I am in no way a racist...there is a difference between stating the facts of what is happening, and hating people from a different race.

• falconflash | Jan 05, 2013, 10:54 AM EST

  New World Order: white Christians shall be a minority in all countries....Germans, Italians are only ones who won't concede....Irish are folding as we speak.

• 2ndrepubalik | Jan 05, 2013, 10:09 AM EST

  Thanks WoundedKnee - official figures , as you say are often kept low to hide problems.One is Five ( 1:5) is truly frightening to Me and it's the TREND that is alarming too - it is increasing exponentially !Soon it will be 1:4 !!!25% .These "Mass Citizenship Cewremonies" are also alarming - they are hiding a major illegal immigration problem and a failure to deport behind a "Celebration" - they are fooling no one ! How can all of this be stopped.I read that the EU , including Ireland , is about to let in 12 "Peasant Economies: within the next two years - - we will be swamped even further.We are definitely losing our Homeland and our sense of Community and belonging to each other .

• Alara | Jan 05, 2013, 09:44 AM EST

  Irishmen and women all over the globe need to know what's happening here in Ireland via mass immigration and inform all their family and friends. It's a travesty!

• Alara | Jan 05, 2013, 09:25 AM EST

  Good work Wounded Knee! Jacers is LYING. Good reminder why one need always check into the facts before believing 'racist' allegations like this one.

• WoundedKnee | Jan 05, 2013, 09:24 AM EST

  2ndrepubalik--Bad news. The official figure is not the one you cite, it's 17%. And of course the true figure must be 20% and more, since the Irish census is notoriously unreliable.

• Alara | Jan 05, 2013, 09:24 AM EST

  Good work wounded knee! Jacers is LYING!! A reminder to everyone to never believe what you hear without checking it out for yourself.

• WoundedKnee | Jan 05, 2013, 09:21 AM EST

  (cont.) 2/ The only evidence available in the current case is what was admitted by the court, and that’s why I went to newspaper accounts of the trial, such the “Irish Independent” of 12/06/2012. I also recommend the discussion on this affair on the politics dot ie website around that time. Most important, it turns out that the Irish guy acused of killing the African guy walked free from the court—you didn’t see that in Mr jacers’ account, did you? The judge stopped the trial when he heard how weak was the prosecution case. All charges were dropped. The African teenager who tragically lost his life, Toyosi, was killed in an altercation in which both sides undoubtedly threw around a lot of trash talk. He apparently mistook the identity of one of the white guys as someone who he had a fight with previously. The African juvenile’s cousin, one Koti, admittted that it was he who had started the fight. There was also something about the theft of a cell phone from the Dublin men. And it emerged in court that the likeliest scenario for the events was that Toyosi died as a result of being stabbed by a screwdriver, which one his friends had been carrying. This friend absconded to England, and refused to return to Ireland to give evidence. I do not know what visa arrangements permitted him to enter England, but his refusal to give evidence raises questions which I cannot answer. In short, this was a pretty grubby altercation in which neither side were angels, a street fight such as unfortunately happens in Dublin most every night. Jacers is a liar for hiding the details and trying to blow this up into some kind of massive civil rights case. While I of course regret this young man’s pointless death, he was no Dublin version of Rosa Parks.

• WoundedKnee | Jan 05, 2013, 09:20 AM EST

  1/ My suspicion as to Jacersagain’s mendacity was confirmed when I did a little investigating into this case. I noticed that jacers cited as his evidence newspaper accounts which came out at the time of the killing. This is not evidence, it’s the allegations and claims put forward by a compliant corporate media. We in the US need only look back to the Zimmerman case to see how unreliable, indeed dishonest, can be the initial published accounts of incidents such as this. Indeed when I look back to my younger years I am reminded that Al Sharpton came to fame when he made the most extraordinary and grotesque anti-Irish allegations of racism and rape in the Tiwana Brawley case.

• Joe Kelsall | Jan 05, 2013, 09:13 AM EST

  Get used to it; from January 2014,Romanians and Bulgarians will have the right of abode.

• 2ndrepubalik | Jan 05, 2013, 08:27 AM EST

  As things stand right now approx 12% of our 4.5 million in the Republic are non nationals.Whatever about the EU East Europeans who have a right to be here , the Africans and Asians do not.Yes non existant border controls and word of Irelands easy generous welfare system spread like wildfire in places like Nigeria.Lagos , is now overtaking Cairo as the largest City on the African Continent ( approx 16 million) and Nigeria's exploding population is now over 160 million and rising fast !Nigeria is the most corrupt Country on the planet as identified by many agencies that moniter curruption.Millions of Nigerians are trying to get out of thier own Country but bring thier habits with them elsewere.The Women use the "threat" of FGM as a reason for seeking asylum and one Nigerian Woman here spent over 2 million Euro of taxpayers money under our Free Legal Aid scheme to take a case to the Supreme Court where She had been found against all the way along the line in lower Courts and was found to be lying and having forged documents produced in Court.How long does it take us Irish to see the truth ! We are being over-run and all you 2 million Irish abroad will have no recognisable homeland to cxome back to soon.It's a tragedy and should have been stopped in the 1990's whyen John O'Donoghue was Minister for Justice but as usual the Government or Senior Civil servants did nothing.I am only instancing Nigerians as an example , there are other Nationalities who are equally scamming Ireland.We are such fools it defies beief - maybe we do not deserve Independence or a homeland ?

• seamus60 | Jan 05, 2013, 07:57 AM EST

  Falconflash. With respect although I have issue with immigrants at this time, It is because of their numbers and not the colour of their skin or what religion (if any) they practice.The judgement on one and others religion has brought enough suffering to these shores.

• jacersagain | Jan 05, 2013, 05:59 AM EST

  @ Alara and Wou’knee: here are extracts from Irish newspaper reports of April, 2010 “… a 15-year old boy was killed in Tyrellstown, Co Dublin. Toyoshi Shittabey was walking home from the swimming pool when, it is reported, he and a friend were subjected to a racist verbal assault. It has been reported that while Shittabey and his friend walked away from the scene, the assailants went to a house, acquired a knife, followed the youngsters to their car, and stabbed Shitta Bey in the heart.” … “Irish Times columnist Bryan Mukandi writes: A young man is stabbed to death in his own neighbourhood for being the wrong colour…” >>> Irish Central also covered the story several times. Under John Spain’s article ““Ireland of the welcomes… and racism”, Wou’knee posted under it in response to a Nigerian poster, chiomandebs,: “The Irish went to the United States. They didn't go to Africa. Why are parasites from Africa demanding to be allowed live in Ireland? Go back to your own country.” Enough said, says me.

• warrenpoint00 | Jan 05, 2013, 03:07 AM EST

  Why would any Irish one anyone want to induce the queen of england into this subject she merely is the patriach of slavery. ar dheis de ar son go mbah agus an she is a beag lumpsa

• WoundedKnee | Jan 05, 2013, 02:27 AM EST

  Jacers--I suspect you're lying--again: What evidence came out that this kid was killed because he was black?

• Alara | Jan 05, 2013, 01:01 AM EST

  Jacers writes: "Not long ago, an innocent fifteen yr-old son of an immigrant family on his way home from soccer football training was stabbed to death in a Dublin suburb just for being black." Which "innocent" are you referring to exactly, Jacer?

• jacersagain | Jan 04, 2013, 10:46 PM EST

  Remembering Queen Elizabeth’s visit to the Irish Republican stronghold of Cork City and specifically to her visit to its English Market, I am reminded that West Cork is populated by so many English immigrants that it is locally and jokily called the 'Republic of England'. On that evidence, given emerging population trends, perhaps the West of Ireland will be called the New Republic of Brazil, County Offaly called the New Republic of Africa, Athlone in Co. Westmeath the New Republic of Capitalist China, Dublin City the New Republic of the United Sates of India and Pakistan, the suburb of Clonskeagh in Dublin called the Republic of Islam and… well, flip me! - there’s nowhere left for the oul’ Irish Republic! We’ll become a Federation of diverse Irish Republics!

• warrenpoint00 | Jan 04, 2013, 10:04 PM EST

  By strange coincidence my friends in New York and Boston tell me that most of the Irish people who cringe and lament about how they lost their jobs in Ireland because of foreign intrusion are the same ones that do not go to work till Wednesday just in time to purchase their weekly beer or dope money and the same ones that sit in the health centers getting free service for their self inflicted problems and their racist phobias at the expense of the United States tax payer.Please...give Ireland a foreign black fluent gaelic speaker anytime rather than this free state thrash

• warrenpoint00 | Jan 04, 2013, 09:29 PM EST

  I fully understand curthibia your parents were just returning to the british homeland maybe sensed things were not so good in plantation hood anymore because the Gaels were gaining a foothold in their own country and making a living from their own land after years of british tyranny theft and oppression.Too bad your parents did,nt tell all their flag waving chums in the north of my country to go with them to the homeland.Just to update you my foreign Irish friend we have a black man, black as your boot (not a protestant now) in Co Offally and he is a mayor and you know what he speaks fluent Gaelic.Now how many of your black preceptor british protestant chums in the North of my country speak fluent gaelic or would ever participate in an ALL iRELAND shan nos.Now dude before you lecture me on who of race distinction should be allowed into my country let me tell you ANYONE but the british imperialist thrash that me and my Irish neighbors have had to endure with for the last 800 years in our home land.Maybe my foreign Irish friend you should worry more about who we can get out of Ireland rather than who is coming into it. slan leat

• jacersagain | Jan 04, 2013, 09:21 PM EST

  Pardon mistypo in my last post - "farcsmiling faces" should read "farcically smiling faces". Dunno how that happened with my computerised Irish English spellchecker. Probably 'cos of a real, live non-Irish spell checker butted in *oops!*.

• jacersagain | Jan 04, 2013, 09:14 PM EST

  No, bobby, life is not more civil in Ireland for all immigrants of any natonality, even Americans here. Not long ago, an innocent fifteen yr-old son of an immigrant family on his way home from soccer football training was stabbed to death in a Dublin suburb just for being black. As I mentioned before, a friend of mine works in housing immigrants in Dublin. He knows first-hand that the intimidation that immigrants suffer within their new Irish neighbourhoods is frightening some of them not just out of the neighbourhood but also back out of the country. The immigrants who stay despite the intimidation are well-heeled, educated, trained professionals such as doctors, nurses and hospitality industry-orientated young people and such other people. But they know they are still not welcomed, being given farcsmiling faces but cold shoulders because they are occupying jobs and positions that most Irish people feel should rightfully belong to Irish graduates and industrially-trained Irish people.

• jacersagain | Jan 04, 2013, 08:39 PM EST

  jetsnoone – you’re right, like others in this debate, to mention the comparative mathematics. A small country like Ireland with few natural resources to extract or generate wealth from, in today’s world economy, does not have the capacity to support an influx of immigrants, of the scale that we are seeing now, that countries like Italy, Spain and France have with their wealth of natural resources, even with the high rate of emigration of young and not-so-young Irish people. Somebody, somewhere in Irish political and governmental service departments is going to have to see that Ireland is not as “people-absorbable” as a country like Germany or Sweden might be. The math just don’t add up.

• bobby | Jan 04, 2013, 06:30 PM EST

  Ireland has got alot of foreign nationals, but one difference i have noticed between Ireland and England is life is more civil in Ireland amongst all nationals.

• Curitiba | Jan 04, 2013, 03:02 PM EST

  Not really warrenpoint00. My parents went to London to find employment that their native country couldn't provide for them. Nothing to do with "British opression". Britain has been very kind to them. I am waiting for a Chinese or Nigerian lad, of Irish parents to be promoted by the elites of those countries as representatives of their culture. Never going to happen, is it? They would laugh at you if you suggested a Nigerian or Chinese born person of Irish parents was a Nigerian or Chinese. As for your chums in the North, well if one warning from history about the dangers of mass immigration isn't enough for you, how many exactly do you need before you get the message?

• warrenpoint00 | Jan 04, 2013, 02:22 PM EST

  Is,nt it a bit grand to hear all the foreign diaspora lament moan and wory about the shape and future of our Irish culture.Dont hear them shout so loud when confronted with the true fact that the british nation wreckers tried desperately and failed may I add to releive Ireland not only of our culture but also of our country.May I update all you descendants of Irish emigrants in all those far away countries that your fore fathers took refuge in from the tyranny and opression of those same nation wreckers and where you now call home taht the culture in the island of Ireland is just fine, just last year an Irish girl from Belfast, an Irish girl of Chinese emmigrants and a coloured Irish lad of African emigrants all took part in the All Ireland Shan Nos finals and all performed and paraded our Gaelic culture splendidly.AND these new foreigners they dont terrorise their Irish neighbours if their foreign flag is only flown for 17 days from a building in our country.

• Bocktherobber | Jan 04, 2013, 12:47 PM EST

  Wounded Knee -- Did you assume my remark was about you or do you speak for everyone who comments here?

• Curitiba | Jan 04, 2013, 12:37 PM EST

  WoundedKnee: Exactly, because this is the scenario I have observed here in Britain for many years, albeit in slow motion compared to Ireland. But it comes down to this; do the Irish people value their ancient culture and Celtic heritage or not? Do they feel that being the descendants of the original settlers is something they want to continue to future generations, or do they feel it is something old and stuffy and frankly racist to preserve Ireland's homogeneity on the basis that someone else's ancestors were beastly to someone else's ancestors. If they think the former, they should vote for a party that will work towards this. they should also harness the energy and ideas of the Diaspora to help achieve this end. If they think that Ireland and its indigenous people should be consigned to the dustbin of history, then they should continue voting for the current band of nation-wreckers. It's as simple as that. Neither I, nor you can affect the outcome. We are just like bystanders at a car-crash.

• Curitiba | Jan 04, 2013, 11:18 AM EST

  I believe that it is intrinsic in our human nature that we will forever migrate from places of hardship to places of opportunity. This has been true since homo sapiens first stood upright. For millennia migration was restricted because of mountains, rivers, seas and oceans. Not so anymore. We Irish know more about this than most people - and have benefitted greatly because doors were opened to us, not always willingly but opened. I am disheartened to see so many in these pages so bitterly opposed to immigrants seeking a better life in Ireland. I believe that the overwhelming majority are willing to work - and do work, often at menial jobs, to move upward and realize their own dreams, a most human and universal condition. Yes, a small few come to Ireland because of its generous welfare allowances, but very few. Yet, I, too, have concerns over the government's open-door policy that seems to have little regard for the culture and heritage of the Irish people. It is one thing to allow mass immigration into a vast country with vast resources. It is quite another to do so into a small island nation with a now fragile population and limited resources. I have stated this concern before and remain perplexed as to why the government does not have a more considered, balanced and rational approach. The price of membership in the EU may be too high.

• darragh S | Jan 04, 2013, 10:59 AM EST

  Haven't been home for 20 years. Nothing like a bit of diversity. Ireland should embrace the new people on its shores with open arms. You don't have to be Irish to be Irish.

• WoundedKnee | Jan 04, 2013, 10:46 AM EST

  Curitiba--Excellent exposition of the demographics that will destroy Irish nationality. I'm not sure if you mentioned this, but it's worth restating: An important element in demographics is chain migration. In other words, if one person immigrates and settles, he is able and likely to encourage the immigration of his relatives and even friends. Thus you must factor in not just the direct offspring of immigrants, but other relations such as uncles, nieces, parents etc. I have already noticed this in Ireland, where it is common to see elderly Eastern Europeans shuffling around the shopping malls, sometimes pushing baby carriages containing what are probably their children's children. And under the very lax "family unity" provisions of Irish immigration law, such as it is, it is perfectly easy for non-EU migrants who are now attaining Irish citizenship in huge numbers to start the process of importing fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, granpa etc. etc. A case in point is the African influx of some ten years ago. Not that many "refugees" (sic) actually arrived in Ireland, but once permitted to stay they were able to demand that siblings, parents, children etc. be allowed in to accompany them; the result is that today the African population of some parts of Ireland is huge. I had set the Doomsday clock--the day on which the Irish become a minority ethnos in their own country--at 2050, but I now think it likelier that the clock will strike for Ireland by 2040.

• Curitiba | Jan 04, 2013, 10:23 AM EST

  Last sentence; "...who are the majority in their area"

• Curitiba | Jan 04, 2013, 10:22 AM EST

  Furthermore, while small numbers of migrants adapt to and sometimes integrate with the host population, large numbers form a parallel society which would be Irish in name only. They will not be interested in anything culturally Irish, and will follow the culture of their ancestors. What will happen in the medium term is that wealthier residents will sell up and move further away or emigrate abroad from the culturally enriched area, leaving behind the poorer residents, who end up embracing and assimilating with the majority immigrant population. This can be observed in Britain with the emergence of the "Jafaican" culture, where indigenous British youth dress like, speak like and act like the residents of West Indian descent who for the majority in their area.

• Curitiba | Jan 04, 2013, 10:15 AM EST

  Obviously, the population of Ireland is still about 4.5 million, so the effects are noticeable only in areas where there are a high concentration of immigrants. However, as the indigenous residents die off, they will not be replaced by their own grandchildren, due to the fact that their sons and daughters have emigrated, or chosen to remain childless, they will be replaced by the children of migrants. Migrants from poorer parts of the world tend to have a higher birthrate and added to this, immigration will not stop. Also, second-generation immigrants are not counted as "foreign-born" for obvious reasons and so any children they may have are not counted as having "foreign born mothers". Although this phenomenon has being going on in Britain since 1947, Britain has 12x the Irish population, so because of the absolute numbers entering and leaving Ireland, total population replacement will happen in Ireland must sooner than in Britain.

• Mousemess | Jan 04, 2013, 10:05 AM EST

  Cen ait a chuireann sibh na daoine as na tiortha eile uilig i dtir chomh beag le hEireann? Where do you put the people from all the other countries in a country as small as Eire/Ireland?

• Curitiba | Jan 04, 2013, 10:03 AM EST

  This is the end for Ireland. 70,000 indigenous Irish leaving each year, to be replaced by 80,000 "New Irish", leads to only one thing; total population replacement. The problem with people who are in denial about this point to the fact that Ireland remains overwhelmingly Celtic in appearance. They ignore the fact that many of these people are not having children due to age and that the proportion of non-Irish born mothers increased to 24% in 2011 from virtually zero 20 years ago, which I am wildly speculating is not due to an influx of Plastic Paddy mothers. Many of the indigenous people who are in the child-bearing age are either choosing not to have children due to lifestyle, or emigrating and having them in their new country.

• WoundedKnee | Jan 04, 2013, 09:27 AM EST

  Stevenstar, a chara: Just a little correction, in case readers misunderstand you. You wrote "WE HAD OVER 200 IRISH PEOPLE LEAVE THE COUNTRY IN 2012". I know that you meant to write "200 Irish people PER DAY", which is the correct figure. Turning to Hollaback girl, we go from sense to nonsense. She writes: "Ignore the idiotic misrule of the Irish establishment.... bash these immigrants instead. It worked for Hitler." Both parts of this are garbage. First, those in Ireland and Irish America who oppose Mass Immigration realize that the same Irish politicians and ruling class who gave Ireland Mass Immigration are now giving it Mass Emigration. In contrast, people like Hollaback who claim to condemn the Irish government for its mismanagement of the economy, suddenly become its biggest boosters on the issue of Mass Immigration! Which is it Hollaback, are the Irish government idiots or geniuses? Looks like you think they're geniuses, who at least got it all right on Mass Immigration. And your second point, about Hitler, is just an ignorant slur. If you knew anything about history you would know that Hitler was a big proponent of Mass Immigration. During the War he imported hundreds of thousands of Hungarians, Romanians etc to work in Germany. So Hollabak, you stand with the Irish bosses and with Hitler! Good company for all like you who want to destroy Irish nationality forever.

• WoundedKnee | Jan 04, 2013, 09:05 AM EST

  "Niall, are you in any way concerned about the direction this website is taking?" Oh look! Another Mass Immigrationist who wants to deny people the right to discuss Irish Immigration policies! Listen Mr Bock, we know that the media in Ireland are censored so as to deny the people a chance to discuss the settlement of their country by foreign migrants. Only "Isn't Ireland great to have such an Open Door policy?" type articles are permitted in the newspapers. On the rare occasions that the state broadcaster does a discussion on immigration, it consists of three or four people--usually employees of Chuck Feeney-funded Migrant pressure groups--gravely agreeing that "shure and it's great altogether to have so many Pakistani halal butchers and filipino nurses and Romany beggars". In fact, a source within the Irish Times newspaper told me that the paper had stopped asking questions about public attitudes to Mass Immigration in the polls they regularly conduct, because they didn't like the fact that 70% and more of the respondents (and that means much more of the Irish, since 20% of people polled in Ireland will be foreign migrants) expressed opposition to the continuing colonization of Ireland by settlers. In this light, and given the state stifling of free speech in Ireland on the vast and violent demographic changes being visited on it by its rulers, I urge all Irish Americans to demand answers on this whenever the Irish tourist honchos or politicians try to sell us their phony Gathering.

• seamus60 | Jan 04, 2013, 07:42 AM EST

  hollabackgurl. I think you will find it is yet another blunder by politicians who are allowing the unhealthy influx. As for emmigrant bashing, that will have more reason to happen as a consequence of bad policy that some a certain party want expanded.

• seamus60 | Jan 04, 2013, 07:33 AM EST

  Bobby. Point taken with thanks.

• STEVENSTAR | Jan 04, 2013, 06:58 AM EST

  THIS IS THE IRISH GOVERMENTS ANSWER TO IRELAND 15% UNEMPLOYMENT RATE WHICH IS ONE OF THE HIGHEST IN EUROPE, WE HAD OVER 200 IRISH PEOPLE LEAVE THE COUNTRY IN 2012 IN SEARCH OF WORK AND WE BORROW BILLIONS EVERY WEEK TO KEEP THE COUNTRY AFLOAT.... WE HAVE THE BEST WELFARE SYSTEM IN EUROPE FOR A SINGLE UNEMPLOED PERSON ITS 188EURO 20EURO FUEL ALLOWANCE - 84EURO RENT ALLOWANCE.. A MEDICAL CARD AND SOME DENTIST COSTS COVERED .. THAT GOES UP IF YOU HAVE CHILDREN ... SO ITS NO WONDER THEY;RE ALL QUEUEING UP TO GET THEIR IRISH CITIZENSHIP.... IF YOU PRINTED THIS ARTICLE AND SENT IT ROUND THE WORLD PEOPLE WOULD THINK IT WAS ACTUALLY A PADDY IRISH MAN JOKE .... AND ON TOP OF ALL THAT THE IRISH GOVERMENT IS NOW MERLEY A PUPPET ON A STRING FOR THE EU, WHO DICTATE EVERYTHING FROM OUR BUDGETS TO WHO WE LET INTO THE COUNTRY ... IRELAND IS A TOTAL LAUGHING STOCK WHEN YOU COMPARE IT TO COUNTRIES LIKE AUSTRALIA....

• esatdigiwank | Jan 04, 2013, 06:27 AM EST

  Did a majority of us Irish not vote for the GFA? This has the provision that there is to be un-hindered movements of ppl between the islands of Britain and Ireland. But it seems we were too short-sighted to see the wider implications of this. No checks on ppl entering the republic via the border counties for a start. Go search for the text of the GFA. NObody here cottoned on to the loop-hole in the GF Agreement..Its too late. And maybe I'm too late to post this also.

• jetsnoone | Jan 04, 2013, 05:28 AM EST

  Jacer, don't forget to do the math......a country like Italy has about 45 million people so what's a million or so immigrants to them. Whereas, Ireland has only 4 million people so it will be changed quickly and entirely. China, Japan, Germany, have a homeland --- but the Irish soon enough no more. Ga-bye...

• jacersagain | Jan 04, 2013, 02:55 AM EST

  Go now, go figure, go tell everyone why Ireland really got financially broke… We Irish… well, we’re really TOO kind, intolerably so, and getting more intolerable, erm… so such much too, if you get my real meaning, worthy of a place on the right hand side of God (Ar dheis Dé go mbeigh all our generous anams, slippery slíotha isteach agus amach and wayward arses, black, white or simply singed (pron: sinzhed, as in bbq-singed), that the native Irish are right to go fully xenophobic without the fear. There… - you have it now….

• jacersagain | Jan 04, 2013, 02:54 AM EST

  (…more) So there you have it… free Irish water was being (is still?? Maybe for future) gloriously, feelingly, splashed over their heads, over the bath rims and over the bathroom floors, so much so that, over some time, the immigrants were drenching the hollow space below the bathroom floor and above the lower floor ceilings with bucket water, leading to total ceiling collapses, kitchen and electrical wiring replacements, electrical faults, light bulbs exploding, house fires starting (and all that that entails). Repair costs are at cost to Irish tax-payers, because, by Irish Government-enforced generosity, they are held responsible for the upkeep of social, state-owned houses. The cost of such simple, over-the-head rinsing in Irish-owned, foreigner-occupied homes is massive, so my friend says.

• angrypaddy | Jan 04, 2013, 12:43 AM EST

  Just think of all the Paul McGrath's you beer swillins song singing usless dole bludgers will have to sing about add's a bit of colour into your boreing pathetic lives

• jacersagain | Jan 04, 2013, 12:18 AM EST

  The unique side story (well, not that unique; Ireland is not the first country to have this happen within its borders): A friend of mine who works in placing (mostly) African- and Indian-born immigrants in Irish two-storey social housing told me that a huge frequency of repairs to down-stair ceilings was peculiarly happening in African and Indian tenants’ homes - because they still poured water in containers over their heads while kneeling or standing in the bath. In short, they didn’t know how to use a bath, or a shower, or how to simply rinse themselves in bathwater; they just poured buckets or plastic basins filled with bath or tap water over their heads, as they customarily did “back home”. (More…)

• jacersagain | Jan 04, 2013, 12:15 AM EST

  (…more) So then, xenophobia in Ireland might not just be about skin colour or poor people from European countries like Romania or from the great African or Indian continents etc. who migrate here to bleed the Irish Taxpayer and send Irish taxpayers’ money out of Ireland, back to their own families and countries but xenophobia might be of a belief that they can’t afford to buy toilet paper, or be qualified in how to use it, while they are deemed qualified to serve us drinks in our pubs and food in our restaurants… could it? Could that be why my mother told me to “just stay away from them”? Could it?? (A unique, slightly humorous side-story to follow…)

• jacersagain | Jan 04, 2013, 12:12 AM EST

  (…more) Some years later, as a young teenager, I was startled in hearing and seeing a grocery shopkeeper angrily shouting and waving at a black man to not to touch the fruit and vegetables that he was picking through and choosing to purchase (just like we all do today). The shop was near a Dublin hospital, which foreign medical students often lived near to. Guess what? (No, you’re never gonna get this one!...) Absolute, sheer, utter coincidence would have it that… wait til you hear this… many years later I met a daughter of that shopkeeper… and as we recalled our 'together without knowing each other' years, I recounted that incident to her (no, she wasn’t my late wife). She told me that her daddy was never a “wacist”, was always charitable, supporting the (Irish) St. Vincent de Paul Society and The Missions - but that he believed, back then, that black people didn’t use toilette paper and would therefore always have unhygienic hands and fingernails. So then (more…)

• jacersagain | Jan 03, 2013, 11:54 PM EST

  Xenophobia, the fear of foreigners, is a very noticeable both quite and quietly a fact in Ireland these days. Many may think it started with the influx of foreign, particularly black African or dark or light brown-skinned Indian, Turkish, Brazilian and a few Icelandic people slipping into Ireland during the early days of the Celtic Tiger years of 10 years ago now but no - it didn’t start then. It started many decades ago. I remember, as a kid, seeing a happy black family in my native Dublin neighbourhood. It was such an extraordinary sight that I said to my mother, in my innocence of support for my school’s “Penny in the box for a Poor Black Baby” campaign, that it was nice to see a nice black Mammy & Daddy passing our house on the way to the local shop, with their children not looking sick or hungry (me thinking of me ‘pocket-money-saved’ penny for the Black Baby campaign was working). I was shocked when my mother darted her eyes sideways towards me and quietly, sternly told me not to associate with them - “Just stay away from them”, was all she said without explanation. Today, I would say she was racist; back then, as her child, I unquestioningly, trustingly accepted her word as sound advice. That’s true… (More... another true story, for all)

• hollabackgurl | Jan 03, 2013, 11:47 PM EST

  Ignore the idiotic misrule of the Irish establishment; forget the bankers who brought the country to the brink of ruin - bash these immigrants instead. It worked for Hitler.

• Ron | Jan 03, 2013, 11:40 PM EST

  Come on down to Australia. We welcome the Irish over the odds and sods who come here wanting to change our culture pool.

• Springfield9 | Jan 03, 2013, 10:17 PM EST

  It looks like we will look East and miss more than Ireland itself. We're going to miss Old Erin entirely.I can only assume that they legalized something horrid for recreational smoking at the Foreign Office.

• bobby | Jan 03, 2013, 10:04 PM EST

  Sounds a bit like the US Ed. Your turning into Mexico. Enjoy...

• Ed65 | Jan 03, 2013, 09:47 PM EST

  Cultural and National Suicide. Brought to you by your elected leaders. Enjoy!

• Smyrnian | Jan 03, 2013, 08:57 PM EST

  Don't forget that the further back in time you go the less choice people had when it came to emigration.

• jetsnoone | Jan 03, 2013, 08:21 PM EST

  800 years to beat the English......only 25 years to surrender to the New World Order which has as it's goal no homeland for the Celts. Ireland will be a cheap replica of Britain in a few more years.... Brits win afterall!

• bobby | Jan 03, 2013, 07:56 PM EST

  55,400 Irish national also returned home this year.

• bobby | Jan 03, 2013, 07:48 PM EST

  Seamus read my first comment! Many of the ones i spoke to that left Ireland had a job before they left. I know some leave to find work but many left out of choice. Also many of the thousands that left Ireland this year are not all Irish.

• seamus60 | Jan 03, 2013, 07:34 PM EST

  Bobby. The point I was making, that they left Ireland to go look for work. Tayandcake. My great worry is that who ever is returned to Gov for the next generation will have no shortage of opportunity to vale over their own failures with the remaining legacy of recent gov`s.

• bobby | Jan 03, 2013, 07:21 PM EST

  Many of them i spoke to had enough. Don't blame them, screwed over by the government screwed over by Europe. They came to London because they are highly skilled educated people and could find work easy in London.

• seamus60 | Jan 03, 2013, 07:05 PM EST

  Bobby. Why were and are so many in london.

• TayandCake | Jan 03, 2013, 06:57 PM EST

  I guess that's it then, Ireland is finished.

• bobby | Jan 03, 2013, 06:53 PM EST

  @Smyrnian they are hardly pushing the Irish out, many of whom choose to leave that had a job. I know many Irish people here in London that left the country even though they had a job. It was out of choice.

• Smyrnian | Jan 03, 2013, 06:37 PM EST

  I clearly recall as a child in the National School in Ireland as our parents (who were desperately poor) were harassed and cajoled into donating hard earned pennies to (as it was expressed then) "help the black babies". Furthermore we had pennies wrestled from our hands to buy sill magazines no one read called "Africa" and "The Far East". No these same people are invading our tiny island and pushing the natives out. How sad and ironic. Some people may take offense to this post but these are facts.

• cillowen | Jan 03, 2013, 06:15 PM EST

  Shatter - in every land - as for the Irish - they were such easy pickings. The gathering describes it well - going home to see the israeli's brilliance at work for the troika partnership. Its puking from here on in when as I long imagined was the answer to this England's island problem. Dump - bury the paddies with bodies - shure they were collecting monies for the babies of Africa for as long as I remember. And, there be geldorf and bono and nuns and priests the front for Brit Empire building.

• Bocktherobber | Jan 03, 2013, 05:23 PM EST

  Nialll, are you in any way concerned about the direction this website is taking?

• Scrivner | Jan 03, 2013, 05:21 PM EST

  Sounds like you native Irish should start buying up prime land for casinos. That way you can relieve those auslanders of their ill got gains.

• CeltNYC | Jan 03, 2013, 05:06 PM EST

  Warrenpoint00 crying the same discredited "racist" ad hominem attack yet again. The favored tactic of neo-marxists when faced with realists. It would be really nice if these brainwashed types didn't use our western nations for their little social science experiments. In each case they have made horrible decisions and continue to do so without even any self-reflection. Gotta love the ridiculous "occupying native lands" canard as well as the British comparison! Absolutely absurd logic and completely misses woundedkneecap's terrific message. Woundedkneecap's point of view is clearly shaped by reason, logic, real life experience, and how the world truly works. Warrenpoint00 - the only fool is you and you're the racist as you are anti-white.

• warrenpoint00 | Jan 03, 2013, 04:20 PM EST

  So I guess you are not an emigrant woundedkneecap.You have no shame either for occupying the native Americans land it seems.You are one of those all Americans.So its ok with you if foreigners occupy some countries and not others.You sound like the o;d brits dude, remember them, yeah they that stole pillaged and occupied every other country in the world yet now they scream shame when foreign workers come to work and settle on their piece of land.In case you haven't noticed thousands of Irish workers have emigrated in masses to different countries of the world over hundreds of years, I would like to hear you to explain to them that they had no right to settle and live in some one else's country..you racist fool.

• Bocktherobber | Jan 03, 2013, 04:07 PM EST

  Dead right. The only good immigrant is an Irish immigrant.

• bob mcbride | Jan 03, 2013, 03:54 PM EST

  Why can't polish,romanian,nigerian,phillipino's,and arabs stay in their own countries and make them better? Why do they have to come here and work for free and drive down the standard of living. Paddy's from far away should get first and foremost consideration.

• Bocktherobber | Jan 03, 2013, 03:24 PM EST

  Wounded Knee -- Where do all these Americans who condemn immigration fit into Chief Seattle's narrative?

• Smyrnian | Jan 03, 2013, 03:07 PM EST

  Well said, WoindedKnee, well said indeed.

• merefalow | Jan 03, 2013, 03:04 PM EST

  the day the european nations signed up to the eu was the day they signed their individuality and freedom away,all built on the lie of human rights and multicultarism,your finances destroyed and massive debt inflicted and NO ONE PERSON,BANKER,OR BANKSTER INSTITUTION HELD TO ACCOUNT,most people even now dont understand what hit them,there needs to emerge a party that will spell out a route out of this economic slavery and ifs thats construed as racist,so be it,because if something isnt done the white races as we know them will cease to excist.ask the red sqirrel what he thinks of mass uncontrolled imigration,if you can find one.

• seamus60 | Jan 03, 2013, 03:04 PM EST

  Misneac. Why do you exclude the name of the other so called great politician and peace maker who wants the mad policy of those you mention expanded.

• WoundedKnee | Jan 03, 2013, 02:53 PM EST

  Bock: "What would a native American make of all this talk about foreign immigrants?" That's easily answered. Chief Seattle a century and a half ago spoke: "And when the last Red Man shall have perished, and the memory of my tribe shall have become a myth among the White Men, these shores will swarm with the invisible dead of my tribe, and when your children's children think themselves alone in the field, the store, the shop, upon the highway, or in the silence of the pathless woods, they will not be alone. At night when the streets of your cities and villages are silent and you think them deserted, they will throng with the returning hosts that once filled them and still love this beautiful land". The Seattle Indians passed into history, as did the Kiowa and the Iroquois, the Arapaho and the Lakota, and a thousand other Indian nations. And the Irish will tread that Trail of Tears, and like the Indians who sold Manhattan, they will have given away their patrimony for a bauble, a worthless trifle. But in a century or two perhaps a sensitive one among the "New Irish" who have completed their settlement, will on a moonlit night alone out on mountain or glen hear the rustle and sighs of the spirits of two millenia of Irish who lie buried in their ancestral homeland. Truly, if you think Mass Immigration is a good idea, ask a Native American.

• ancavker | Jan 03, 2013, 02:49 PM EST

  STEVEN: I guess us Irish- Americans are not looking so bad any more.

• misneac | Jan 03, 2013, 02:48 PM EST

  Why wouldnt they flock in ? We h have the best social welfare system in Europe .We penalise our own people by taxation to support "baby machines " ,creating current hardship for our own elderly and needy people .Why do we tolerate this stupidity and accept the philosophies of the likes of Gilmore ,Quinn ,Shatter etc . There is big trouble ahead !!

• curtisjohnson | Jan 03, 2013, 02:45 PM EST

  It's all part of the anglo elites plan to eject and replace the indigenous population - same as the famine years (recall the London Times article celebrating that the Celt would be as rare as a Native American on the American East coast) except now the anglo oriented establishment in control resides primarily in Dublin.

• seamus60 | Jan 03, 2013, 02:22 PM EST

  Ireland North. Agreed but more worrying than fellow european state member citizens flocking in is Adams call to open the gates to more African countries.

• Smyrnian | Jan 03, 2013, 02:16 PM EST

  Bock - The native American would say, "Hear me well Irish people, this path is known to us and we are no more. Heed the lesson in this".

• Smyrnian | Jan 03, 2013, 02:13 PM EST

  Xenophobia has nothing to do with it. If one cannot see the difference between Irish people migrating to vast lands like the US, Canada, Australia etc. (which are culturally similar to Ireland) vs. the massive influx into the tiny island of Ireland by people's that are culturally and religiously vastly different people's who traditionally do not integrate well, then Ireland is in big trouble indeed.

• IrelandNorth | Jan 03, 2013, 02:09 PM EST

  First we had Moonie mass marriage ceremonies in Seoul in South Korea. Now we have mass naturalisation ceremonies by the Rev Sun Myung Shatter-oonie in Dublin, Ireland. Truth is, Ireland is no longer master of its own house, but controlled by faceless Eurocrats in Brussels. Debt entrapment is the new imperialism. Bankers in the private sector are seduced into collapsing a buoyant economy. Then corporate loan sharkes offer macroeconomic loans with ideological strings attached. Parliamentary democracy, (in so far as it ever truly exists anywhere), is then compromised by subcontracting sovereignty to unelected and unaccountable accountants and economists. Welcome to Euro-Federalism, folks. Don't say I didn't warn ya! "Ireland long a province (of the British Empire) be, a [county] (of the European Union (EU)) [hath become!]" Both the British and/or Irish Isles are particularly vulnerable to this phenomenon, being as they are on the periphery of the mainland. When 12 peasant economies incl Bulgaria and Romania are admitted to full EU membership in 2014, the economies of either/both British and/or Irish Isles will probably capsise. Fasten yer safety belts.

• Bocktherobber | Jan 03, 2013, 02:04 PM EST

  What would a native American make of all this talk about foreign immigrants?

• Rebelforce | Jan 03, 2013, 02:02 PM EST

  Ireland better hurry up and make aborting Irish babies legal so there will be more room for the Chinese, Indians, Nigerians, Turks, Poles, Fillipinos.....

• pilib04 | Jan 03, 2013, 01:50 PM EST

  Ever notice how the xenophobes come crawling out of their caves like cockroaches whenever there is a story about immigration? Irish can go anywhere. Same with Americans. God forbid someone from a different continent should try to go to the USA or Ireland. You know Americans and other white Europeans continue to dominate the world, taking the best jobs in every country. Yet, I don't hear anyone complaining about that!

• seamus60 | Jan 03, 2013, 01:46 PM EST

  Let enough in and the Irish will be squealing for ID cards that will eventually transpire into phisical chips. Controlled by who ?

• pilib04 | Jan 03, 2013, 01:45 PM EST

  I don't know about the others, but the Indians I have met in Ireland are professionals who can easily move elsewhere when their services are no longer needed. Many in the healthcare profession or related.

• seamus60 | Jan 03, 2013, 01:37 PM EST

  Biggles. They`ll get very little money for doing a lot. The Irish just better get prepared to do as much for as little.

• JohnnyMac | Jan 03, 2013, 01:17 PM EST

  Well, the Irish Government will be sctratching their heads in about 10 years trying to figure out why they cannot afford to cover everyone on the welfare. It didn't take long to spread the word throughout impoverished or war torn countries that "free living" was available at no resistance in a country called "Ireland". The Irish will continue to emigrate (today's numbers are highest since the great famine) and the vacancies will instantly be filled by immigrants from India, Turkey and all the places listed in this article. You'll all be paying dearly in new taxes that will have to be instituted to cover these new found adopted residents. Good luck.

• STEVENSTAR | Jan 03, 2013, 01:09 PM EST

  IN IRELAND WE HAVE ALWAYS HAD CLOSE TIES WITH THE UK OR AMERICA ... BUT I DO NOT UNDESTAND WHY SOMEONE LIVING OVER IN INDIA OR AFRICA OR POLAND WHAT LINKS OR CONNECTION THE WOULD HAVE WITH IRELAND AND DONT EVEN SPEAK THE SAME LANGUAGE THE CULTURE AND PEOPLE ARE ALSO MILLLIONS OF MILES APART.. SO WHY WOULD THEY WANT TO COME ALL THE WAY TO A SMALL TINY COUNTRY IN WESTERN EUROPE...??? AS AN IRISHMAN I WOULDNT DREAM OF MOVING TO INDIA, AFRICA, POLAND, RUSSIA OR ANY OF THEM COUNTRIES YET THAY ALL WANT TO MOVE HERE.......MAYBE FOR THE WEATHER YA ? OR THE FREE WELFARE SYSTEM..ITS A COMPLETE JOKE AND LITERALLY ITS A FREE OPEN DOOR POLICY TO ANYONE WHO WANTS TO COME HERE..

• bob40wil | Jan 03, 2013, 01:07 PM EST

  Ah yes, the new melting pot.

• STEVENSTAR | Jan 03, 2013, 01:03 PM EST

  AND THINGS ARE GOING T0 GET ALOT WORSE IN THE NEXT 10YEARS IRELAND IS NOW 'SATURATED WITH FOREIGNERS.. AND STILL THEY ARRIVE I WAS IN DUBLIN FOR CHRISTMAS AND I STRUGGLED TO HEAR IRISH PEOPLE SPEAKING ON THE STREETS.. WE HAVE 1 IN 4 POLISH LIVING ON WELFARE WHICH IN IRELAND IS 188EURO A WEEK, 20 EURO FUEL ALLOWANCE 84EURO RENT ALLOWANCE AND THATS FOR A SINGLE PERSON IF YOU HAVE CHILDREN YOU GET MORE AND A BIGGER RENT ALLOWANCE .. FREE MEDIACLA AND SOME DENISTS COSTS ARE COVERED.. WE NOW BORROW 1BILLION EURO A MONTHS TO KEEP THE COUNTRY GOING AND I THINK ITS 200 IRISH PEOPLE A WEEK ARE LEAVING TO FIND WORK... I THINK THE PEOPLE IN THE IRISH GOVERMENT ARE ABSOLUTE IDIOTS AND MOST IRISH POLITICIANS ARE IDIOTS AS NO OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD WOULD ALLOW WHATS HAPPENING HERE TO HAPPEN IN THEIR COUNTRY.... AND LOOKING AT THE PHOTOS ABOVE ITS NO WONDER WHY THEY ARE QUEUEING UP TO GET IN HERE FROM INDIA AFRICA EASTERN EUROPE AND GODS KNOWS WHERE ELSE..WE ARE A SMALL COUNTRY AND ITS A DISGRACE WHATS HAPPENING HERE..

• antoman | Jan 03, 2013, 12:14 PM EST

  There should be a full investigation. Followed by a tribunal lasting no less than five years and costing the Irish people half a billion euros. Concluding with the opening of a ginger only sperm bank.

• Stiofain | Jan 03, 2013, 12:13 PM EST

  Many of the nations that are accepting the Irish are complaining about there on lax immigration laws.

• Smyrnian | Jan 03, 2013, 11:49 AM EST

  We only have to look to Holland and France to see what is in store for little Ireland. Not many in Ireland see it coming, including my own relatives; they truly have no clue.

• casualMBA | Jan 03, 2013, 11:47 AM EST

  Could Minister Shatter kindly advise the Irish people of the percent(%) of Catholic, Hindu, and Islamic Indians included last year in the nearly 13,000 visas approved? And the % of French Russians emigrating?

• casualMBA | Jan 03, 2013, 11:39 AM EST

  Could Minister Shatter kindly advise the Irish people of the percent(%) of Catholic, Hindu, and Islamic Indians included last year in the nearly 13,000 visas approved last year?

• calceltic | Jan 03, 2013, 11:32 AM EST

  Pardon the typos of previous post. there is an annoyingpop up that won't go away and I am typing blind.

• calceltic | Jan 03, 2013, 11:28 AM EST

  Coming from an area roughly the size of Irelan in America, we have been overwhelmed with these same immigrants. Teh area is no longer recognizable to me. I enjoy the diversity but I am sad that I now feel like a foreigner. Ireland is a small island, it will be a different country, completely within the next 50 years. I don't know how you will sell your tourism as the demographics change. The image of the ginger haired boy and girl will be surely replaced as they will no longer exist.

• Searlit | Jan 03, 2013, 11:27 AM EST

  It's like adding salt to a wound.

• michaelidaho | Jan 03, 2013, 10:31 AM EST

  A previous article stated that 87,000 Irish emigrated from Ireland. This article states that 80,000 visas were approved for immigrants into Ireland. I thought the federal government in the USA was incompetent. However, this shows the dysfunctionality of the Irish government may be even greater.

• PhlutiePhan | Jan 03, 2013, 10:18 AM EST

  As Willie C stated, it all depends on what the meaning of "is" is. Islam is infiltrating nations to destroy them from within. This religion is actukally copying the strategy used by the radical wing of the Democratic Party to destroy America from within in the name of radical secularism.

• merefalow | Jan 03, 2013, 09:14 AM EST

  what can anyone say or do,whatever plot was put in place to destroy the intrinsic tribal integrity of nations,it has succeeded.It was a waste of time fighting wars to prevent invasion by foriegners,they have succeeded beond the wildest dreams of any mad dictator without firing a shot,thanks to the scheming one nation superstate human rights spouting nation gobbling all inclusive evil known as the eu.what ever ireland gained she has lost,and once again the irish stream from their own country to the four corners of the earth while strangers flock to take their place.the polititions who signed up to this>>>>>>>>>>

• 2ndrepubalik | Jan 03, 2013, 09:00 AM EST

  This issue is a massive problem in Ireland and unfortunately will get far worse even if it stopped right now !We seem to have the equivalent of an "open door" policy and yet as far as Migrants from Africa and Asia are concerned they are supposed to seek asylum in the very 1st Country they arrive in but , guess what , they move onto to dear ol' Ireland as they know it has super easy social welfare payments , "friendly" people who are terrified of being called "Racist" and a thriving balack economy thanks to stupid Government policies of ever increasing taxes making it unworthwhile working in the taxed economy.There is now a big "core" immigrant population so they provide all the support necessary and we are now seeing "Family Reunions" in a big way. Economically this is suicide as much money earned by immigrants is sent back to the home Country which is a permanent loss of wealth here , and also wage rates are driven down. It is hard to know what the real AGENDA , if any , of the Irish Government is here ? The recent BIG "Citizenship ceremonies" are , in reality , a cover for the massive bungling in the 90's and "Noughties" when the Irish Government and Immigration services were asleep to the fact that hundreds of thousands were streaming across our borders.It is too late now.The Authorities never processed the manifestly illegal applications for asylum and now so much time has elapsed that they have to give Citizenship because they left it too late to deport these people. We are a hopeless "State" in this regard. We will be swamped with immigrants.As it is they account for approx 12 % of our population and growing and this is only per official records - the real situation is higher ! There are over 2 million Irish people born here and living abroad , why can we not seek to have them return rathert than handing over our Country to strangers and scoungers ??

• usacelt1 | Jan 03, 2013, 08:53 AM EST

  I've said it a million times: globalization is the modern Cromwell. Except where he failed to do, the modern age will succeed: the ethnic and cultural annihilation of Ireland. Immigration will wipe Ireland away. And maybe that is a necessary step for good Irishmen and women to rise up and reclaim their nation from the corporate globalizationists. I pray for Eire. But it may not matter. Your nation will die if these trends continue.

• EamonnDublin | Jan 03, 2013, 08:53 AM EST

  I stood twice as an Independent candidate for election to Dáil Éireann, a bye-election in 1994 and the General Election of 1997. My single issue platform was crime - that the law was weighted obscenely in favour of the criminals. I was surprised to find that, even though the crime rate was very high at that time, the vast majority of people with whom I spoke were far more concerned with over-immigration into Ireland than they were with crime. They said that nobody had ever consulted with the people about how many immigrants should be allowed in. Now, if they were saying that to me, they were saying the same to all of the others standing for election. However, the politicians never spoke about it, and have still not spoken about it. Neither are they doing anything about it. If any individual attempts to raise the question, he/she is immediately shouted down and branded a "racist". The true rate of immigration is covered up. Census workers are told NOT to query the returned census form at any residence, even if it is very obvious that there are far more people resident in a house than is stated on the returned form. There is not even a box for the census worker to tick if he/she considers that there is an under-declaration. Nobody in authority wants to know - and what they do know they won't tell anybody else. One has only to look around in any part of Ireland to see that there is a multiple of immigrants living here compared to the official lies. Éamonn, Dublin, Ireland.

• Typhon451 | Jan 03, 2013, 08:41 AM EST

  Breathtaking. 115,000 new non-European immigrants out of a population of 4.7 million. Or almost 2.5% of the population each year. In 20 years Ireland will be 50% non-European. That is something any Progressive can be proud of. Since the only thing Ireland will have left is St Paddy's Day and a reputation drinking. Bravo Ireland!

• biggles008 | Jan 03, 2013, 08:36 AM EST

  The'll get money for doing nothing.

• Smyrnian | Jan 03, 2013, 07:11 AM EST

  Losing our own to emigration at the top and low level workers flooding in at the bottom. Ireland is a tiny island with a limited economic base (what's left if it) and this trend is unsustainable even in the short run. History is full of examples of where indigenous people's are displaced. We are looking at this now in Ireland's case but not many can see it for what it is. Put political and social agendas aside and look at the facts and, of course, the trend then project this 20/30 years out and see what you have. Not good.