Irish couple hunger strike outside Enda Kenny’s Mayo offices for visas

Murph46, the Hunger Strikers would have understood and sympathized with their modern day counterparts. Read the writings of Bobby Sands if you think different.

The issues of immigration are always difficult, but Ireland is among the few countries who owes so much to those countries who opened their doors to Irish immigrants willingly or unwillingly. In spite of my contempt for successive English governments and their brutal occupation of Ireland, England remains one of the places who have absorbed an enormous number of Irish. I have hear that upwards of 25% of the English country is of Irish descent. This family should be united immediately. Quibling over who will pay for their care is miserly when compared to the millions of Irish who took up in other countries. I remember being told by my aunt about the "No Irish Need Apply" signs that hanged in the employment offices in the 1930-40's, particularly during WW2. Ireland has an obligation to its own, but it can never forget the past.

If children of mine, biological or adopted, were in a foreign orphanage, I'd be camping out on someone's doorstep if I thought I could get them out sooner. My grandmother and her sibs were orphaned in Ireland and her 18 year old sister working as a maid in Boston and their unmarried aunts working as seamstresses worked for two years to save every penny to bring those children out of Irish orphanages to Boston. My grandmother was grateful for the rest of her life.

Shame on them for dishonoring the real hunger strike that killed O'hara,Hughes,Sands,Lynch and others.

biggles008, It's tough, isn't it? The Irish are being asked to be charitable when it isn't easy. It's time you all grew up and started acccepting your responsibility instead of always being on the receiving end - asking other countries to accept your people as immigrants, effectively supporting your excess people.

Bring children to Ireland and claim big children's allowance and we stone broke.