Why we need to re-imagine Ireland

Ps The new book of culture at the Royal hospital is lovely with modern poets and artists...

It's sad that we are selling Irish abroad this phony dream while destroying it at home. The way it's going, soon you will only be able to see a cardboard cut-out of Tara....Irish Americans should stand up to Bord Failte and the Government demanding that they protect the heritage they sell to you in nice pictures... Tara now with a motorway, the GPO - a proposed shopping center... is this what they died for? We do have some nice new things though but we need to protect both... ;)

How can renew without Tara... it's where we want to return to... an ideal perhaps but aim for the moon and you may hit upon the stars. The M3 can and should be re-routed out of the funeral mound of the Fianna with the new Lenister Orbital, it will take a mere 8km of extra road if the L.O. is routed correctly.

To plan for the future is very smart and also to study the past to see how we got here is also smart !!

Yes Ireland is cursed for what they did to Tara. "Romantic Ireland is dead and gone, it's with O Leary in the grave. "

Imagine Ireland...that's what I did my whole life. If Irish Americans are not fully versed about Ireland it's because the Ireland we "knew" came from the stories of our grandparents...the lush green pastures, the little people (leprechauns, fairies), the fey ones, the pubs, where men took too much of the "creature", the li'l bairns, the horrors of the famine and the "Troubles". I got to actually see Ireland in 2000, with my sister, ages 64 and 67 respectively. Of course, the Celtic Tiger had birthed so it was not my imagined Ireland, but it was MY Ireland. I had such an inexplicable feeling of coming back home. I felt a great sorrow though because my grandmother's greatest hope was to one day see the land of her parents, but that never happened. Sorry, Scoffers...Ireland will always be a reality in my mind and in my heart. Some say there will always be an England; I'm not so sure about that; the only thing I know is that as long as there is one person of Irish heritage alive than Ireland LIVES. Erin go bragh!!!

As someone who grew up on the California/Mexican border (hometown is San Diego, CA), I am fully aware of the issues discussed in this article. What suprises me though, is the rate of immigration to Ireland that would result in the ability of non-citizens to have political and cultural control over the the natural born citizenry. WE have some of those same issues here in the states, but the ability to "throw the bums out" by our electoral process keeps some of this in check. America is by no means perfect, but we try to offer an alternative to the chaos and tyranny that exist elsewhere - in fact, some of our greatest leaders of our country were (or are) Irish Americans.

Turbulence: Why do you try to spread lies? You're a supporter of the discredited Fianna Fail party, the guys who started this crazy Immigration Open Door policy? For example, your claim about percentage of foreigners leaving the country is garbage. No one can know who's leaving, since there is no passport check when you leave Ireland. But we do know the numbers being issued new Social Security numbers, and that remains at about 70.000 foreigners in 2010. Why are 70.000 foreign workers being imported to Ireland, even while Irish people are leaving because they can't find work? Of course that figure needs to be inflated, since it doesn't include folks who are not looking for work, children, illegal aliens, and so-called refugees. Your "forecast" that the numbers of foreign migrants in Ireland will decrease is similar tripe. Why would it? The cheerleaders for Mass Immigration told the Irish people that it would taper off once there weren't sufficient jobs. As we have seen, that was the patent lie I knew it to be when I heard it a few years back. You claim you live in Ireland. Maybe you need to drag your ass to Dublin's O'Connell Street. You'll see four or five foreign migrants for every Irish person you see in downtown Dublin. That's pathological. Ordinary people never got a chance to vote about the settlement of their country by foreigners in the 21st century, just as they were denied a vote on it at the time of the 17th century Plantations. However, all public opinion surveys show that about 70% of the Irish oppose the unrestrained Mass Immigration they are suffering. Your support for Fianna Fail's Settlement of Ireland policy is very much a minority view. In fact, your post is nonsense.

@WoundedKnee I'm not surprised to learn your Irish American friend was astonished to learn that "20% of the population of Ireland are foreign migrants, and that the Irish are predicted to be just another ethnic minority in Ireland by about the year 2030". I live in Ireland and I was astonished by those figures too. Mainly because they are completely wrong. According to the CSO, in Q3 2010 non-Irish nationals made up 11.2% of the adult population (and one in five of them were from the UK). Add in the fact that the majority of people emigrating from Ireland are non-Irish nationals (58% in 2010) then clearly your 'forecast' for 2030 will never come to pass. The more likely scenario: by 2020 the percentage of people in Ireland who are foreign migrants will be lower than it is today, not higher.

A SCREAM OF HORROR - A haunted place – enough to drive you out through the Boarding Gate that never closes ? Ireland Past and Present in a Nutshell!.... .....................then Imagine these 'artists' who as members of Aosdana - the self-appointed Irish Artists Elite, are exempt from Taxation at home, poncing around on Taxpayers money, foisting, inter alia, an 'opera' of a play of English Manners by a jailed homosexual that fellow Irish artists and the world did nothing to help at the time, as an example of Irish Culture! ..................I agree with Cultural Exchanges and accept that the best we can hope for from this one is that it may do more good than harm. .........I am certain they will not return infected with the typical IrishAmerican long outmoded view of a distant Irish identity often expressed on this wonderful website, as you suggest - but will quietly return to count their takings from the latest self-indulgent Junket disguised as Art ....ignoring the soulscreaming heARTbroken hoards jostling to get out through the ever-open Boarding Gate! .......Sadly,Patricia, we don’t have to ‘Imagine’ that!

It's all very well to "imagine" Ireland from the comfort of a Manhattan penthouse, but Americans should be told about the reality of Ireland today. An Irish-American friend of mine, who would consider himself well informed, was astonished when I told him that fully 20% of the population of Ireland are foreign migrants, and that the Irish are predicted to be just another ethnic minority in Ireland by about the year 2030. It used to be thought it wouldn't happen till mid-century, but with so many Irish emigrating while thousands of foreigners flood in each month, it's bound to be sooner. As it stands there are many schools where the great majority of the children are foreign. It should be stressed that the Irish people never gave their assent to all of this--it's another legacy of the despicable Fianna Fail party, though they did receive moral support from groups like Sinn fein.

Beautiful! Thanks for this article.