The Mayo immigration debate: Diversity is the way to strength
Some clarifications in the war between truth and lies, fact and fiction
by Dr. Richard Martin
Let no Irishman throw a stone at the foreigner; he may hit his own clansman.
James Connolly - 1908.
I was driving through Ballinrobe late on January 5 last.
I was at an event in Galway that evening and driving through Ballinrobe I noticed that there was a small tent, a crowd of people, and gardaí, outside JJ Gannon’s Hotel. I didn’t pay much attention and kept driving home towards Castlebar.
The next day I saw that Dr. Panti Bliss-Cabrera was posting extensively on X about the situation in her hometown, namely the proposed sheltering of 50 asylum seekers in JJ Gannon’s Hotel. I’ve followed the situation closely ever since.
It seems that the protestors felt it wasn’t appropriate that 50 ’unvetted’ men should be living close to a creche. The implication being the children wouldn’t be safe or they could be attacked.
First Clarification. Every asylum seeker arriving in Ireland registers with the state at the port of arrival. They don’t have a choice. They also register with the office dealing with asylum applications, the IPO International Protection Office, and the gardaí.
They also go through detailed vetting and interview processes.
Following this stringent process in the year 2022, there were a total of 13,492 asylum applications from foreign refugees in Ireland and a total of 2,935 refugees were accepted.
The republic has a population of approximately 5 million. 2,935 people represent a fraction of one per cent of our total population.
When the building was functioning as a hotel, were all the guests and employees vetted to the same degree as the proposed refugees? Hardly.
Were the guests of the hotel deemed a risk to the town of Ballinrobe and its environs?
No, they weren’t. This whole controversy has the sulphuric stench of racism. Plain and simple.
What was concerning and embarrassing was the ‘support’ from far-right figures from far and wide on social media channels and some even made their way to Ballinrobe to offer their ‘support’.
How many of these so-called ‘patriots’ have be vetted themselves? How many of these so-called ‘patriots’ work and contribute to the tax system?
It was shameful to see elected representatives supporting the protest. It was not the kind of leadership that was required.
There was a myth being thrown out there that the town of Ballinrobe couldn’t ‘support’ the burden of having to take 50 men into their town. Ballinrobe has a population of 3,148 people. 50 people represent 1.5 per cent of the total population of the town. They’re hardly being overrun.
My only issue with the whole thing is that there are 12 rooms in JJ Gannon’s Hotel. There should be maximum two people in a room. Every refugee should be afforded dignity and respect. Too many people are being shepherded into one building.
Some felt there should have been more communication. Why? It’s none of their business. They don’t own the property. We have Direct Provision in the heart of Castlebar and it has proved to be a huge success.
The refugees are involved in community groups. They are working in businesses around the town.
They are making a positive contribution to the town as a whole. Diversity is the way of strength.
The far-right is peddling a myth that we should be ‘housing our own’ and that the government is spending hard-earned tax-payers money on the refugees when they should be spending it on Irish citizens who are struggling. That’s factually not true.
Second Clarification. We are a member of the EU. The vast bulk of funding is provided by the Asylum, Migration, and Integration Fund (AMIF) from the EU. In Ireland, the AMIF is managed by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.
The proposed budget for the AMIF for the 2021-2027 period is roughly €9.882 billion and Ireland will receive its share from the fund.
The far-right elements in this country are being stoked on social media by Conor McGregor. He tells us ‘We are at war’. We are at war alright.
The war is between truth and lies, fact and fiction, and very few are inclined to engage their brain and look at the salient facts, least of all Conor.
He has a platform where he speaks to millions on a day-to-day basis. He is giving legitimacy to the Irish far right.
Davitt, Pearse and Connolly must be looking down on us all with mixed emotions, happy with the level of integration in many community but disappointed by the wave of unfounded opposition against asylum seekers.
James Connolly is one of our founding fathers. James Connolly was an immigrant. He was a patriot. A real one. He was born in Scotland to Irish parents.
He served in the British army. He along with six others signed the Proclamation in 1916 and in so doing signed his death warrant. Michael Collins said of Connolly that he “would have followed him through hell.”
Connolly once said: “All races are mixed more or less; a pure race does not exist. In all the world there cannot be found a territory of any size still inhabited exclusively by the autochthonous or original inhabitants.”
Somewhere through the years, we have forgotten what our forefathers told us.
As a nation, we have lost our way.
We should not be afraid. Afraid of the unknown. Instead, we should embrace it. After all how many great Irish men came from humble circumstances?
How many great Irish men were ‘foreigners’?
Both Eamon De Valera and Sean Lemass dominated post-civil war politics for 50 years.
Lemass is the benchmark by which any major politician in Irish life must measure himself or herself. He’s the gold standard.
Paul McGrath is the icon of Irish soccer.
Phil Lynott is an icon of Irish music.
Jason Sherlock is a Dublin GAA legend. A darling of the hill.
Sean Og O hAilpin is an icon of Cork hurling and Irish sport. His mother is Fijian. Not a hurling stronghold.
Diversity is the way of strength.
The HSE would collapse in the morning if all the Indians, Pakistanis, Filipinos, Sudanese, Libyans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Iranians, Nigerians, South Africans, Egyptians, and Moroccans suddenly decided to stop going to work. We need immigrants to make our health service work.
No foreigners. No HSE.
Our construction industry would collapse in the morning if all the Romanian construction workers decided to return home. We have a housing crisis as it is, but if they decided to leave en masse it would be a calamity.
The bottom line is that this country needs immigrants if we want to build houses and resolve this housing crisis.
No foreigners. No houses.
Both Google and Facebook have their European headquarters located in Ireland. If the non-nationals suddenly decided to not turn up for work in Dublin both companies would be paralysed. They would not be able to function.
No foreigners. No Facebook. No Google. No Corporation Tax.
The population of the UK in 1850 was 27 million. Today it is 63 million. In the 2022 census, the population of the Republic of Ireland eclipsed five million for the first time since the 1851 census.
This island historically has been ravaged by famine and emigration. We know all about desperation and suffering.
The thrust of what I’m saying is this. This island is underpopulated. We need immigrants and we need a lot more than what’s coming in to serve the needs of industry in the years to come.
I believe in the fullness of time, years down the road, that our compassion towards refugees and migrants fleeing war and terror will pay huge dividends down the road.
There will always be those who differ, of course, it’s a war not easily won but if anything is worth winning then this is it.
All that has to change is our mindset. And we can change it any time we want. It’s only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings of money.
Just a simple choice, right now, between fear and love.
(Dr. Richard Martin is a native of Castlebar).