Sir, – Thanks are due to Melanie Verwoerd for her lucid piece on the wider implications of Ryanair’s Afrikaans test for South African passport-holders (“Ryanair’s Afrikaans test blunder damages Irish image in eyes of South Africans”, Opinion, June 9th).
The test should be withdrawn immediately. It sets a terrible precedent in other situations since variations on this theme are all too easy to imagine.
A Russian language test for Ukrainian refugees springs to mind. The excuse of the existence of fake passports doesn’t stand up to even momentary consideration.
I remain amazed by the silence of the Government and indeed Opposition parties in response to Ryanair’s disgraceful behaviour. It seems there is a lack of appreciation of how damaging the blatant racism of this plainly ridiculous test has been to the reputation of Ireland around the world.
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– Yours, etc,
ADRIAN GUELKE
Belfast.