Sir, - Returned emigrants who have felt for themselves the genuine respect for Irish nationality abroad must have read Shashi Kant's piece on our legendary cead mile failte (Features, November 4th) with a deep sense of shame.
I hope I do no injustice to James J. MacKenna (November 3rd) if I summarise his case on the "Romanian choir farce" and its "sign of an increasing trend" and his statement that "if we do not do something radical. . .we just will not be able to cope." While this is a long way from Powellite "rivers of blood" invocations, I feel there is still a note of unnecessary hysteria.
Mr MacKenna might reflect on what the political and economic history of our State could have been had the hundreds of thousands of our own who were not "fleeing from institutionalised persecution" been returned from their economic refuges across the globe.
Is globalisation to be just a recipe for our prospering tiger to expand its girth by planting "Irish" pubs in every global village while keeping these ("non-genuine") reminders beyond our Pale? - Yours, etc.,
Damien Flinter, Aillebrack, Ballyconneely, Co Galway.