Sir, - If Ms Aine Ni Chonaill's stated aim is preserving "Irish culture", she could do better than target the defenceless. She could, for example, study the factors which are causing a convergence of "culture" throughout the world, and which are responsible for our recent economic successes: increased international trade, foreign investment, economic growth and consequent changes in work practices, trading hours, etc.
Of course, Ms Ni Chonaill doesn't specify which aspects of Irish "culture" she feels are actually under threat; not, presumably, the language, because in a recent television interview on Telefis na Gaeilge, she was unable to sustain a relatively simple interview for more than two sentences before breaking into English.
If she has the courage of her convictions, she could focus on problems rather than consequences: if she feels the social welfare system is over-generous, for example, then it must be so for Irish as well as immigrant claimants.
She could also take a look at the Constitution, Articles 2 and 3 of which are shamelessly multi-cultural in intent (or are white, English-speaking Northern Protestants acceptable, against their will, in Ms Ni Chonaill's "vision"?).
The central feature of any anti-immigration campaign is not consistency, but a desire for power. As she attempts to whip up fear among the uneducated, and support for herself and the new "platform" she leads, Ms Ni Chonaill may well in time have a second try at a Dail seat.
If successful, she will have the chance to prove my worst fears about her wrong, by continuing to campaign against migration: bust follows boom as sure as night follows day for as long as economics has been studied, so she can campaign for the Irish (when they fail to secure employment at home) not to migrate to their traditional countries of refuge. Come to think of it, why wasn't she doing just that in the 1980s? - Yours, etc.,
Eanna O Floinn,
Earlsfort, Lucan, Co Dublin.