Madam, - I was interested to read of the denial by the visa section of the Department of Justice of a visitor's visa to Silisat Oyewole, the grandmother of a child born in Ireland (The Irish Times, January 7th); but, from personal experience, I cannot say I was surprised.
Being Irish, and married to a Bulgarian citizen, I applied several years ago on behalf of her mother for a visitor's visa so that she could see how her daughter and I live in Ireland, a place remote from her experience. We were offering her a holiday here where she could experience our culture (or the lack thereof) at first hand with her own relatives.
The visa application was refused. No reason was given at the time, in accordance with Department of Justice policy. If a reason for a refusal is required it has to be requested within a certain time of the receipt of the letter of refusal. I applied for a reason accordingly, and the reply I was given was that it was considered that there was doubt she would return to Bulgaria once her visa expired, because she had no work or position to return to there.
My mother-in-law is in her seventies. She has an old-age pension, her own home, a husband, and a life in Bulgaria with which she is content in her autumnal years. These are facts of which the Department of Justice was well aware when it refused the visa. I was disgusted and ashamed by the decision, all the more so because I have been given tremendous hospitality by Bulgarians on the many times I have visited that country, even receiving free passes to the March Music Days festival in Ruse from the festival's authorities in 2001.
I would like to express my sorrow to the Oyewole family at the lack of empathy with which they have been treated, and for the second time I feel ashamed by the actions of the faceless bureaucracy which is the Department of Justice. - Yours, etc,
FERGUS JOHNSTON,
Composer,
Trader's Wharf,
Usher's Quay,
Dublin 8.