Sir, - Ivor Callely is an intelligent man. He must have been aware that raising the refugee issue in the way he did would increase racial tension. So the question is: why? As an elected representative, of course he has a right to be concerned, but as a member of the Fianna Fail parliamentary party he has direct access to both the Taoiseach and the Minister for Justice, so why didn't he raise his concerns discreetly?
I can only come to two possible conclusions. One is that Mr Callely has such little influence in the FF parliamentary party that he is reduced to shouting in public with the rest of us. The other is that he sees the political benefit in being seen to play the immigration card.
The contrast between his actions and those of Liz O'Donnell are jarring. Ms O'Donnell has displayed political courage and shown potentially unpopular but morally correct leadership. Mr Callely seems content to react to people's gut fears about immigration. I've no doubt that his stance will be popular with some, but then, so was Enoch Powell's. When the history is written of how we as a people dealt with the beginning of immigration, I suspect Liz O'Donnell will have a lot more to be proud of than Ivor Callely. - Yours, etc., Jason O'Mahony,
Merrion Strand, Sandymount, Dublin 4.