Madam, - Your edition of June 13th carried an article on immigration by Ronaldo Munck, former professor of sociology at Liverpool University. Logic does not seem to be his strongest suit.
While some of the responses to the recent Sunday Tribune poll were indeed contradictory, the two which he cited are not.
One finding was, "Eight in 10 Irish people want restrictions on non-nationals". He claims this is contradictory to another finding: "It is good that children in Ireland today are growing up in a multicultural society."
There is no contradiction here. People may be happy with a certain level of immigration and with the multicultural experience it gives their children while simultaneously worrying that we will go as far down the road of immigration as Britain or the Netherlands. This is precisely the warning by Kevin Myers which Prof Munck rubbishes at the beginning of his article.
He proceeds with an outrageous reference to the ICP: "Does anyone in Ireland, apart from Áine Ní Chonaill of the Immigration Control Platform, really want to go back to the days of the monocultural, mono-ethnic society?" Logic dictates that such a position would require the expulsion of every foreigner in Ireland and a ban on all future immigration. Does Prof Munck dare to suggest that these are the policies of ICP? For the 1,000th time, ICP's policies may be summed up as: "Legal immigration is not a problem as long as it is not excessive." Our website confirms this.
Prof Munck goes on to talk about the need for a debate on immigration in which he doubtless sees himself as having quite a role. How do you have a debate when anyone who dares to differ from you is the object of outrageous misrepresentation?
By the time I had reached the end of the article, I was reminded of the old university joke which said that on each piece of toilet paper on campus was printed the slogan, "Sociology degree: please take one." - Yours, etc,
ÁINE NÍ CHONAILL, Immigration Control Platform, Dublin 2.