Madam, - If you put the words "Irish citizenship" into the Google search engine on the internet, what appears are dozens of American law firms offering fast-track Irish passports to third-generation Americans.
Under the FAQ "Why would you want to obtain an Irish passport?", the list of benefits includes: the right to work in other European countries; the possibility of investing more easily in real estate in other European countries; jumping the passport queue in other European countries; hiding one's American citizenship in hostile destinations. Actually living and working on the island of Ireland is rarely, if ever, even mentioned.
If the Government really was concerned about making citizenship involve a real connection with Ireland, it would target the thousands of foreigners who use an Irish passport as if it were an airline upgrade to business class. Who is really abusing the system? - Is mise,
BARRY McCREA, Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature, Yale University, Connecticut, USA.
Madam, - I amazed that the Fianna Fáil-led Government is advocating the changes proposed in the citizenship referendum based on a flimsy argument of protecting the "integrity" of Irish citizenship.
If the United States of America had adopted this reasoning Eamon de Valera would have been executed along with the other leaders of the 1916 Rising and Fianna Fáil would probably not exist today.
On second thoughts, maybe the Government is right. - Yours, etc.,
TONY MORIARTY, Shanid Road, Kenilworth Park, Dublin 6.
Madam, - As a European citizen who has enjoyed the hospitality of this country for several years, I have no vote in the forthcoming referendum. "Ireland of the Welcomes" has certainly welcomed me and I ask my Irish friends to consider their well-earned reputation, live up to it, and vote No.
Does it really matter that other European countries have more restrictive citizenship laws? Rather than fall into line with them, Ireland could give a lead. I regret the necessity of being labelled by a nationality but see no possibility of nations abandoning their boundaries in the foreseeable future.
In the meantime, acquiring nationality by geographical location of birth seems preferable to being welcomed or rejected in accordance with prejudices against people who are different, for whatever reason. - Yours, etc.,
IRENE E. ALLEN, Florence Road, Bray, Co Wicklow.
Madam, - There can be no better example of the misunderstandings engendered by the use of sloppy and inaccurate grammar than the dangerously misleading sentence contained in the Fianna Fáil leaflet "Vote Yes to Common Sense Citizenship".
It states: "People with no real connection to Ireland are arranging for their child to be born in Ireland so that they can acquire Irish citizenship at birth". This sentence means that the alien parents of a child born in Ireland are currently themselves acquiring Irish citizenship by virtue of that birth.
That is, of course, untrue; but I would have hoped that the author of that document on such a sensitive issue would have used a copywriter with a proper knowledge of English.
This particular error has become widespread and politically acceptable because by giving a singular subject a plural verb form, the writer or speaker avoids a reference to gender.
The sentence should, of course, read " . . . so that he or she can acquire Irish citizenship at birth." - Yours, etc.,
DON HEENAN, Williamstown, Rathvilly, Co Carlow.