Madam, - In Ulysses James Joyce has the Citizen pose the question of his famous Jewish hero. "What is your nation, if I may ask?" Mr Bloom has no hesitation in replying: "Ireland. I was born here. Ireland."
The right to citizenship through birthplace is a beautiful concept. It is expressive of the generous imagination and true spirituality of Irish people that we revere the moment of birth in this way. We see it in all its wonder and beauty.
Irish people do not dismiss this miracle as a detail, a mere accident of timing and geography. It is a wondrous fact that can never be altered. We understand the lifelong significance for any person of where he or she first breathed life.
We acknowledge this with a remarkable right, the right to citizenship of our nation. This is what constitutions are for: statements of fundamental principles that express the better part of ourselves.
This referendum, however changes all that. Without anything like sufficient cause the Government is proposing to throw this wonderful concept out of our Constitution. What our Government proposes means that in future, a baby born in this country must depend on the exact circumstances of its parents before he or she can be deemed to be Irish. The beautiful idea will be gone forever.
Such an enormous change needs at the very least full discussion and careful thought. There are questions here that go to the heart of how we define ourselves. The Government cannot boast of how we are "leading the way" in Europe as the sole country with a total smoking ban, and then insist that when it comes to the vital matter of defining citizenship, we have to get into line with the rest of Europe, especially when Europe has not asked us to. Perhaps we should be leading on this matter too.
We need more time to think this through. There is no crisis. A No vote will give us all the time we need to consider a way forward that we can all support. A No vote means the Government will be forced to listen to the people and find out what we really think, not simply ignore us and then present us with its own shallow, divisive, unimaginative "solution". A No vote means a better chance to define properly the rights and duties of citizenship.
In the long run a No vote is the only safe vote. - Yours, etc.,
ROBERT BALLAGH, MAEVE BINCHY, PADDY BREATHNACH, MARINA CARR, BARRY DEVLIN, HUGO HAMILTON, JAMES HANLEY, PAULINE McLYNN, TOM MURPHY, JOE O' CONNOR, MARK O'ROWE, JIM SHERIDAN, PETER SHERIDAN, GERARD STEMBRIDGE, Dublin.
Madam, - Paul Cullen (June 3rd) is to be congratulated for articulating the real issues surrounding the forthcoming referendum.
The constitutional right to citizenship from birth (rightly flagged by Mr. Cullen as being in existence only since 1998) is undermining attempts to forge a consistent, fair and effective immigration system in this country.
Surely a Yes vote in next week's poll would be a victory for genuine asylum-seekers, for at present many are forced to seek residency rights via the jus soli route due to the inadequacies and uncertainties inherent in the present asylum process.
By closing the citizenship loophole (and bringing Ireland in line with the other 24 members of the EU - hardly a draconian suggestion), resources, strategy and efforts could be more fully applied to assessing asylum claims and assisting successful applicants to integrate swiftly and effectively into our society.
The uncertainties and inadequacies of the present system serve only to fuel misconceptions and latent resentment and will ultimately hinder this country's development into a tolerant and open nation at ease with itself.
- Yours, etc.,
MUIRIS MAC GEARALT, Bramley Park, Dublin 15.
Madam, - In 1998 we voted in a referendum to incorporate into the Constitution the right of every person born on this island to be a citizen of Ireland. Previously that right had been statutory, not constitutional. I like the idea that such a fundamental right should be in the people's control and not that of politicians.
If problems have arisen since then, it seems to me that these problems arise from our membership of the EU. If I am to believe what proponents of the proposed change say, unscrupulous foreigners are using Ireland as a stepping-stone to acquire the right to live in other EU countries. The implication is that these people have little interest in living in Ireland in the long term.
If our fellow-members of the EU have a problem arising from our citizenship arrangements, would it not be a simple matter for them to incorporate into their national law (or, better still, into the new EU Constitution) appropriate controls on Irish citizens acquiring the right to live in other EU countries?
By this means we would retain constitutional instead of legislative control of the right to citizenship while the EU at large would not be obliged to take as residents those who were merely using Ireland for that purpose. Ireland would no longer be a back door to Europe. - Yours, etc.,
GARRETT A.J. CARTON, Aughavannon, Rathmullan, Co Donegal.