Sir, - I found myself quite disturbed by your article on "The Less Friendly Face of Modern Ireland" (The Irish Times, December 20th). The article dealt with the supposedly extreme and flabbergasting racism emerging in this country. Are we perhaps only slowly and belatedly realising that we are no different from any other nation in Europe, or are we smug enough to think otherwise?
I have returned for the Christmas period from Italy, where I teach English at a school in Turin, a city beset by racial problems exacerbated by illegal and unbridled immigration. However, it must be recognised that it is not merely a question of colour at the heart of the problem. The Senegalese - relatively well integrated - are not seen as a problem because they are working and serve as a good example of how immigrants can be assimilated if they want to be and if they obey the law. However, in pubic parks one is continually intimidated by drug-pushers, virtually all Moroccan. Nigerian prostitutes are found everywhere with their Nigerian pimps.
On top of that there is Arab on Arab, African on African and Arab on African violence. In the immigrant area - a no-go area at night - an Italian policeman told me that I was no longer in Italy, that this was the Bronx.
Is this what we are supposed to welcome into Ireland with open arms and smiling Irish eyes, on top of all the other domestic problems we have? Economically, this is still very much a fledgling state and by no means an industrial giant. Economic booms come and go. Do we simply and arrogantly overlook the very real problems of Germany and France - both barely able to contain racial violence - and presume that we are somehow more civilised? Wiser? Even the Swedes, known for their generosity to refugees, are seething at their government's liberal immigration policy which has caused numerous social problems.
One is not asking that Ireland stick her head in the sand to escape, but neither should we feign unconditional friendliness to fit the mould. While quick to condemn acts of racially motivated violence, I find nothing offensive in the rigorous control of incoming refugees and would-be immigrants so as not to sully the reputations of those who came and were integrated before them. - Yours, etc., Steven Nestor, V. Madama Christina, Torino, Italy.