Madam, - Ruadhan Mac Cormaic (Opinion Analysis, July 3rd) quotes Fianna Fáil's Chris Andrews saying: "Multiculturalism is not the best way forward and strict integration is the best option. When one considers the examples of France and England, one will realise diversity has brought considerable problems."
When one hears statements like this, apparently calling for forced assimilation, one should "rewind the film" of race relations in Britain and Europe to those scenes of an invited Caribbean labour force newly arrived in their suits, sports jackets and trilbys to what they believed to be the "mother country" only to encounter signs saying: "No blacks, No Irish, and no dogs."
What went wrong in England and France? Diversity in itself was not the problem. But tolerance was neither very deep nor very extensive. Race, as such, is not the issue. Racism is. - Yours, etc,
JOE MURPHY, Greengate, Manchester, England.