Madam, - W. Dudgeon (March 22nd) seeks to compare the fate of the remaining undocumented Irish in the United States to that of illegal immigrants in Ireland. Such a comparison is otiose.
I and a large number of my family, friends and neighbours left for the US in the late 1980s and early 1990s because this state had nothing for us. Anyone witnessing the raw emotion at Irish airports in those days, when up to 60,000 of our young population left annually, will never forget the sense of the failure of our State.
This was not a trip in search of adventure, like those taken by the present generation of gap-year students. People were obliged either to go and seek to earn a living elsewhere or stay at home and sign on the dole.
The savings on social welfare for our then almost bankrupt State, together with the funds remitted home by these people, played a large part in this country avoiding financial collapse and social chaos.
Those who participated in the visa lotteries conducted by the INS during those times experienced the anxiety of waiting a result, especially those who had trekked to obscure post offices in Virginia to maximise their chances in these lotteries. Many returned here with skills, talent and finance to help the economic recovery, and some did not.
They are wise enough in the ways of this nation not to expect gratitude for this, but will not accept a cynical attitude to those who remained in the US and are still undocumented despite their own best efforts. This country failed them once; please do not let it fail them again.
The position of illegal immigrants into Ireland is an unrelated issue which should be treated on its own merits. - Yours, etc,
DENIS MURPHY, Oakleigh Wood, Dooradoyle Road, Limerick.