Immigrants: sure who would want them?

Ireland today is not the country many migrants left behind, and not the one an Irish American might come to expect in coming here for the first time. It is as cosmopolitan as any other westernised country today and that is a good thing.

Apart from the gene pool being stirred up a bit the economy has not only got a much needed shot in the arm, it has sustainability just to survive, for without people there is no economy. My accountant pointed out to me a few years ago that the collapse of the Celtic tiger would have been much worse had these immigrants left these shores with the Irish ones. Immigrants: sure who would want them?

Well, whether we want them or not, we most certainly need them. There is more. They buy Irish goods, sustain Irish jobs, and accept democracy, as flawed as it is here, as the best democracy that many of them have ever enjoyed, especially if you had come from Romania.

The way it was in any country is always subject to change and here is no different. Celtic tiger days aside, and those who never went beyond the crossroads of their town or village, this country still enjoys a general feeling of well being that is not just a state of mind. I have seen other immigrant people, who, when they came here first, were highly suspicious and wary of what this country was about; a couple of years later those same people had adopted many of the same mannerisms and behaviour that has marked the Irish here and abroad: easy going, decent, with a sense of mischief and fun. It is what sells the country in the first place despite scenery that would melt any hardened soul. In the end, most people are generally good and just want to get along and take care of their families.

The other reality: there is no one distinctly Irish now or ever really was, and that terms of reference applies to all countries. Historical gene pool statistic’s in the round will trace us right back to mainland Europe, Asia and Africa before that. In the last thousand years alone, we have been invaded by the Vikings, the Normans, and the British and a few minor others here and there. Some left but more stayed and that is as uniquely Irish as we were ever going to get. 

Now, we have Irish Polish accents with all the others and some the other way round. All of their children though will think Irish first with a hurley in one hand and a shamrock in the other. Some will leave again but many will stay and then it starts all over again.

By Barry