http://www.aontas.com/download/pdf/adult_learner_01

Editorial Comment It was James Joyce – who else? – who offered the observation that the Irish were the most tolerant people on earth – because it had never been tried. That was earlier in the twentieth century and now early in the twenty first, the time of trial has arrived. Last year in the Coombe Maternity Hospital, the number of nationalities represented in new births was ninety while,at present,there is an estimated one hundred different nationalities attending our primary schools.

So there is no debate now – we are a multi-cultural society in fact and it raises the question – how will we respond?

Thus far, there are signs that are encouraging and depressing. Let’s deal with the negative omens first. There is, of course,here as in every other society a racism that is born out of sheer prejudice and for which there is not, nor ever will be ,a ny kind of rational explanation. This is the mindset for which different colouring and different accent are excuses to offer insult and, more depressingly,engage in violence.We would hope,and it is only a hope, that this will remain confined to the minority. But we have other more subtle,more ‘educated’, responses. This is the line that says we have to be careful about who is allowed to enter, that certainly it is a time of prosperity and economic success and naturally we are now an attractive proposition for people from other less successful countries. So, the line continues, we must now be very careful about who is admitted to our first world island – that we should select carefully, look for those who are well qualified and reject those who are poor and lack education. This is the ‘qualified’ option because, you will understand, we must protect the situation which we have worked so hard to achieve.

And, of course,all of this begs the questions – who do we think we are now? What does it mean to be Irish in these times? Are we some kind of Celtic white (or red) super race with pure bloodlines reaching back to Brian Boru and proclaiming our newly found self confidence in a Riverdance of modern,miniskirted,manly Irishness?

We have put those Vikings well behind us and what if there are reminders in the de Laceys, the Burkes and the Bourkes and all those Fitz’s that are still hanging about.

And what ever became of those Hiberniores Hibernioresque, those more Irish than the Irish themselves, those Gall-Gael, or did we succeed in keeping them strictly apart?

And who took the place of those who went to hell or to Connacht, those ranchers and opportunists who arrived here from,dare I say it, the United Kingdom? Did they leave not a trace behind? And all the time,they have been slipping in from other places too.

As in sexual morality,so it is in terms of race – pure is a relative term.

There is another Irishness which is now being tested and this is where the encouraging signs are evident. There is the perception of an Ireland which is welcoming and an Irish people who are generous. The problem for us now is to ensure that this does 5