The news that Irish universities are, from next year, to be a little more
welcoming to A-Level students in this country is welcome and long-awaited.
This newspaper has long argued that colleges in Ireland have not been
sufficiently alert to the immense resource virtually on its doorstep – the children
and grandchildren of Irish emigrants to this country.
Generations have grown up here bolstering Irish tourism statistics by visiting
family in Ireland and, despite their accents, are every bit as Irish as their cousins
over there and, in some extreme cases, even more so.
Despite this and the often utterly meaningless lip service paid to the “diaspora”
there has never been a concerted to open Irish colleges’ doors to the children of
hundreds of thousands of Irish families here.
There is more than just the enlightened self-interest of cheaper tuition at play
here.
A deep, two-way, academically and professionally fertile relationship is there to
be had – not least with the many tens of thousands of children of people who
came here since 2008 starting to make their way through the school system.
For such a small nation with a huge history of emigration Ireland can seem to
many of us outside the country to be, at best, ever so slightly insular. Ironic,
given that Irish people are to be found throughout the Earth’s four corners.
A recent ESRI report suggests that too many Irish graduates are “overeducated”
for the employment available there – JobBridge internships, call centres and so
forth – but a steady two way traffic of UK Irish into Irish universities and
workplaces in Britain and Ireland could open up employment opportunities in
both islands as future employers here look kindly on their Irish alma maters.
Sinn Fein President Adams says he was never, ever a member of the IRA and
never had a hand, part or act in its actions throughout the 1970s – not least the
grotesque kidnapping and murder of widow Jean McConville.
During the peace process Tony Blair’s government was regularly asked,
somewhat disingenuously, why it was speaking to Sinn Fein rather than the IRA.
Mr. Blair, or Alastair Campbell, or Jonathan Powell, always replied with absolute
confidence that they knew they were talking to the people in charge that they
needed to.
Of course, the fact that not a man woman or child in Ireland believes Mr. Adams
has hindered his party from being within striking distance of being the most
popular party in Ireland.