Ireland's welcome for immigrants

Poor 'ol Fr. Greely. When he sticks to the workings of the Church he's on firm ground. He speaks as one with long experience in the Church and as one who has obviously thought long and hard on the issues and problems the Church faces.

Unfortunately, when he ventures into other areas, he often makes a fool of himself. Take this offering from early May. Fr. Greely visited Ireland and concluded Irish people were more welcoming of immigrants than were Americans.

Undoubtedly, some Irish will resent foreigners. However, unlike the despicable immigrant haters in the United States, most Irish know that they need those foreigners.

. . . The Irish are good haters – none are better, in fact – when they think that hate might be appropriate, which it never is, of course. However, they are not prepared to cut off their noses to spite their faces, as American nativists are prepared to do. Newcomers to Ireland's prosperity know what's required to continue it. Hating immigrants is something that Ireland can't afford.

Well, these things can be hard to quantify, but the most recent poll I was able to find - dated April 30 - indicates that 80% of Irish people want tighter restrictions on the number of "foreigners allowed to live here". Given those findings, I imagine that there are a fair number of Irish people whose views wouldn't be that far removed from those held by "the despicable immigrant haters in the United States".