Immigration and Ireland - MEGATHREAD *Mod Note Added 02/09/25*

Yes I can see demographics changing in my area with my own eye balls.

You choose to not see. Because you dont see demographics. You must see in binary code or something.

What then, to you, is ‘our’ way of life, that you imagine is threatened by immigration? Cos as far as I have experienced there’s been no negative impact on my way of life, and everyone is free to promote whatever their way of life means to them. There have always been people in Ireland who have a different way of life to other people, and they weren’t or aren’t immigrants, and they have managed to maintain their way of life without imagining that it is under threat, and either their way of life is sustainable, or it isn’t. Farming and agriculture and GAA used to be a way of life for many Irish people, but that’s dying out now and being overshadowed by people having other interests and opportunities outside of those limited opportunities.

That’s how a society evolves, it doesn’t remain stagnant any more than I’d expect my home town to have remained as I left it in my absence, to which I did return recently, wasn’t room to swing a cat without hitting someone with a ferocious Dublin accent. In 30 years it had changed significantly, still recognisable somewhat with all the poorly built housing estates from the 70s, 80s and 90s, just the addition of a lot more poorly built housing estates, still with feckall in the way of amenities that would indicate there was some actual planning went into the development and construction of all these new housing estates, because there didn’t appear to be any thought put into them at all, but ‘twas handy for the commute to Dublin and back home before working from home became a way of life for people.

So, what way of life did you have in mind that you imagine is under threat from immigration?

answer one question… do you live in Ireland?

The absolute state of the reasoning to arrive at that one. It's high time we demanded a refund of our taxes that went into 'educating' the population. It clearly has failed in teaching critical thinking.

It has if you imagine that anyone who doesn’t share your views must be a Lefty, though teaching critical thinking was never a function of the Irish education system, rather it was more based on rote learning as opposed to the French system where they have been hell bent on producing little philosophers since the French Revolution. That’s turned out well 😒

The taxes btw would surely go to the previous generation, not this generation, whose taxes are funding the next generations education, with the Catholic Bishops of Ireland still being the majority provider of education since the founding of the State, due to successive Governments failures to provide alternative forms of education because the cost to the State would dwarf that of ensuring that every child has a right to access education in accordance with their needs. It’s protecting a particular way of life though, and that’s all that matters.

Its a misplaced righteousness, in today's world youre called a racist if you say anything about anyone in relation to their ethnicity or origin.

Racism is specifically about a hatred of peoples ethnicity. Its not racist to say "there's a lot of indians in my workplace".

Its a cold hard fact.

It would be racist to say "I hate all these indians in my workplace".

2% at the last census in 2022, but given the population has increased drastically since then, and the demographics that have driven that rise, the Muslim will also have risen.

Probably because you literally never hear anything about them.

But I'll ask you a serious question - what benefit does it offer to Ireland or its people to have thousands of adherents to a religion that actively conflicts with our Western values and the society we have since the Catholic Church lost its hold on the State? 

The religion itself doesn’t offer anything, but among our Western values are rights like Freedom of Religion and so on, so the question of what value religion is supposed to offer doesn’t arise. The value offered by immigrants though, is obvious - they contribute to the labour market for one thing, their children attend schools in Ireland (many Catholic schools would have closed down long ago were it not for immigrants), they contribute to the property market, and they contribute to the economy overall (like establishing local shops, restaurants, etc).

Then as a follow up, why do you think that we won't see (more of) the same problems that the UK is experiencing?

I think anyone who would claim we won’t see more of the same problems that the UK is experiencing would be foolish to imagine they could predict the future with any degree of accuracy or confidence whatsoever. That would also mean your concerns about the future don’t amount to much either. There’s no good reason to believe that Irish people will react in a similar manner people in the UK in response to increasing immigration. Other countries in Europe (including the UK), have a much longer history of immigration than we do in Ireland, they’re much more nationalistic than we are in Ireland.

There were attempts in the 70s to introduce nationalism in the Irish education system, but it didn’t really pan out after we joined the EEC as it was at the time in 1973 and the focus became more towards becoming a Union of European Member States. The idea was harmonisation of trade, taxation and laws across Europe, hasn’t quite gone according to plan, obviously, and the exit of the UK didn’t help matters an awful lot, though their exit hasn’t helped UK citizens or their economy either. Can’t really use immigrants as a scapegoat for their piss poor economic performance and social instability any more though.