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

Becoming a minority, alongside an ideology that not only seems to revel in the fact, but also strongly infers we are the cause of our newcomers problems and misfortunes with this privilege idiocy.

Does nobody think that this might be a bit of a issue if or when the Irish do become a minority?

I hear what you're saying, the feeling that social solidarity is lower is a very real phenomenon, however it's due to the economic transformation, digital transformation (social media and racist/far right rhetoric), education (lack thereof), planning laws, and declining religous influence.

The way we build our towns and cities has an effect. A lot of housing estates or cities are not designed to foster community these days(build as much as you can in a defined space for maximum profit and output). They often lack central, walkable public squares, facilities like gyms or swimming pools or other sport/activity facilities, local shops, or shared green spaces that encourage spontaneous interaction.

Also the things that have changed the daily lives for everyone is the smartphone in your pocket, the big supermarket you drive to, and the long commute to work are far more responsible for this sense of fragmentation/lack of solidarity than the background of the person living next door.

Nope, you can't have the whole world be given the same chance in life as people of Ireland. You just can't. There's not enough to go around for everyone. We enjoy food to order and wash our cars with drinking water, while people of other places die of hunger and thirst.

Fair points about managing migration within limits. I dont think e do it that well. Alos fair point you made on housing estates. Proftit driven only by developers. No sense of community in them for anyone.

See I don’t necessarily disagree with what you’re saying in a broad overarching sense

But where your point falls down is that it assumes a perfect 100% degree of integration to every single second generation migrant - this is simply not something that is borne out by reality and is reflected by enclaves of certain groups of migrants in different cities the world over.

When it is a small stream of migration taking place over a long period of time, the arrivals are immersed in the native culture to a much greater degree and there is far higher chance of full integration.
However when the migration is occurring at a level where a large proportion of the population is no longer native within a single generation, there is no way that integration is going to occur to the same degree. This is how you end up with parallel societies within the same country. Sometimes it is simply too much, too quickly.

If my partner and I moved to China tomorrow and raised our children as Chinese and were as mindful as possible about raising them with as many of the traditions and ceremonies of our adoptive country, realistically even with all that, they still won’t be as Chinese as the kids they are going to school with.
Those kids are going to be participating in traditions, stories, idioms, patterns of speech and humour etc that are simply impossible to perfectly mimic, even by very committed first generation migrants. So my kids might be Chinese, but there are certain aspects of Chinese culture that we would have missed or been unaware of - these are aspects that would eventually be eroded when large portions of the population are migrants in the space of a single generation. The larger this proportion becomes the more rapid the erosion of the native culture.

Of course, aspects of our culture are always being lost and eroded over long periods of time, but this turbo charges it.

When it comes to migration you want a melting pot - bits and pieces added here and there and given a long period of time to melt in and add their flavours and be absorbed without having a huge impact on the overall contents of the pot. When everything happens too fast you end up with a salad - a load of very distinct bits tossed together that might impart some flavours on eachother but never ultimately as one.

Hang on there, that's oversimplifying the reality, pretending this is universal ignores nuance. Surveys consistently show that attitudes toward identity and belonging are more mixed than your blanket ‘everyone young gets it’ claim. And dismissing any differing view as a ‘far-right echo chamber’ is just a lazy straw man that dodges the discussion.. National identity is layered, and reducing it to language and a few shared references is a nice soundbite but not an honest reflection of reality.

Comparing a 20 year old to an 80 year old.. right.

Of course, but that’s different, they all have an Irish parent - they’d be privy to all aspects of Irish culture and would have Irish extended family, cousins etc

The example we were discussing is both parents being migrants and the degree to which that effects integration

Yea sure well known people like Paul McGrath or Phil Lynott are national icons figures, but holding up a handful of high-profile examples doesn’t erase the fact that integration and identity is fairly complex, reducing the issue to ‘I know a few mixed-race lads and they’re sound’ ignores the wider reality: belonging isn’t just about individual friendships — it’s about how society at large perceives and negotiates identity, and that picture isn’t that simple…. Like another poster says coming from a family where both parents are immigrants is a lot different than the 2 famous figures..

What a very throwaway comment. Barring anyone commentating on this thread is 80+ years old, an 80 year old or older is very much more Irish than us all… they have lived through, have experience of, and most importantly knowledge of (providing the dreaded Alzheimer's hasn't set in) the history and culture of this island on a level that none of us could truly appreciate. And the deteriorating levels of respect shown to this elderly generation is nothing short of shocking and appalling. I cast my mind back a short while ago to that horrendous Prime Time Investigates into Nursing Homes in Dublin and Portlaoise to see how that generation is being catered for in this 'brave, tolerant compassionate and inclusive' "New Ireland". A fair share of the abuses dished out to the elderly were from the 'new to the Parish' cohort too. But in some circles, out of sight is out of mind. Who cares?

While a 1st generation immigrant might hold a dual citizenship and may very well refer to themselves as the race/ethnicity of their country of origin, the important point is how their children identify.

An interesting point you make. They may very well refer to themselves as the race/ethnicity of their country of origin, or perhaps they may not either…

One recent event in Tralee after the All-Ireland Football Final (as reported here) was headlined as 'Indian woman brutally beaten and called ‘foreign b****’ while celebrating Kerry’s All-Ireland' however, that headline is very much misleading because Mrs Flynn clearly states the following…

“I don’t consider myself an Indian. I’m part of the Indian community but I consider myself a complete Irish woman. I’ve lived in Ireland for more years than I’ve lived in India. Kerry is home to me. I was married here and I have two beautiful children who were born in Tralee. I have long been involved in the community,” she said.

So begs the question, if she "consider myself a complete Irish woman", then why is it being framed as a 'racist' attack?

This is where the 'progressives' tie themselves up in knots. According to them anyone can be considered Irish, however - when an incident happens that they wish to exploit, then the victim 'isn't Irish enough' so they can bandy about the racist tagline. All very predictable.

What about religion? What if people are from an expansionist religion which places it above nationality?