While it is understandable that the plight of migrants and refugees should somehow be sorted out, especially that of genuinely persecuted people, there is a common and mistaken thread throughout media that migrants are somehow neutral ideological agents or hopefully people who seek to embrace and support the ideals of liberty of the free world.

IF Eamon Gilmore could not even defeat a long-serving minister of a discredited government in open debate, are we to conclude that the much-vaulted “Gilmore Gale” is little more than a puff of hot angry wind?