Learning from history can help Ireland move forward

THE history of immigration in Britain is dogged by waste, despair and death — yet today the country can rightly boast about being among Europe’s most integrated societies.

As a British citizen, I feel this is no mean feat especially when you consider the country is still waging a publicly unpopular war with the US in Iraq, viewed by many as anti-Islam.

And perhaps what is remarkable is how the country avoided imploding into racially fuelled violence when four home-grown Muslim terrorists blew up themselves and dozens of others in London on July 7 two years ago.