Green, white and orange has changed to a rainbow state

IT IS an ironic reflection of the rapid deterioration of Ireland’s manufacturing base that we are now even reduced to importing our xenophobia from abroad.

Fine Gael tried to justify their kite-flying idea to offer unemployed migrants six months’ dole money to get out, and stay out, of the country by insisting it could not be seen as scapegoating foreigners as the party had borrowed the initiative from Spain.

A similarly confused attitude to the new Irish by the old Irish is laid bare in the Amárach Research survey, which shows while more than half of us think immigration has had a good impact on the country, two-thirds of those questioned now want it restricted as the chill winds of recession begin to blow bitter and cold.