Michael D Higgins says Irish have 'moral responsibility' to welcome those seeking protection 

The President said our strong commitment to humanitarian aid and relief is an example of "the Irishness we wish to be known by" which he said is one grounded in "decency, in ethical principles, taking our share of global responsibility".

Irish people have a "moral and ethical responsibility" to welcome those seeking protection in this country, President Michael D Higgins has said.

Speaking at an event in Co Donegal to mark National Famine Commemoration Day he said the parallels with An Gorta Mór and the mass displacement it caused 175 years ago must not be lost on us.

The President said our strong commitment to humanitarian aid and relief is an example of "the Irishness we wish to be known by" which he said is one grounded in "decency, in ethical principles, taking our share of global responsibility".

Comparing the level of migration during the Famine to the present day, the President pointed out that in the five years between 2018 and 2022, according to a recent report by Caminando Fronteras, 11,286 people died trying to enter Spanish territory from Africa, almost all of them at sea. This excludes the many who die before they make it to the coast.

He said the UN migration agency believes that two people die in the Sahara for everyone who drowns at sea.

"The parallels with An Gorta Mór and the mass displacement it caused 175 years ago must not be lost on us.

  We have a moral duty to continue to honour our commitments to those vulnerable and displaced who seek asylum and refuge on our shores," President Higgins told those attending the event in Milford.

“We have a moral and ethical responsibility to support our global family in dire need, to help with sustainable solutions to ending all famines, wherever they occur on our shared, vulnerable planet, and to provide a decisive response to climate change which itself is leading to an increased incidence of famines globally.

"Failure to act to prevent famines worldwide does not merely make an echo. It repeats and merely replicates the doctrines of inaction, moralism and laissez-faire policies that precipitated the Irish Famine, contributing to mass displacement such as that which we see now in Africa," he said.

President Higgins said the legacy of An Gorta Mór, which is still seen today, is complex, deep, wide, has many strands that have impacted on the Irish collective psyche as well as at the individual level.

"Its legacy is one of involuntary emigration, cultural loss, demoralisation and loss of confidence, both in terms of population and in terms of its impact on the Irish language and the marks this would have on the country, and in particular on Irish society, ramifications that still play out today on so many levels."