Snakes alive and thriving under despicable law

I have just returned from Donegal where I interviewed a number of people not looking forward to today’s St Patrick’s Day celebrations.

While a coterie of politicians fly the flag and offer bowls of shamrock around the world and the rest of the populace gears up for the annual booze fest that celebrates our patron saint, there are some who cannot afford to look on from the sidelines.

They are “citizens” of this country who, driven out by the roller coaster that is the Irish economy, decided to try their luck in other countries. Some have travelled out from Ireland on more than one occasion in the last 20 years or so and have returned to discover that if they cannot find employment the State will turn its back.