The newest Irish - Their land of hope

Despite yesterday’s dreadful if unexpected health cuts, despite yesterday’s report that residential property prices fell by 13.6% in the year to July, and despite the frightening news that one in 12 households with a mortgage is headed by an unemployed person, almost 4,000 people from 115 countries chose to become citizens of this country yesterday.

This flies in the face of the return of our national plague — forced, permanent emigration — and underlines one more time how our society is changing as never before and, maybe even more importantly, how so many people see so much possibility in this battered and chastened society. Maybe we should all buy into the hope these newest Irish represent.