It is emigrants who truly represent Ireland abroad

We hear it every year; the feeble, unsubstantiated claim that St Patrick’s Day trips, at enormous expense to the taxpayer, yield investment in business in our country.

We already have ‘ambassadors’ in all of those countries: Irish citizens, young and old, forced to leave the vast wasteland of Ireland to search for work.

People living in exile would have welcomed an invitation from their leader to represent their home.