Closing RTÉ longwave - Link weakened

We occasionally show an almost shameless ability for exploiting our diaspora but that enthusiasm is not always matched by helping them feel they have not been forgotten.

The Gathering renewed links stretched by time and distance but made unavoidable by emigration. We occasionally press our friends in America to treat our illegal emigrants there more favourably than other nationalities despite the inherent injustice of those pleas. This plamás peaks when someone proposes votes for Irish immigrants.

The colder, more honest reality is better reflected in the RTÉ decision to close their longwave radio service. Even in our digital age this service is a vibrant link for older Irish people in Britain. This generation left when times were far harder than most of us can ever imagine. They also worked in a society under attack by the IRA and bore the consequences. Many of them are old and living alone. It is hard not to think that they would regard this isolating decision as another betrayal by the country of their birth.