Before immigration, Ireland was a grey and colourless place to live

In the Ireland I grew up in, we had an identity, we had sovereignty, we had white skin and not a whole lot else, writes Terry Prone

DEAR Alan, Peter, and Gary, in my business, media consultancy, I warn people before a launch that something outside of their control may reduce the media space available to them. Nevertheless, I was surprised when the launch of Identity, your new political party, walked into a double whammy. First, anti-racist protesters took the shine off it, and then the cull-the-seagulls frenzy made bits of it. You must be disappointed.

I’m sure your call for us to go back to sovereignty, and to an Ireland that had a clear identity, will resonate with some people. Nostalgia for non-existent past glory is a common delusion. But it’s mostly a delusion of people who have no life. I just don’t see a huge market out there for you, as a result. I was trying to think of when we had a clear identity, and it struck me that it might be when, if you met a black man in Dublin, you knew immediately he was a student in the Royal College of Surgeons. Those were the days. Well, I assume those were the days you want to recreate. I don’t remember them as being that special. I mostly associate them with chilblains.