It’s a bit self-indulgent to write about one’s own twitterings, and the reactions to them, and I do try to avoid doing it. But perhaps you might forgive me just this once, because I received a thorough online scolding for this yesterday:
Given the commendable enthusiasm to welcome migrants in Fermoy, surely Government could solve all its problems elsewhere in the country by moving all migrants to Fermoy for the foreseeable future? Take people at their word. https://t.co/6HmiMSFktK
— John McGuirk (@john_mcguirk) December 4, 2022
The response of one usually sympathetic correspondent was as follows: “A tweet far beneath your usual standard of commentary. Very disappointing”.
It is true, of course, that the tweet is a nonsense. It was intended to be a nonsense: Clearly, Fermoy could not cope, even with the best will in the world, with all the migrants that the Government could potentially send its way.
But nevertheless, the protest, or demonstration, or whatever you wish to call it, was making a simple and commendable statement: “Migrants welcome here”.
Isn’t it fair, then, to ask: How many?
This is, after all, the nub of our present national drama. Except for a vanishingly small number of fringe activists, there is (I’d like to think) almost universal agreement that Ireland has a duty to aid those fleeing conflict, and that we should welcome and be gracious to those who we can aid.
But if your reaction is that there are limits on the number of people that Fermoy can take is correct (and it is) – then isn’t it also true, obviously, that there are limits on the number of people that the country as a whole can take?
And if so, what is that limit?
Because that, it strikes me, is the conversation that we are not really permitted to have.
And indeed, the Government has been clear, time and time again, that it will not impose a limit.
Let’s turn to East Wall, ground zero for this battle, for the moment. The thing that strikes me about this story is not the fact that migrants are being accommodated, but the “where” of it.
Office blocks are not residential accommodation. They were never intended to be residential accommodation. When the city planners (and perhaps this is giving them too much credit) were planning schools and hospital beds and policing needs for the East Wall area, they did not account for the better part of a thousand people living in an office block. They could not have done so. If you are putting people in a commercial office building, then by definition, your housing resources are exhausted and you are now exceeding your capacity to accommodate people.
This should not be controversial: The equivalent would be Croke Park trying to fit 100,000 spectators into the all-Ireland final by shrinking the size of the pitch and letting spectators sit on the grass around the edges of the field. Technically, you could probably do it, but the quality of the experience would be reduced for everybody because the stadium was simply not built to accommodate that many people. And when Croke Park reaches capacity, they turn people away: Nobody, of course, claims that this is discrimination.
Yes, they could technically take more people in, but to do so would exceed the design of the facility.
Why does this principle not apply to the country?
Apparently, nobody thinks that Fermoy, despite it’s (again, this is not sarcasm) commendable welcome to migrants, could accommodate all the migrants in the country. That’s fine, and logical: But there’s a follow up question: How many can it take? What is the capacity of Fermoy?
And if we can have that conversation about Fermoy, why can’t we have it about Ireland? Why is the Government so unwilling, and the media so reluctant, to ask that question?
If EU law demands that there are no limits (and it does not, but that’s a different piece) then isn’t the EU law bad, and why are we not seeking to change it?
Anyway, I think those are questions all worth posing. But this platform seems to be alone, in the Irish media, in thinking that. Everyone else just seems to think you’re far-right for wondering.
Exit question, by the way: Surprising, isn’t it, how few in the media are wondering how many of the people in Fermoy were locals, and how many are “external activists” bussed in to “create a narrative”? You’d nearly think there was a double standard in the media in Ireland.