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Elaine Byrne: Signs of leadership give hope in a void filled with misinformation

With the local elections looming, some politicians try to stand out by becoming a proxy for the ‘national conversation’ on immigration, while others have stood up

Former president Mary Robinson: ‘I believe that the Irish people do think that there is room in the inn but they need to be properly consulted’

This week saw two Connemara-based Fianna Fáil councillors receive a stern rebuke from Tánaiste Micheál Martin following comments they made about an arson attack on a hotel in Galway. On Wednesday, another Fianna Fáil councillor based in Fermoy, Co Cork, made similar remarks, describing the “sheer madness” of current immigration levels into the country.

There are two ways of looking at these statements. The first is from a deeply cynical political perspective. The first rule ...