Our country shows lack of leadership in refugee crisis

Difference between Ireland and other countries is clear: in a word, leadership

Refugees mainly from Syria, Iran and Iraq are seen inside a registration camp owned by the UNHCR Pic: Getty

It is almost a year since the body of Syrian three-year-old Alan Kurdi washed up on a Turkish beach. Since then, Canada has taken in 29,000 Syrian refugees. Ireland has taken in 311.

The photographs of the drowned toddler provoked an international outcry. The Irish government responded by promising to take in 4,000 refugees (from Syria and elsewhere). In Canada, then in the throes of a general election campaign, the leader of the ...