People who are different. Asylum-seekers now suffer verbal abuse on a daily basis, particularly if they are black or Romanian. Beatings and other forms of physical abuse are becoming more common. Not very long, if the kind of racist literature in circulation is anything to go by. Take the following example, which was handed to an African man by three young Irishmen in the Dublin suburb of Templeogue recently.
Black men are here in Ireland now.
Yet the picture of thousands of people queueing for hours in the rain outside the Department was the perfect illustration of an unfeeling, slipshod bureaucracy in action. It was as though Ellis Island came to St Stephen's Green for the day. With accelerating zeal, the Department pursued its remit of controlling immigration during the year, yet there was little progress in taking asylum-seekers out of their legal limbo by processing cases. But at least the Department could claim to be doing its job, unlike the politicians, whose lack of leadership was stunning. If politicians have a defence, it is that they are reflecting the views of constituents.