An email I received this week from my child's school says that parents can come in this week for World Book Day and read a book to the children "in any language" they wish to read a book in. So kids like my daughter have to (not for the first time) sit and listen to stories at school that they don't understand.
Which I think is most unfair for a child who is a native of an English speaking country. It is alienating. I guess you could argue that the same is true for children who don't understand English (or Irish) and have to sit and listen to stories in the English (or Irish) language. BUT this is Ireland, and if there are children in schools who don't understand English (and we know there ARE) then that is also unfair to native children who are being held back in their learning because teachers may have to slow down or explain something a number of times, using various unconventional methods.
My child is 9. There are several nationalities in my daughter's class. The Irish nationality is probably the least represented nationality in her class (used to be just her, now there is another child also, equalling just two Irish kids in a full class). So, the startling data below does not just pertain to 15-** **29 year olds. Judging by my daughter's school, I am sure of it.
Given what I've just outlined, I'm pretty sure that there may be a similar number (or higher) of children in the 4 to 12 primary school age bracket who were born outside Ireland or have one or more parents who were born outside of Ireland. I did speak before about how my child was the only Irish child in her class (at the time) and would come home crying because she didn't understand what other children were saying. She was literally the foreign child in her school. In her own country.
I was smeared by the press for saying it. I was painted as a liar, and my face was plastered across the page with the "rise of the far right agitators" above it. Because, as a concerned mother, I simply told the truth (which Elon Musk shared and this enraged the Irish media as the tens of millions of views showed the world what was happening in Ireland; a secret that was meant to be kept hidden. They are proud of diversity but not THAT proud you see?
In time, I knew I would be proven right. They wouldn't be able to call me a liar anymore (or at least people wouldn't believe I was a liar). But you know what? I WISH I was lying or exaggerating. I really do. But I wasn't, and I'm not, and sure, the kids in my daughter's class are lovely (like most children). But that is not the important or relevant point here, is it? The fact is around 90% (if not 95%) of parents with kids at my daughter's school are foreign and far from NOT being human for noticing that, I would be not human if I didn't notice that. It is a shock daily, if I am honest. I RARELY hear an Irish conversation in the school yard, supermarket or village, etc, where I live. I invite you to come and see and hear what I see and hear daily.
But are Irish people sitting up and noticing yet? They have eyes don't they? The data examined by Gript not only shows "40% of 15-29 year-olds living here were born outside Ireland (or to at least one non-Irish parent), it also shows that one third of births here are now to mothers born outside of the state."
We are on course to be a minority within a few short years at this rate, especially given that birth rates amongst Irish people are way down because they cannot afford to have children.
I don't know who needs to hear this stark reality: It is by design. Not accident. You ARE being replaced, and so are your children. It can no longer be plausibly denied, but it may just be too late to do anything about it.
By Susanne Delaney