Democrat Editorial: The Green hand of friendship will prevail

There is a certain irony that in the week in which we celebrate the feast day of St Patrick, our patron saint and the greatest clarion call of identity for the Irish at home and abroad, he was actually born in Wales.

We are a great people and a splendid nation full of vitality and ingenuity, but with many flaws both individually and collectively as a society. 

Each year on March 17 we are given a unique opportunity to showcase all that is good in this country, all that is vibrant about our little nation. 

And how we have in our own small way, being able to mark our small part of the global map, onto a huge world stage, in impressive fashion.

In a time and age where we are grappling with people arriving on this island, whether from war torn countries or migrants from elsewhere, it is important to note that our ability to have such good standing across the globe today is mainly due to generations of migrants from this country, being able to make their own indelible mark, across the continents where we spread our wings.

Most of that emigration from Ireland was not due to a desire to travel the world. Rather it was based on the cruel and harsh economic conditions that we faced, both under foreign oppression and later the legacy of poverty which still prevailed in the Free State and thereafter for decades.   

Whether through that harsh backdrop or the recounted memories of starvation during the Great Famine, or the suffering that saw the emergence of this country after wars and even as recently as the Troubles, we have learned that connectivity, communications and compatibility are some of the core ingredients of a decent society.

The Irish have a unique empathy as a modern nation, with those that are struggling throughout the world, and we must continue to articulate injustice, whenever and wherever, in these coming days.