By D Collins, Political Contributor and Journalist
There was a time, not long ago, when the Irish welcomed newcomers with open arms and rightly so. Many of us are the children or grandchildren of emigrants. The new Irish the ones who arrived with papers in hand, ready to contribute, to work, to live peacefully under Irish law and custom are the very backbone of our modern services and future economy. These legal immigrants have filled our hospitals with skilled doctors and nurses. They’ve staffed our tech corridors, taught in our schools, and wired our homes and buildings as electricians, plumbers, and tradespeople. In short, they have become Irish in everything but birth.
But as we enter a critical election cycle here in Ireland and the EU., we are watching a slow, deliberate erasure of this distinction between the legal and the illegal, the contributor and the opportunist, the integrator and the agitator.
And we must ask: who is responsible for this blurring of lines?
The answer is both obvious and unsettling. It is the modern left, aided by an increasingly compliant media machine, that has shifted the conversation. No longer do we debate how to manage immigration wisely instead, we are told that any resistance to open borders is inherently racist, xenophobic, or worse. The very same left who once championed working-class rights now weaponise language, using race, religion, and “inclusion” to stifle any discussion around who gets to come to our country — and on what terms.
Let us be clear. There is no problem with immigration. But there is a serious problem with illegal immigration with people arriving on our shores without documents, without background checks, and without any willingness to integrate into Irish society. These individuals bypass not just laws, but values. They often arrive demanding rights before responsibilities, using their ethnicity as a baton to beat the host society into silence, and invoking their religious beliefs not as a shield of faith but as a barrier to integration.
Meanwhile, the genuine immigrant the Nigerian nurse, the Indian doctor, the Eastern European tradesman is thrown into the same pot as those who abuse the system. The media, guided by left-wing ideological interests, refuses to make the distinction. Instead, all immigrants are portrayed as victims, and all criticism as bigotry.
And this is where the right has utterly failed.
Instead of offering a clear, unified message that upholds the value of legal immigration while demanding accountability and integrity in border policy, the right has descended into noise. Some shout about “invasions,” others about “great replacements,” and still others peddle conspiracy without solution. It’s a cacophony of confusion and the public, who live with the real consequences of these policies, are left with no strong voice to represent them.
What the left has done masterfully is reframe the debate. No longer is it about protecting national sovereignty or maintaining social cohesion. It’s about emotion. About guilt. About playing the harp of history so that anyone who dares speak of border controls is painted as a ghost of colonial cruelty.
And while the left writes the script, the media performs it daily. Newsrooms avoid uncomfortable truths, statistics are softened or ignored, and politicians on the right are either muzzled or mocked if they speak out. So the false narrative persists: that all immigration is good, all opposition is hate, and that those concerned for their communities are somehow on the “wrong side” of history.
But if the right doesn’t find a unified, reasoned, and morally confident voice, they will continue to lose the war of words and soon, the war of ideas.
The truth is simple. Ireland like every nation has the right to determine who comes, who stays, and under what terms. Legal immigration strengthens our society with much-needed skills, cultural exchange, and economic growth. Illegal immigration threatens that very balance. It places strain on housing, healthcare, and schools. It allows unknown individuals to walk freely in a land they have no stake in not because of compassion, but because of cowardice in confronting the uncomfortable.
It’s time to end the whispering campaign of half-truths and speak plainly.
The right must reclaim the narrative. Not with hatred, not with division, but with clarity. We need to remind the nation and the left that loving your country, securing its borders, and managing immigration wisely is not racism. It’s common sense.
And if the right wants to survive this political cycle, they must do so not by shouting louder, but by speaking smarter. One message. One voice. No more splinters of noise and fear. No more reactionary outbursts that feed the caricature the left has drawn for them.
To the lads and ladies of the right: Ireland needs your voice. But not the one you’re using now. What we need is strength, not screaming. Courage, not chaos. The left has given you noise. Now give us something better. Something real.
Before it’s too late.