One of Ireland's leading clerics has warned that the country faces a future marred by ghettos of violence and fear unless attempts are made to build bridges of understanding with immigrants.
In his Christmas message, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, Dr John Neill, urged people to go out of their way to understand that many coming to Ireland today had been traumatised by violence, political oppression or poverty.
Archbishop Neill said the wonder of the Christmas story of the birth of the infant Lord with choirs of angels, worshipping shepherds and gift-carrying wise men, quickly gives way to the Holy Family becoming refugees in Egypt.
He warned that the people and the causes that stir our hearts at Christmas do not all disappear from the scene at the end of December.
He cautioned that the so-called 'Ireland of the Welcomes' must take a deep breath, asking if those welcomes really reached beyond well-heeled returning emigrants and the traditional big-spending tourists from the Western world.
The Archbishop said there was a price to be paid in being a welcoming and multi-cultural society, and that we have to be willing to learn about the way others live and think.
