A tale of two Irish citizens - The inhumane and the humane
The contrast, and the parallels too, in the stories of Lisa Smith and Keith Byrne are worth considering.
Lisa Smith left Ireland to be part of the Islamic State caliphate. She says her hopes were not realised and she languishes, with her two-year-old daughter, in a refugee camp in Syria.
Her childish naivete exacts a heavy price.
Nevertheless, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said he would like to see her and her child return to Ireland, insisting he would never separate a mother and child. Despite obvious, unavoidable concerns, that seems the only humane response.
How Keith Byrne and his family must wish he could anticipate a humane response from the country where he has lived and worked for many years.
He may be deported from America today and separated from his American wife and their children.
Held in prison, he has until today to sign deportation documentation or face jail.
By signing that document, he would agree to a ban excluding him from America, his family, and his business for five years.
Even if this is unsurprising in a country where the president tells congresswomen, all American citizens, “to go back to where they came from”, it seems cruel and harsh — so cruel that it creates the disillusion that can push people to embrace radical causes.
It also seems another reason to reconsider how we regard America — or, at least, the racist America unleashed by their president’s hate speech.
