Ellen Coyne: We should be wary of politicians who claim to be a voice for ‘rural Ireland’

Where exactly is rural Ireland? Is it down at the sharpest extremes of the Iveragh Peninsula, where Kerry claws the sea? Maybe that doesn’t count anymore, because of Cahersiveen. The small Kerry town is one that takes the word ‘fáilte’ as an ethos, rather than just as an earner. Cahersiveen has proven that it doesn’t just reserve its warmth for tourists, as it has a consistent record of advocating for and protecting asylum seekers, whether they arrived from crowded Direct Provision centres at the outbreak of the pandemic or those who came from Ukraine after the war.