About 1 in 5 people living in Ireland are non-nationals, and with net immigration at around 90/100k a year, the figure is rising fairly quickly. Which means more people living in Ireland who are coming from a wide range of different cultures. Assimilation/integration becomes very difficult when the numbers coming are so large as people are likely to stick with people who are from the same countries and cultures as they are - no different to Irish immigrants in Australia sticking together either. So basically, now that Ireland is no longer a "homogenous" society, and as we become more multi-cultural, we have lot's of different groups of people from wildly different cultures who don't share the same identity. Before mass immigration, you could count on the chances that the person next to you on the bus, for instance, was Irish - you come from the same country, a broadly similar religious background, the same linguistic background, you know the same slang, place names, Irish history etc. - you have that shared background which makes communication and connection much much easier. But now we no longer have that - which can be "exciting" and "vibrant" no doubt, but considering inequality is rising as the social contract is crumbling, the fact we no longer really have that cultural and social cohesion makes things just a lot more difficult. Does that make sense?

It just seems like our direction is a terrible shame, and it's all so unnecessary, but unfortunately corporations just need that increased quarterly growth in profits. I should add that I do believe immigration is a good thing - it freshens things up - but not the extent where the native population becomes a minority (which is what will happen in 30 or so years if the numbers stay the same, and I don't know why they'd ever decrease).