A Letter from Ireland
a Chara,
I am sure that many of you have seen the violent scenes that unfolded in Belfast this week. First, the brutal knife attack on Monday evening, and then the scenes of Unionist mobs attacking police, the fire service, families, homes, and cars.
The assailant on Monday night was a Sudanese man who had been granted the right to stay in the North by British Immigration officials. I only mention his ethnicity and status, as that was the basis for a racist mob to rampage and attack the homes of people of colour.
In Ireland, most violent attacks are carried out by white Irishmen. The vast number of abusers of women and children are white Irishmen. Yet these abusers are seen as exceptions to the norm.
When a person from an immigrant community engages in violence, regardless of circumstance, it is portrayed by some as the norm for that community. That is racism. In reality, there is good and bad in all communities.
Last week I was in San Francisco, with Sinn Féin Vice-President Michelle O’Neill. We celebrated the connections between our two great nations. We visited the proposed site of a monument to An Gorta Mór overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. The monument will remember all of those who fled hunger and poverty in Ireland to make a new life for themselves on the West Coast of America.
We stood beside a statue of Robert Emmet, the great Irish Patriot, and we thought of all those who fled political persecution in Ireland from Wolf Tone to the present day.
These were the economic immigrants and asylum seekers of their time. In the US, they faced intimidation and discrimination from nativists. The same played out in Britain. Portrayed as lazy, stupid, drunken, and violent. “No Irish need apply”, was added to job adverts.
They could not be fully American as they were Irish and “Roman” Catholic. It took generations for the Irish to find their place in America, and yet some of those offensive stereotypes persist.
On Monday, I was showing former Congressmember Jamaal Bowman around Belfast. I took him to Bombay Street to see the wall that separates the communities and that marks the spot at which pro-British Unionists mobs attacked and burnt down the homes of Irish Catholics in 1969. These sectarian pogroms lit the fuse for thirty years of conflict.
I never thought that within twenty-four hours I would be witnessing similar pro-British Unionist mobs attacking the homes of immigrants. Sectarianism and racism are two sides of the same coin. The Irish know the cost of both; however, some seem to have forgotten their history.
Immigration to Ireland is a relatively new phenomenon and has been poorly handled by the government parties of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. They have created and sustained a housing crisis, increased inequality, and undermined public services. The easy answer for some is to blame immigrates for the failings of successive British and Irish governments.
Currently, asylum seekers make up a small proportion of immigrants. We have full employment, and immigrants are essential to our economy, particularly our health services.
In the South asylum seekers do not have the right to work and are entitled to the equivalent of only $50 per week and emergency accommodation. If no accommodation is available, they are provided with a tent to sleep on the streets.
The body that determines applications has been underfunded, leading to long delays. The current service does not work well for applicants nor for the state. The only people who prosper are the private providers of emergency accommodation.
There are many problems with the current immigration system, created by successive Irish Governments and exacerbated by partition, with the British Government controlling immigration in the North. This has failed the citizens and the new Irish alike.
The legacy of the British colonial project in Ireland based on sectarianism now morph into racist attacks for a minority in the unionist community.
Lastly, to read social media, you would believe that Ireland is full and our culture is under attack. Neither is true. Our population has still not recovered to pre-famine levels, and our language, music, and sports are going strong. We Irish come in all shapes, sizes, colours and faiths.
Given our history of emigration, the discrimination we faced abroad, and our experience of sectarianism at home; religious discrimination or racism has no place in Ireland. The tiny violent minority that took to the streets, or their keyboard warriors does not represent the people North or South.
Have a great weekend,
