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'I am a child of refugees. Had others not taken us in we all would have been killed'

Looking at the current crisis, I see myself and my parents at the time when we struggled, writes Thamil Ananthavinayagan.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE a few weeks makes. In September, an image of a Syrian toddler washed up dead on a beach outraged the world. It featured on many of the front pages, making people demand answers from officials as to what was being done to solve the humanitarian crisis. 

Fast forward nearly two months and the Irish crew of the LÉ Samuel Beckett are still rescuing people from the Mediterranean, pulling 218 people out of the water just yesterday. Europe says it has agreed to co-operate with each other as thousands of people cross the Balkans looking for refuge. Refugees are to be assessed and taken in by other countries under a relocation programme, with the first people due to arrive in Ireland before Christmas. 

Here, a research assistant working in NUI Galway writes about how he sees himself in the faces of the young children he sees on the news every night.

EACH AND EVERY day I watch the news in the morning, confronted with the appalling pictures of human beings that struggle in their ordeal to reach a place that is providing safety from bombs, freedom from fear, hunger and despair. They eventually want to escape death.

Whenever I see those faces, I see me, I see my parents.

My father was one of the most prominent Sri Lankan Tamil politicians. His ‘nom de guerre’ was “Vannai Ananthan”, a name the Tamils bestowed upon him. He fought against the discrimination of the Tamils in Sri Lanka, the minority population in Sri Lanka. And, this is important to underscore, he fought with non-violent means.

In recent years, after his death, his comrades told me about his thrilling and captivating speeches. His appearance and speeches were lifeblood to the Tamil resistance against a chauvinist and racist Sri Lankan government that was dominated by the Sinhala population, which form the majority on the island.

Thrown in prison

For his resistance and membership in opposition to the Sri Lankan government my father was imprisoned under the Prevention of Terrorism Act for seven years in the infamous Welikade prison, the Sri Lankan version of Robben Island.

When I asked my father one day, why he did fight against the government and didn’t simply remain silent and pursue his career as a civil engineer in the public administration, he replied:

“There are moments, son, when you have to do the right thing.”

This sentence should become the common credo of my life.

With the help of Amnesty International my father was released. Shortly after my father fell in love with my mother at their working place, the Highways Department of the Ministry for Transport. Meanwhile, rumours spread around that the government wanted to kill my father.

Finding refuge

With the help of Amnesty International and political comrades, my father and my mother managed to escape Sri Lanka and found their refuge in Germany. My father became the first Sri Lankan Tamil to receive political asylum there, given his prominent status.

Germany, in a dark ocean of despair, became the beacon of hope. It offered my mother and father a home. Germany saved them from death. I know this for sure. Everybody I speak to tells me that if my parents had stayed in Sri Lanka, they would have been killed.

Germany, above all, is also my father country. I was born there. Growing up in Germany, I learnt what it means to live in cultural diversity, I received a great education and above all, I was received and accommodated free from fear, despair and death.

I did face discrimination and perhaps racism in Germany. But those incidents did not represent Germany, they were singular cases. But, in the end, Germans and Germany received me and my parents with open arms.

Right to live with freedom

This country helped my parents. They were able to work. They lived in freedom and peace. They became citizens of this country. They earned honest money for good work. They sent their son to the best schools possible. And the son saw a happily married couple, deeply in love, from day to day more.

This son had the privilege to delve in the vast knowledge of his father. This son had the honour to see him and experience him.

I had the profound gratitude to lay him to rest after years of sonhood. This I owe to a country that offered us refuge. I was able to go to school without the fear of being bombed. I was able to cross the streets without the fear of being shot in the back. I had food and safety. I had a decent education and learnt different cultures, religions and received the greatest friends one can imagine.

I had fabulous teachers, all of them offered me insights, shaped ideas and allowed me to experience their knowledge. I had friends and their families who always embraced me to be one of theirs. They included, never excluded or questioned my “Germaness”. I was always part of the society, never an outsider.

It was this extraordinary greatness of the society that makes Germany what it is. Hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankan Tamils were following in the 80s and 90s. And Germany, among other European nations offered refuge to these human beings.

I see myself and my parents on the TV now

Looking at the current crisis, I see myself and my parents again at the time when we struggled. But just like then, Germany and other countries stepped up, led by the fundamental value of humanity.

Germany, the Netherlands and Ireland made me who I am today: a child of refugees that went to grammar school, studied law, worked as a junior lawyer in tenancy law, majored in human rights law in Maastricht and is currently a PhD researcher in human rights in Galway, Ireland.

I am a product of European unity.

However, it is my fervent hope that Ireland will follow the German example in accommodating and providing for the refugees to come. I hope that the great Irish people won’t fear the moment, but seize the opportunity to live up to humanity and greatness.

The human beings who are coming need hope, compassion, empathy and a home. All of them have a life, with inherent dignity and a past.

Appeal to Irish people 

I hope that the Irish people will receive them with open arms and see in them the human beings they are and not as a swarm who want to exploit the system and distort the culture. No, they won’t, don’t fall for pied pipers.

The human beings coming will only enrich the beauty of the Irish culture and history. It is engineered into the Irish genes to feel empathy towards people in desperate need. Too fresh, still, are memories of the Great Famine or the Civil War.

Ireland can provide them food, shelter, safety, peace and education. Ireland can enable them to be a part of the society. Give them the feeling that they are welcomed. Just as Germany gave a little boy with a funny name the feeling not only of being welcomed, but of being part of a whole and enabled him to excel in what he does. Or, as his idol said: “Do the right thing”.

Ireland, it is time for greatness.

Thamil Venthan Ananthavinayagan, LLM. (Maastricht University) is a PhD candidate and Fellow under the supervision of Prof. Michael O’Flaherty, at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland, Galway. His research focuses on Sri Lanka and the UN Human Rights Council. Prior to his occupation at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, he studied law at the universities of Bonn and Marburg, Germany and then worked as a junior lawyer for the tenants’ association in Germany and subsequently obtained his master degree from the University of Maastricht.

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101 Comments
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    Mute Freddie Fox
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    Oct 29th 2015, 9:10 AM

    I do not believe that Irish people are racist,on the contrary I believe we are empathetic and welcoming of genuinely displaced refugees. Irish people have become cautious and somewhat apprehensive at the groups of healthy,aggressive, demanding young men who have been barging into Europe for the past number of months. These young men have been causing mayhem with their threatening violent behaviour, totally oblivious to the laws of the country they enter. For confirmation of this look at the statistics on increased crime rate in these countries. We must protect ourselves and our families against this type of threat, it is not racist to do this.

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    Mute Traveller Rights
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    Oct 29th 2015, 9:12 AM

    Yes it is.

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    Mute Vladimir Vasyectomy
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    Oct 29th 2015, 9:26 AM

    Traveller Rights,
    You are either a troll or a moron.

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    Mute John Fergus
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    Oct 29th 2015, 9:39 AM

    both i would say.

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    Mute VoiceOfVanguard
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    Oct 29th 2015, 12:45 PM

    It is difficult to believe that Angela Merkel felt she would invite an unlimited amount of people to Germany and then expect the rest of Europe to do the same when the predictable happened and Germany struggled to cope.
    Merkel’s aim is to fracture our racial solidarity.
    She is part of that sad generation that is still steeped in WW2 guilt and think eradicating our identity will eliminate the chance of conflict.
    Unfortunately that diversity is merely guaranteeing conflict in our childrens’ lifetime.
    We are betraying our own children, and their children.

    166
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    Mute ÉireBlood
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    Oct 29th 2015, 2:34 PM

    The people in this video know what is going on, they know this is a land-grab, they know their growing numbers will contend for the ownership of Europe, because that is the bottom line:

    Eritrean Migrants warn Germans their days are numbered
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiPR0zdPU0I

    99
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    Mute shanekeogh
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    Oct 29th 2015, 6:27 PM

    I’m embarrassed for the travellers you represent

    47
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    Mute Bunny
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    Oct 29th 2015, 9:01 AM

    “The human beings coming will only enrich the beauty of the Irish culture and history”
    Is this a joke? Germany is being destroyed by the refugee crisis and you want Ireland to repeat their mistakes?

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    Mute Scarr
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    Oct 29th 2015, 9:05 AM

    Germany has a tough road ahead: 81% are unskilled migrants.
    “The new claimants and the staff come with a cost, estimated to stand at €855 million next year (£620 million) in addition to the €35 billion already budgeted for 2016. ”
    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2015/10/28/leak-81-per-cent-migrants-germany-unskilled-government-predicts-400000-new-welfare-claimants/

    210
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    Mute MK76
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    Oct 29th 2015, 9:09 AM

    Bunny, please explain in any level of detail how Germany is being “destroyed” by the refugee crisis.

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    Mute William Boyd
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    Oct 29th 2015, 11:37 AM

    I’m not sure if you have noticed the huge rise in right wing and often far right parties in many countries in Europe over the last few years or so or so MK?, and with this latest refugee crisis mainly made up of unaccompanied young males of Muslim origin has seen their support surge, I wonder has that anything to do with the failure of multiculturalism that has changed the mindset of many people who would have previously voted more left wing?..

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    Mute William Boyd
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    Oct 29th 2015, 12:31 PM

    Just to add to that its one particular demographic that has ignited the rise of the right wing parties, if you removed this particular demographic from the equation we could quite comfortably say that multiculturalism has been a success, but because of this demographic its been a spectacular failure and if they keep coming in their droves multiculturalism will soon be categorised as a catastrophic failure that will have a devastating and lasting effect on future generations.

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    Mute ÉireBlood
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    Oct 29th 2015, 2:59 PM

    Yea right, because nationalist parties threaten native Europeans, the people they are fighting for, this is europe our home, not the home of the economic-chancers

    African migrant brutally rapes 7 year old girl in Germany
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70y0ARhs4NM

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    Mute MK76
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    Oct 29th 2015, 6:43 PM

    Want to post any articles about the rape of children by the Catholic Church, IRA or indeed behind close doors of “ordinary Irish people”, or is only an issue when others do it?

    Just come out and say you’re a racist and stop hiding behind singular instances that occur even in good old white Ireland.

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    Mute ÉireBlood
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    Oct 29th 2015, 7:26 PM

    MK76, every country has it’s own bad people, that is for each country to sort out their own problems. In the midst of you defending the rape of European women by migrants, you seem to not know the point that crimes committed by immigrants are crimes that are 100% preventable, not one of those crimes would ever have happened by these immigrants had we not had people like you supporting mass-immigration. And define what you mean by racism, because there is nothing hateful about protecting ones ethnicity and home for ones people. Do you call an Ethiopian racist when he says, Ethiopia is the home of Ethiopians and that is what he wants to preserve, or are you just a hate of white people?

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    Mute MK76
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    Oct 29th 2015, 8:37 PM

    Like I said before Eire, come out from behind your denials, deflections and distractions and be who you really are.

    I don’t have generalised hate, so stop the BS of the “defending the rape” and “hate for white people”. You’re the one that fears and hates. Not me.

    Irish people did everything you are faux outraged by (i.e. let our rotten child rapist go elsewhere to continue their vile lives). So if you really believe what your saying, you believe Irish people shouldn’t be allowed outside our shores. I call BS.

    So believe in your Ireland for the (white) Irish if you want, but don’t try dress it up. You can’t polish a turd.

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    Mute saoirse janneau
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    Oct 29th 2015, 10:23 PM

    @Scarr the figures quoted are ‘projections for 2016′ based on what 2 months of immigration. Lies lies and damn statistics.
    Also the paragraph
    “The document also provides comparison between the age profiles of arriving migrants and native Germans. While in the ordinary population 32 per cent of citizens are between the ages of 15 and 35, among the migrant arrivals that figure is 73 per cent. A very young group of immigrants.”
    Would be interesting to see how many of the 73% above fall into the age 15 to 19 category? These are still in school so therefore educational/tertiary education isn’t applicable yet. What about the kids from age 0-15. No mention of them? the phrase “the Swedish basket case” was enough for me to realise that this is nothing but a right wing propagandist ‘bild’ type article.

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    Mute John Fergus
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    Oct 29th 2015, 9:10 AM

    wow another open borders type propaganda piece.
    the cultural Marxist programming is running thick and heavy. most of the carefully selected clips put out by the media t only crying children and women. the fact that the vast majority of migrants are young healthy males is conveniently ignored by them. they want to pull on people’s heartstrings and not have think with their brains. ilk like sutherland and the open borders crowd are trying to use emotional guilt to convince the public to commit cultural suicide. if all the migrants and asylum seekers were let in and allowed to compete in the labour force how do you suppose that would affect the situation for the average worker here. it would cause huge wage deflation and worse working conditions in the unskilled labour market. most of this country’s indigenous population are there.
    be under no illusion there is an agenda behind what’s going on, many are starting to realise that and more people are coping on to it by the day.

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    Mute Traveller Rights
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    Oct 29th 2015, 9:12 AM

    How you finding the tinfoil hat, comfortable?

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    Mute The Dude
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    Oct 29th 2015, 11:54 AM

    The story of this Sri lankin lad is totally different to what is being ‘thrust’ opinion us now. Sri Lanka were not sending millions of people to Europe – it was not an invasion, which is what we are not seeing.

    Ireland is currently sending a delegation to pick those who will come here. However, we are not being told at all what the criteria is for those who will be chosen. The Christians are the real persecuted minority from that region and it is my hope that Ireland will give those people priority.

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    Mute The Dude
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    Oct 29th 2015, 11:55 AM

    Should read -’what we are NOW seeing’ – in my above comment.

    44
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    Mute Nigel Tuffnel
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    Oct 29th 2015, 10:20 AM

    Ah yes the old “cultural enrichment will make Ireland better” view. Good one. Ask any Swede or Dane how that worked out for them.

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    Mute Myk_Oval_Balls_nRyt
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    Oct 29th 2015, 12:07 PM

    well, considering Sweden is the rape capital of the world i wouldn’t say its going well. We should be paying close attention to these people coming here from the middle east and its surroundings, and thats being xenophobic, thats reality, these people have a VERY different view of women and their role in society than we educated people do.

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    Mute Myk_Oval_Balls_nRyt
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    Oct 29th 2015, 12:14 PM

    *that’s not being*

    48
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    Mute Rashers Tierney
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    Oct 29th 2015, 1:05 PM

    Apropos of nothing, can I ask why the Greek people (having been reduced to virtual beggary by Schaueble and the EU) should be expected to bear the brunt of the ‘migrant crisis’?

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    Mute ÉireBlood
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    Oct 29th 2015, 2:52 PM

    Rashers trying to skip past what is really going on, trying to put across the idea in everyone’s head that this some sort of “migrant crisis” instead of the economic-chancers free-for-all.

    Migrant Crisis: The Footage the Media Refuses to Broadcast
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV315xqbRK8

    “migrant crisis” …yea right

    142
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    Mute Sertorius
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    Oct 29th 2015, 6:52 PM

    Why do Tamil refugees need to travel halfway across the world to find safety? They could easily find safety in Tamil Nandu in India just a short hop away with people of similar language and religion. Of course the economic conditions might not be to their liking.
    The simple truth for the author of this puff piece is that your parents like most asylum seekers are economic migrants not asylum seekers.

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    Mute Liam Treacy
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    Oct 29th 2015, 8:24 PM

    Rashers, my 2 very mature buddies have just come back from a touring holiday on public transport in Greece. Mainland and Islands. Both left leaning politically came back with a serious adjustment in their understanding and attitude to Greece. Next to zero evidence of the economy we have heard and read about. They engaged with people at every level including old Greek friends. They encountered normal Northern European living standards, full coffee shops and restaurants. So much tax non compliance you can’t believe any unemployment statistics. No doubt there are people in trouble but nothing like we’ve heard and read.

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    Mute James Grant
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    Oct 29th 2015, 11:20 PM

    Irish people should not have to prove they’re *not* racist by drastically altering through large scale immigration the nature of their country and its cultural and ethnic identity. Ireland is a tiny country with a small population compared to many of the countries of origin for the migrants. If we concede the point that accepting immigrants is a moral or legal obligation we will end up as a country whose Gaelic ethnicity is just another identity group in a culturally Balkanized no man’s land. Ireland has to consider its duty of self-preservation and cultural conservation as much as it does the duty to help strangers in need. We should try to help other people who are less well-off through foreign aid and charitable acts instead of opening the doors to migrants. These people deserve compassion. Perhaps a temporary refugee status can be implemented for migrants from war-torn countries which will last only as long as the conflict will last.

    Ireland is a small nation-state serving as a homeland for the Irish people. If Britain chooses to be a multicultural land of immigrants that is fine, and even fitting, since Britain is a colonial country and is still part of a global commonwealth of former colonies. Many of its immigrants come from these countries. And the US is a nation of immigrants which has traditionally relied on immigration to populate its territory. But we shouldn’t let these bigger countries coerce Ireland into adopting their policies and Irish leaders should not feel obliged to imitate them

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    Mute bingo
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    Oct 30th 2015, 12:12 AM

    James, Very good comment. People in this country and elsewhere have been fed the lie that they will only be truly human and humane and cultured if they allow everybody in who wants to come. I am Irish – I have (naturally I believe) an affinity with my own people. I believe that I have a loyalty based on shared history and culture that I simply do not have to others. I make no apologies for it. And I am frankly sick of the racist card being pulled in relation to what I believe is a totally natural phenomenon the world over. Multiculturalism has been forced on the world. I don’t want it forced on Ireland. There is outside of this, the basic fact of economics – resources are finite. Ireland’s resources do not belong to the world – they belong to the Irish people, and I don’t want Europe dictating unending altruism to us or anyone else! I absolutely think that we can and should help, but there have to be limits to giving. Offering refugee status to some genuine refugees for a number of years is sufficient. In general though, only a fool doesn’t show self-interested.

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    Mute Vladimir Vasyectomy
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    Oct 29th 2015, 9:05 AM

    ” LLM., PhD candidate, master degree from the University of Maastricht…” – now there’s your typical migrant right there, (coughs).

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    Mute Micheal S. O' Ceilleachair
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    Oct 29th 2015, 10:43 AM

    This guy is full of appreciation for the advantages that living and being brought up in Germany did for him and fair dues to him for being so successful. He is very lucky that his late father had such a high political profile in Sri Lanka because it is this that enabled him to gain residency in Germany. Ordinary “Joe Soaps” would never have received the same treatment.

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    Mute Nigel Davis
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    Oct 29th 2015, 3:28 PM

    We can’t help all refugees, the best way to help more people is to send assistance to people in their region.

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    Mute JayK
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    Oct 30th 2015, 12:36 PM

    Call up Assad there so and ask him where to mail the cheque.

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    Mute Da Mo
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    Oct 29th 2015, 9:41 AM

    The University of Maastricht is in the Netherlands, not in Germany.

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    Mute Patricky
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    Oct 30th 2015, 12:11 AM

    Yes, Thamil says that in his piece – “I am the product of Germany, the Netherlands and Ireland”.

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    Mute ÉireBlood
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    Oct 29th 2015, 2:27 PM

    Yes we can all trot out the rare and far fewer “refugees” who go on to become doctors or whatever professional. However the fact remains, the overwhelming majority of these people are not “refugees” and will never become doctors or whatever, (in fact there have been several cases of so-called foreign doctors bringing their cultural norms with them and harassing patients or of medical incompetence).

    Furthermore, we have no obligation to sort out the world, we have given billions in aid to the 3rd world and continue to do so, we have given millions of hours in volunteer work and continue to do so, we do not owe any of you a thing, nothing. It is about time, you sorted your own countries out, like our ancestors had to and we to this day stil have to. We do not owe you either your life or your living. We have helped and continue to help with aid and charity work, it is time you helped yourselves and stop burdening our peoples.

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    Mute TheJeff
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    Oct 29th 2015, 4:29 PM

    @Eireblood

    Totally agree but unless you’re ready to build walls, sink ships & if necessary kill them, how do you stop them ?..

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    Mute Rosie Gluten
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    Oct 29th 2015, 6:02 PM

    With long hateful filled rants and copious amounts of you-tube links!! if these don’t work – then we are all banjaxed!

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    Mute Aisling Collins
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    Oct 29th 2015, 6:47 PM

    ahem @EireBlood 1.5 million Irish emigrated from here between 1845 and 1855. What category would you put them into? Political or Economic? Do you not think that the vast majority of them went on to contribute in a really positive way towards the building and development of the country they emigrated to or was there something inherently superior about the Celtic gene that brought all this about ??! For those thousands of refuges who are currently fleeing areas ravaged by war, know that the Irish were confronted by bigots like EireBlood every day of the week in the U.S when they arrived first. Ignore him and do whats right for your family. Merkel’s biggest challenge on refugee crisis is that she’s right while pretty much everyone else is wrong. Her actions will be viewed as the only altruistic thing that came out of the EU in recent decades. The bitter taste of what transpired in Greece has left me feeling nothing but disdain for the EU at this point as no decision made by any politician within its jurisdictions is driven by what is morally right but rather how it will affect their own personal upcoming electoral chances.

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    Mute ÉireBlood
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    Oct 29th 2015, 7:31 PM

    Aisling, using the old “Irish migrated” bs. Irish went to countries we helped found and died for. Countries we have an ancestral link to and are genetically and culturally like us, founded by western Europeans. Irish are not going to african & Asian countries changing their populations and native character out of all recognition, your comparison is invalid

    Btw, Irish and Germans and Poles and Italians and many other Europeans were confronted by the established Anglo-Saxon Jewish elite who established themselves there first, it is called rivalry, same thing happens between Africans and every other race, each race has tribes and nations who fought and competed with each other, trying to use that as some sort of comparison to manipulate people into having to accept invasion and a change of our country, is totally wrong

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    Mute ÉireBlood
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    Oct 29th 2015, 7:36 PM

    It is very easy to stop them. How come they were not coming before, and there were wars etc for years?

    We give out the message to the world, that they will not get any welfare here, nothing, not a drop. We tell them that we are restoring control of Europe for the European people, like we used to have, they will soon be more interested in building up their own countries, no more open borders, it is all very simple, and we deport those who came. we restore the sensible model of order and strict border control we had in place before.

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    Mute Aisling Collins
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    Oct 29th 2015, 7:54 PM

    “Irish went to countries we helped found and died for. Countries we have an ancestral link to and are genetically and culturally like us, founded by western Europeans. Irish are not going to african & Asian countries changing their populations and native character out of all recognition, your comparison is invalid”…..
    You have just invalidated all of the native Americans that had been living there for hundreds of years by not even mentioning them!. Are they not responsible for any part of that founding?? Irrelevant eh Eire? Your bigotry takes on an even deeper dimension. I guess in your book Americas first peoples landed off the Mayflower??

    “Founded by Western Europeans” ?? What about the African Blacks, Chinese, Hispanics, Koreans??. You’re nothing but a white supremacist. America isn’t called a melting pot for nothing. It has a mixture of races, cultures and religions that are more diverse than anything in Europe or any other continent for that matter. Whilst I don’t agree with a lot of what goes on there politically I wouldn’t have thought that the societal mix there holds it back economically and what ancestral link did we have to the US back in the 1840′s?? The ancestral link we experience today is BECAUSE of the movement of our peoples back then and finally don’t dismiss what happened then with what is happening now just because it happened in the past.

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    Mute Rosie Gluten
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    Oct 29th 2015, 7:55 PM

    He got his ass kicked by West Cork Lad on that era before ,Aisling -that’s why he’s calling BS on you now..

    He actually got his links about the Jews from two “Jews” he was talking to in a pub .Hilarious stuff!

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    Mute ÉireBlood
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    Oct 29th 2015, 8:11 PM

    No Aisling I haven’t. The political nation of the “United States”, Australia were not invented by the natives as you call them. The United States, the declaration of Independence all the constitutional notions and ideas in 1776 were fought for by europeans for a European state, the founding fathers even stated so. Btw, Europeans were first peoples on american continent, they were called Solutreans and were slaughtered and raped by your so-called natives. The fact is every founding war of the United States was fought for by White Europeans, all those Republic ideals which are not espoused as ideals of freedom throughout the free world were thought up by white men.

    I am a factualist. You are nothing but an hater of whites. Evident when you cannot counter anything that I said but have to resort to emotional manipulation tactics like screaming “racist” and supremacist to move your readers.

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    Mute ÉireBlood
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    Oct 29th 2015, 8:22 PM

    Irish participation in the American Revolution helped make American independence a reality.

    While tens of thousands of old Gaelic names of 17th and 18th Century Irish immigrants appear with astonishing regularity in completely verifiable colonial records, any reference to these people is almost totally omitted from our standard American histories, including the American Revolution.

    The following documented facts is an example of Irish participation in the American Revolution.

    -At the Battle of Lexington (April 19, 1775), 174 Irish were present.
    -At the Battle of Bunker Hill (June 17, 1775), 698 Irish were present.
    -A prominent American, Joseph Galloway, also an English Tory told the English House of Commons, on October 27, 1779, that one-half of Washington’s Continental Army was Irish.
    -On April 2, 1784, Luke Gardiner, afterward Lord Mountjoy, told the English Parliament, “America was lost by Irish emigrants … I am assured from the best authority, the major part of the American Army was composed of Irish and that the Irish language was as commonly spoken in the American ranks as English, I am also informed it was their valor that determined the contest …“
    -Many Irish, banished by England, fought with Lafayette. At the Siege of Savannah, 637 Irish were killed.

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    Mute Aisling Collins
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    Oct 29th 2015, 8:35 PM

    Garbage many Black Americans fought with the Loyalists in the War of Independence 1776 as the English promised them freedom. Also many Native Americans fought with the Loyalists as they again succumbed to false promises by the British who promised that Indian land that was being taken by these new settlers would be arrested.

    I’m not a hater of whites. I’m a hater of individuals who insist consistently that contributions by Whites outweigh those by other races.

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    Mute Aisling Collins
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    Oct 29th 2015, 8:54 PM

    and whilst you’re onto numbers in relation to the War of Independence lets do some numbers in relation to the American Civil war. 200,000 Black Americans fought in the Union Army marked by (7,122 officers, 178,000 enlisted/soldiers & 20,000 sailors in the Union Navy, African Americans comprising 163 units who served in the United States Army
    “Black Americans and White Europeans fought in the same side of that War . The whole is greater than the sum of its parts Eire. Don’t forget to mention their contribution.

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    Mute saoirse janneau
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    Oct 31st 2015, 12:49 PM

    unbelievable Rosie. He is sure to be omnipresent on the refugee articles from now on in. Pah..

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    Mute Prince of Burren
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    Oct 29th 2015, 8:51 AM

    a beautiful story well written I hope we do the right thing

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    Mute Traveller Rights
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    Oct 29th 2015, 9:00 AM

    Look at the comment section, we won’t.

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    Mute The Dude
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    Oct 29th 2015, 11:58 AM

    @Traveller – Yes we are definitely going to do the wrong thing by prioritising Islamic migrants over Christian ones.

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    Mute ÉireBlood
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    Oct 29th 2015, 3:13 PM

    The right thing is stopping and deporting. You have not a clue the kind of people you are letting in, the kind of cultures and views they have, they are not here to seek safety, they are here relying on your European naivety and natural compassionate disposition to allow them in. They know right well that you are weaker and softer than them, at least that is how they view your compassion, and they know Europe is up for grabs, excluding the odd well-to-do foreigner who comes to become a doctor etc, the rest of the millions are not of the genteel variety, to them, Europeans have lied down in submission mode.

    Migrants trampled on the food and demanded money – English subtitle
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U36fCE_vCE

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    Mute Jon Rodgers
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    Oct 29th 2015, 6:26 PM

    It’s the mantra for the loony left…. When they disagree with someone’s opinion, or can’t back up their own, they just shout “racist” .

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    Mute MK76
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    Oct 29th 2015, 9:09 AM

    Journal, this is a disgraceful article as it totally goes against the demonisation of the refugees as IS militants and makes it harder the “Ireland for the Irish Only” brigade to continue with their (sometimes casual, but more often,full blooded) racism.

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    Mute Traveller Rights
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    Oct 29th 2015, 9:13 AM

    Right as always.

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    Mute Johnny Joe
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    Oct 29th 2015, 9:26 AM

    F@!k off MK76 you liberal fool.

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    Mute ÉireBlood
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    Oct 29th 2015, 3:16 PM

    Wonder if you found yourself in Nigeria with a Nigerian telling you that his country Nigeria is for Nigerians, would you say to him that he is a disgraceful “racist?”

    Nah, you keep you hypocrisy and hate only for Europeans

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    Mute MK76
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    Oct 29th 2015, 6:40 PM

    @ Johnny I’d rather be a liberal than a racist.

    @ Eireblood Let me guess, you’re a SF supporter, as your attempts to deny/deflect/distract are very familiar. From the evidence of your other posts, you’re the one that is laden down with hate in your heart.

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    Mute D
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    Oct 29th 2015, 7:26 PM

    @MK47, the Virtue Signalling is strong with this one eh….

    It must be so lonely on that moral pedestal of yours overseeing all us ‘racists’ who believe in border controls, security and wish our own culture, not the totalitarian culture of Islam for our children…

    Still when it all goes wrong you can rest at ease, at least your ideals were pure and you were never a racist…. Liberal idiot

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    Mute ÉireBlood
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    Oct 29th 2015, 7:34 PM

    Still MK76 you never answered my comment, you just screamed the word “racist”….what’s that tactic all about then?

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    Mute MK76
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    Oct 29th 2015, 8:43 PM

    It’s a lonely place on these forums, given its full of the “32 County Ireland for the (white) Irish” brigade.

    Eire, if my Aunt had balls, she’d be my Uncle, but to play your deflection game, yes, I would call them racist.

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    Mute MK76
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    Oct 29th 2015, 8:44 PM

    Rather be liberal than a racist D.

    Keep pedalling your BS though, while pretending you’re just a “concerned citizen”.

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    Mute Owen McDermott
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    Oct 30th 2015, 7:27 AM

    Can you be a liberal and a racist?
    Sounds much better!

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    Mute Traveller Rights
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    Oct 29th 2015, 8:32 AM

    If it wasn’t for racism in Europe the migrant crisis would be solved by now.

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    Mute leon James.
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    Oct 29th 2015, 8:35 AM

    ya,whatever.

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    Mute Traveller Rights
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    Oct 29th 2015, 8:37 AM

    Got something to say?

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    Mute leon James.
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    Oct 29th 2015, 8:41 AM

    how does a traveller clean his underpants??. hangs it up on the line and beats the shit out of it.

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    Mute Traveller Rights
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    Oct 29th 2015, 8:45 AM

    Got any jokes about African Americans while you’re being racist?

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    Mute Jason Culligan
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    Oct 29th 2015, 8:54 AM

    So if we stopped being “racist” as you call it, bombs would immediately stop falling in Syria? Amazing logic there.

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    Mute Traveller Rights
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    Oct 29th 2015, 8:59 AM

    Jason America started the war in Syria as a result of their racist aggressive foreign policy.

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    Mute leon James.
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    Oct 29th 2015, 9:08 AM

    What do call an African American with a college degree?.Nothing,just give that man a round of applause.

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    Mute leon James.
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    Oct 29th 2015, 9:10 AM

    If you cant take a joke then fck off.

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    Mute Traveller Rights
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    Oct 29th 2015, 9:13 AM

    If you can’t take in a refugee family, fck off.

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    Mute MK76
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    Oct 29th 2015, 9:13 AM

    Where’s the joke?

    All I see is a racist trying to hide behind humour, but we can all see you.

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    Mute Mc F Kevin
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    Oct 29th 2015, 9:28 AM

    One fool with multiple accounts having a stupid conversation with himself .

    You are brilliant at the copying + pasting T Rights-Leon-Reg -Sam ;)

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    Mute leon James.
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    Oct 29th 2015, 9:30 AM

    A man was fcking an Irish girl. The girl asks, “you haven’t got AIDS,have you?”.. He replies, No.” She responds,”Oh,thank fck for that!!. I don’t want that again”

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    Mute Rashers Tierney
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    Oct 29th 2015, 1:07 PM

    @Leon. You are one funny guy. Yeah, we all admire you Leon. :-(

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    Mute Owen McDermott
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    Oct 30th 2015, 7:29 AM

    Green Acres is the place to be!

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    Mute Jon Rodgers
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    Oct 29th 2015, 6:30 PM

    Is Karl Marx required reading for The Journal “journalists(!)” these days?

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    Mute Dale G-t
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    Oct 29th 2015, 8:43 AM

    because racism is preventing them entering Europe to Germany, Sweden, Denmark or the EU refugee allocations , racism has caused the migrant crisis not the Syrian conflict

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    Mute Dale G-t
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    Oct 29th 2015, 8:43 AM

    in response to traveller rights..

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    Mute Traveller Rights
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    Oct 29th 2015, 8:44 AM

    Denial about racism gets us nowhere.

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    Mute f m
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    Oct 29th 2015, 8:55 AM

    Claiming its racism as a response to every question gets us no where.
    For example why is it that our prisons are made up of a higher proportion per population of travellers than settled people.
    Is it because all judges are racist ? Or is it because travellers commit way more crimes per head of population ?
    Travellers claiming to be a separate race is a joke. Why don’t we claim for example white Scandinavians to be a separate race?
    Travellers do it as they will get even more welfare assistance from the tax payer and pavee point can claim the rest of the country is racist when ever a traveller is sent to prison (for racking up hundreds of criminal convictions)

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    Mute Traveller Rights
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    Oct 29th 2015, 9:01 AM

    Not reading all that, can you summarise?

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    Mute Vladimir Vasyectomy
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    Oct 29th 2015, 9:09 AM

    Traveller Rights,
    - Too much truth in there for you to stomach, eh…??

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    Mute f m
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    Oct 29th 2015, 9:10 AM

    Not reading or can’t read ?
    There’s a welfare supplement for that or you can break into a house down the country and torture the children in it.
    Quick call Pavee Point to do an unchallenged RTE interview

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    Mute Matt Black
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    Oct 29th 2015, 9:49 AM

    Your pseudonym is ” Travellers rights ” very admirable , FM made some valid points and the best you can do is that smart ass comment in response , In all fairness not very convincing from someone espousing travellers rights , The article in itself is a well written piece , however his case has zero bearing on the current situation , the vast majority of the current influx of migrants coming to Europe are mostly uneducated , unskilled and unsuitable for any type of employment in a modern Europe . The majority will be a burden on the host country for quite a few years until the required skill sets are acquired if in fact they are ever acquired . But when citizens of these countries raise this very valid point the RACISM card gets produced , It is very nearly comical at this stage when no valid arguments can be produced to counteract someones points like a petulant children you cry racism

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    Mute The Dude
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    Oct 29th 2015, 2:23 PM

    @Matt – Good comment Matt. I think that word has now become so over used by the left – that it has lost most of its meaning and power, over those its use is intended to silence.

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    Mute shanekeogh
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    Oct 29th 2015, 6:23 PM

    I wouldn’t call it racism, just preference, I’d prefer not to live beside travellers

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    Mute ÉireBlood
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    Oct 29th 2015, 8:31 PM

    Shane, that’s the problem with some definitions of the word “racist”, it is a carefully engineered concept to mean exactly what you just said there……”preference”. It means that any white person expressing a “preference” to assert their right of freedom of association means they are “racist” and thus are doing something that is artificially cultivated as being wrong. Thus you in effect are no longer allowed express that preference, it has been inserted into the definition of racism and discrimination…..thus you are committing something wrong (simply expressing your taste and preference) and which is now illegal or will become so.

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    Mute shanekeogh
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    Oct 29th 2015, 10:54 PM

    the travellers you represent are Irish I take it? sooooo the people posting here can’t be racist against themselves, travellers are Irish, that’s their race, your racist claims don’t stand

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    Mute Raymond Power
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    Oct 30th 2015, 12:39 PM

    great comment matt.

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    Mute Seán O leprechaun
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    Oct 29th 2015, 9:07 AM

    OK I’ll cut to the chase and save the ret of u the trouble: I just made a tit of myself. Lolol

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    Mute D
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    Oct 29th 2015, 10:26 PM

    @MK76; you keep saying that…. You’d rather be liberal than racist…

    You do realise you can be a liberal and in favour of border control. You can be a liberal and speak up against Islams treatment of women and minorities, about its lack of freedom of speech and so on…. In fact I would argue any self confessed liberal MUST speak up against this…

    You are misguided, in your rush to seem liberal you give away everything liberalism stands for. Grow up

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    Mute MK76
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    Oct 30th 2015, 8:02 AM

    D, please explain or point to one comment where I said border control of some level, wasn’t a good thing. Please also point out where I defended the treatment of women in many Muslim countries. I’m guessing you can’t, but keep going with your amateur dramatics to help you make your point.

    I agree as a liberal one doesn’t have to be against border control, but the amount of casual (and often not so casual) racism that goes with those in favour of strict controls is sickening.

    So continue on with your “concerned citizen” routine, but understand that Ireland isn’t just for the Irish and we are a better country because of that.

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    Mute Seán O leprechaun
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    Oct 29th 2015, 9:05 AM

    Incredibly well written for a child of such a situation .. Amaaaaaaaaazingly well written for such a child. ….

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    Mute Traveller Rights
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    Oct 29th 2015, 9:09 AM

    Was that supposed to be funny or what was your angle here?

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    Mute Conor
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    Oct 30th 2015, 11:01 AM

    Im not racist but i don’t believe charging the borders of other countries because you feel entitled to is the way forward either, help needs to sent at least, can you imagine inviting such aggession into our country. I just don’t feel that people have actually thought about it enough. They need help and support but not at what Europe has set up. Proper planning needs to be made, support and cash needs to be sent, what is worrying is that people dont even think ahead into the future. I mean I saw a video on the news a group of young men, they were so cocky and sure of themselves, laughing and smiling and telling the news crew they will return again and again until they are let in!!

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    Mute Owen McDermott
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    Oct 30th 2015, 7:25 AM

    You see – help them out and look what happens!

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