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RACISM, INCLUDING RACIALLY motivated crime, is a problem in Ireland and we do not have the means to deal with it.
Our outdated legal framework fails to protect Irish society from racist violence and crime. Effective legislation to prevent and punish racially motivated crime is needed urgently. Successive governments have failed to implement changes in our criminal law, despite calls from civil society organisations and international bodies over the past decade.
The first step to overcoming any problem is recognising and acknowledging that it exists. Persistent efforts to deny racism have not made the problem go away. Minority ethnic communities including Travellers experience racism on a daily basis, in all areas of life. The visible, daily reality of racism means that Ireland must make this first step of acknowledging racism without further delay and the Government must move with speed to ensure racist crime is recognised in Irish law.
Racist incident reports from the Irish Network Against Racism and its members reveal the ugly truth of racism in Ireland. Racist violence and crime accounted for three quarters of the incidents reported to the Irish Network Against Racism in 2011. A number of the incidents took place just outside the person’s house or on the walk home. Public transport was also an area frequently cited, with taxi drivers, bus drivers and passengers alike the targets of racist abuse.
The proliferation of hate speech on internet platforms makes clear the need for systematic and preventative measures. Activists and others who speak out against racism have been targeted also. Only last month for example, Aodhan Ó Riordáin, Labour TD, became the target of hate mail, after he stood up against racist comments made by fellow politician, Cllr Darren Scully.
It is bad enough that these experiences have to be endured by individuals and communities across the country. The fact that these experiences are often denied in Irish society including by some key politicians and officials, is shameful. It is time to recognise people’s experiences, to take them seriously and to take action to address racism.
Yet, Ireland struggles to monitor racist incidents and legal reform has not kept up with the changes in Irish society. Only one in six people will report a racist incident to the police. The fact that people often feel nothing can be done, is a key barrier to reporting racist incidents. Until we recognise racist crime in Irish law, victims cannot get justice and gardaí shall continue to find their hands tied.
In practice, a racially motivated crime is treated like any other crime in our courts. However, it is not any other crime. It is not a crime that could happen to anyone. Were the victim not from a minority, the crime simply would not happen. Research carried out in the UK has shown conclusively that racist incidents have a deeper effect on individuals than similar crimes that are not racially motivated. Furthermore, racist incidents affect the whole community.
We need specific legal provisions to deal with the specific problem of racist crime. Law has a key role to play in preventing racist crime, as it acts as a deterrent. After all, we have laws on speeding not only to punish those who speed but ultimately to make sure people do not speed.
For the past decade, NGOs, international and regional bodies have consistently pointed to weaknesses in Ireland’s legal framework. In its concluding observations in March 2011 for example, the UN Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) noted with regret that the review of the Incitement to Hatred Act 1989 had stalled.
The Committee recommended that racist motivation be consistently taken into account as an aggravating factor in sentencing practice for criminal offences. Furthermore, it recommended that the State take appropriate steps to encourage the reporting of racist incidents and crimes. Yet, no action was taken, despite the opportunity presented by the requirement on EU member states to transpose the EU Framework Decision on Racism and Xenophobia by November 2010.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) calls on participating states to “enact, where appropriate, specific, tailored legislation to combat hate crimes, providing for effective penalties that take into account the gravity of such crimes”. Given Ireland’s current position as chair of the OSCE, action on our part would provide not only positive change for Ireland but leadership to other OSCE member states.
We can no longer deny the daily reality of racism in Ireland. We cannot let ourselves off the hook by assuming that racism is an inevitable consequence of recession. Government, politicians and all those in leadership roles have a responsibility to counter racism. We must acknowledge and take up our role in making sure that we have the capacity to protect our society against racism; otherwise we are also culpable. To put it in words attributed to 18th-Century Irish poet and philosopher Edmund Burke, “all it takes for evil to flourish is for good people to stand by and do nothing”.
On 21 March 1960, 69 black demonstrators were killed at a peaceful protest against apartheid laws in South Africa. As a result, March 21 was declared “International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination” by the UN in 1966. International Day Against Racism is a day when people across the globe show their opposition to racism. The Irish Network Against Racism invites people across the country to show their solidarity by signing the online petition to make sure racism is recognised in Irish law, at www.enarireland.org.
Catherine Lynch is the National Coordinator of the Irish Network Against Racism, a national network of anti-racist organisations and part of the European Network Against Racism (ENAR).
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The race card is way over played I was doing my job recently and told a black gentlemen to do something as I was asking Irish people the same question and I was informed I was a racist for asking him to do something that he didn’t want to do!
“Our outdated legal framework fails to protect Irish society from racist violence and crime. Effective legislation to prevent and punish racially motivated crime is needed urgently.”
How about: “Our outdated legal framework fails to protect Irish society from violence and crime.”?
“In practice, a racially motivated crime is treated like any other crime in our courts.”
And shouldn’t it? Are not all equal before the law?
I know victims of random assaults by drunken thugs. In a trial will it now be a “mitigating circumstance” that the victim was as white as the thug?
Why it worse for a white person to break a black man’s nose than to break another (random) white person’s nose?
There’s a reason why there’s a blindfold on those statues of justice…
Racial discrimination isn’t only about physical violence. It is often much more subtle than that. The Irish have experienced it outside of Ireland without a fist being raised.
An interesting topic.
I have no doubt that my counterview will be redthumbed to death but so be it….
I believe suspicion of those from another culture or race is a naturally occuring phenomenon in every society worldwide.
I believe that races and nationalities have enduring characteristics which differentiate them.
I believe that society generally makes judgements based on the behaviour of members of those races/nationalities which generally can prove reasonably consistent.
I belive society does NOT collude to dislike a race/nationality for some irrational reason
I believe ‘travellers’ are not picked-on by society because they are ‘travellers’, it happens because of the experience of those interacting with them.
I believe foreigners who come here with absolutely no cultural connection or understanding of Ireland can expect to be treated differently.
Thats life…….
That profession of faith may well be accepted by a significant proportion of our population which is why we are subject to international criticism. Characteristics pertaining to culture yes, enduring not if we reject them. Your attitude also reflects another Irish cultural trait, that of fatalism; we can’t change it, that’s how it is, so why bother; the mindset of a colonised people.
I know a Scottish Protestant who has lived in Dublin for more than 20 years! Some of the vicious bigotry that man has to put up with every day in life defies belief! I know that technically this isn’t racism. but it’s every bit as bad!!
@ Ronan. Race is a very vague term, so I won’t discuss that here. Travellers may or may not be classified as a separate race depending on definition. However they most certainly do constitute an ethnic group. An ethnic group has defined characteristics, such as a common sense of belonging (Travellers feel like they are a separate group to the Settled Community), a common culture (Travellers have a common distinct culture separate from the Settled Community, including their nomadic lifestyle), a common distinct language or group of languages (for the Settled Community that would be Irish and English, but for Travellers that would be English, Sheldru or Shelta, and the Cant – a highly Anglicised form of Shelta), a common history (Traveller history is not quite the same as the history of the Settled Community), etc. To say the Travellers are not a separate race is, I would agree, true. To say they are not a distinct ethnic group is simply false. They fulfill most, if not all, of the criteria.
And just in case you had any doubt about Shelta being a distinct language, try this one on for size:
Dūílsha aχíver glōrhi Gloχ Sharog na skai Srōinya? Grēs swǔrth chal the skai when a gloχ’s misliin’ to sahu his dīl. Gyetas a gyetas and thribli grīnthala sūni his dīl, gramal gloχ sharog, rχlthug sūlya nyuk.
By creating separate categories of victims for the same crime the law perpetuates racism.
There must be one law for all citizens, regardless of colour or gender or whatever.
Minorities had better cop on that when the government creates special categories for them such as “hate crimes” another government in another time may use those laws in a much different way…against them.
“If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labeled a radical 50 years ago, a liberal 25 years ago, and a racist today.”
Thomas Sowell
I hear you’re a racist now, father.
I’m absolutely sick of listening to this racist garbage, an Irish person in their own country cannot say boo to a non-Irish person but it’s racist. The racist card is way over played here in Ireland and the people that use it expect special treatment because they’re not Irish, why should they get special treatment they live in Ireland so they have no right to special treatment. And then you get some do gooder bladdering on about how we must protect the minority, what about protection for the Irish.
White man commits crime against black/asian/slavic/latino/arabic man = racism. Black/asian/slavic/latino/arabic man commits crime against white man = standard crime.
There’s racism and there is anger and distrust of people who exploit the above double standard for personal/familial advantage. It’s important to know the difference between the two.
Protection from what ?
What about the way Irish people are treated by non nationals, typical p.c. crap all the do gooders want to help everyones cause except their own,I have witnessed over many years numerous occasions where black people have been asked to do a work related task that others were doing , refusing to do so and accusing their supervisor of being racist and then making a scene, wrong wrong wrong, false claims of racisim should be followed up by the police and action taken I myself had been accused of such nonsense by a black woman , to cut a long story short it turned out she had made several other accusations against others and was trying to claim money, the guards were informed they have investigated and now its me who is going to prosecute her, more people should follow suit , enough is enough
At last we are starting to admit that we have a significant problem with racism in Ireland. I would go far as to say it is ingrained.
Being involved in canvasing over many elections I am always stunned at the extent of racist attitudes among the population. We must protect our minority communities from discrimination, verbal and physical attack.
We are judged as a society by how we treat the weakest and most marginalized members of our community – so far we are sadly lacking.
How may I ask do you come across racism while canvassing?
Is it in the form of “I’ll vote for ye if ye do something about them blacks down the street?” or how do you witness it? Sincerely I ask this, not taking the mick or having a go at your comment.
I ask as I see more racism towards Irish from non nationals than from Irish so I’m clearly either too wrapped in my own world to notice or it’s not as prevalent in my surroundings.
Either way the most I hear about racism is on the Journal telling me how bad it is around the country and I’m working with people from about 15 different countries for 8 years and never hear or even get a sniff of it, especially from my Irish colleagues or friends. It’s been mostly from non nationals towards other nationalities or ourselves, that is on the rare occasions I heard remarks passed. I’d also go as far as to say, the many Nigerians I’ve meet and worked with back maybe 6 years ago, some have had extremely racist attitudes towards white people especially in work environments, assigning them work that every one else also partakes in and it was then I got the first hand sense of actual hatred towards white people i’d ever encountered and even towards other Nigerians. The same can be said for eastern Europeans I’ve heard calling Irish stupid, lazy bastards, where I understand the point they would be making at the time joking about it I wouldn’t personally call it racist but I’m sure If an Irish person called a Czech or Polish a * something*(can’t actually think of anything here) Polish they would be quick I assume to label us racists.
More laws wont fix or make what ever problem exists go away, but only draw a greater divide among ethnically or cultural different people.
The comments are usually related to welfare entitlements – they get everything – houses, cars etc – we get nothing and have to pay for it! Also in relation to employment – they are taking our jobs and our work.
What minority communities do you encounter while canvassing? Fianna Fail?
Do you not get it lads? The Irish are the blacks of Europe. The dubliners are the blacks of Ireland. The north side dubliners are the blacks of Dublin. So say it once and say it loud. I’m black and I’m proud.
I’m sick of all the articles on here telling us what a terrible society we are for our racism, intolerance towards Travelllers, homophobia, sexism and whatever else – all by individuals from lobby groups who ironically have an interest in ensuring the behaviour they criticise continues.
Yes we aren’t perfect as a society, but we are a damn sight better than many. Cut us some slack and talk this nation up rather than down for a change.
Ryan please read above
No one is holding a gun against your head forcing you to read TheJournal.ie. If you’re sick of all these articles, then don’t read them. It couldn’t really be any simpler.
@ Frankie: Yes it does a great job and I’ve praised it before and recommended it to friends – particularly over its breaking news coverage and in depth features. I particularly enjoyed reading the article on Syria last week as well as the one at the weekend which confirmed that Government ministers were liable to pay the household charge. However I still feel that I can criticise the consistent bashing of Irish society in the articles.
@ Brian: Nobody forces me to read them, yet I still search each article out of curiosity for some evidence included to show that things have actually vastly improved over the last few decades – which I think they have. Instead as I say they are all written by vested interests.
Ryan personally I’m sick of all these people pictured sitting in yachts moaning about social welfare and protections for minority groups.
Irish are so bloody racist…especially the down the country.
broad based generalisations like that are the problem. so all us “boggers” are racist. just like all yous dubs are “smackheads”.
I wouldn’t call it racism really. In many parts of the country black people have a bit of novelty due to their rarity. A lot of rural people’s ideas of non White non Irish people stems from being told to raise money for starving black babies in Africa in Junior School and seeing chinese people who work in the takeaway
As someone from “down the country” who lived 6 years in Dublin, my own personal experience has shown me that racism is much more of an urban problem, particularly in Dublin. Perhaps it’s the close proximity to large amounts of new immigrants living in urban areas. But, as I said, that’s only based on my own observations and may or may not be accurate.
I’ll agree with you there. The more rural and traditional life is I’d the more xenophobic people are. I was in a pub in Roscommon recently and a black family walked in with there kids o. Monday afternoon. A farmer at the bar entertained his peers with ” they’ve come out here with a bus pass we’ve paid for” and then the usual jungle shite. I can tell you where there are monkeys sitting supping pints with Roscommon accents. Would make an interesting episode for the discovery channel.
This is the only country in the Western world where a senior politician could use the ‘N’ word while joking about an African national hero and not faced calls for their resignation; had this been a US or British politician of comparable seniority that would have been curtains on their political career. What do you expect from a nation that refuses to stand up for itself; that turns on the weakest at times of crisis; that exports its youth; that continues to elect amateurs to positions of political leadership.
No it’s not. Barack Obama used the N word years ago and got away with it, he also said ‘the brothas need to pull their pants up’.
Not to mention spending years attending sermons where white people were called ignorant, arrogant devils by Rev Jeremiah Wright who also does a nice line in anti-semitism.
What about Diane Abbott in the UK making racist remarks about white people idiot!
Racists come in all shapes and sizes,in all colours and creeds. Its a big problem everywhere not just in Ireland.
I agree I lived in America, Australia, New Zeland and England where I was reminded every day at work that I was Irish lucky for me I was young and fit so Mr. Bully didnt over step the mark so my point is Racists are every where in every country in every job Every one living knows a racist but Racism is wrong.
“Were the victim not from a minority,the crime simply would not happen!” You must be a simpleton.I am a transport professional and recently had an individual,trying to smash into my driving cab,calling me a “whitey mo-fucker,your mum’s a ho.I’m going to slash your throat”{No prior incident or altercation} No,this is not a one off,quite common,your article proves that you are blinkered and ignorant.
Racial hate crimes against white people just aren’t treated as such. Everyone was happy with the recent convictions re Steven Lawrence, but did anyone even see Kriss Donald’s murder being mentioned in the papers?
As someone who’s half black, half white and irish, I’ve exerpienced racism and for all three reasons. It’s the preserve of the stupid so I don’t let it bother me, but it’s a stupidty that afflicts all races equally. Ireland isn’t affected any worse than anywhere else, and less affected than most places
No point in posting a comment here as they usually get deleted. As usual a totally one sided slant by the do gooder brigade with political correctness gone mad. No one can say a word against a minority group without being branded a racist.
I think it’s a lot about attitude and what person you are too. Everyone seems to want to tackle racism problem from the different sides, while they forget its also a lot to the people who are subjected to experience racism. Long time ago I and many other foreigners used to work with group of Irish and situation was extremely racist any side observer could say – usual slag and jokes and worse work assignments and all that – daily. You may be surprised what i say now, but I think it wasn’t racist at all as we all could laugh at own selves and it took time before we gained their respect, but we eventually did. It was like double glazed mirror, Irish still kept joking etc. but it was in a friendly really fashion that is how I perceived that and they respected our work ethics and attitude on the other hand same time. They quickly saw who was decent who was not and under apparent “we are better” approach there was plenty of friendliness and honesty coming from them. I know it may sound cheesy but not far later we were singing all together Fields of Athenry at the party ( yep you guessed everyone was locked) and situation changed from bad to some sort of friendship. The thing is I often meet many foreigners who either cannot speak English or have bad attitudes or take offences rather than laugh them off or don’t know anything about Irish history and places and culture… How they expect to be treated well if they are not doing themselves any favours to give Irish a chance to know them better and at least dont mind them – if like them is too much. Some foreigners also seem to forget the golden rule – when in Rome do like Romans do. I am sure Irish don’t mind individual habits of other people but when in public or in group it’s nice to behave and be like the rest of the people so you simply show you accept and assimilate with the place you’re in. Of course there will always be number of Irish as there is number of natives in any other country in the world that would be seriously backward and racist folk that won’t change even if other person tries their best, but this is just margin not worth worrying about. Majority of people just fear of what they don’t know and it should be common effort to improve that situation.
We’ve a serious problem with unprovoked and/or drunken assaults, we’ve a problem with a lack of respect and disregard for others, we’ve a problem with lack of manners and lack of communication….. all of the aforementioned is across the board, it’s victims are not limited to those who are not of Irish origin and therein lies the problem; if we want to improve society then choosing one group over another for ‘protection’ or special treatment will do the complete opposite, in the same way facilitating instead of integrating results in division.
This article is a long winded way of someone trying to justify their own wage and expenses.
Ryan I understand your point of viiew Thats what debates are all about.
There seems to be a bizarre & inexplicable amount of “fingers in ears” when debating the issues racism.
For instance, one side keeps talking about “racism” & how it must be fought.
However, when faced with defining exactly what “racism” is, or even defining what components it may have, murkiness & fuzzy explanations (at best) abound, yet it’s apparently one of the most insidious evils in Western Society. The reason for this is, undoubtedly, that a discussion on what defines racism would have to be exclusionary i.e. by defining, for example, that directing a racial slur at someone IS racist, are we thereby saying that telling a racist joke ISN’T racist…?
The other side seems intent on using personal experiences with members of minority groups, particularly cases where they use the “race card” (which, incidentally, DOES actually happen!) to invalidate all definitions of racism.
Can we stop this facile nonsense (like this article, with due respect) of talking about how racism is prevalent & therefore must be fought & comments pointing out all the (legitimate) holes in this theory & have a genuine, intelligent debate on what exactly racism is…?
To quote someone on an earlier thread, racism is NEVER defined, only shouted!!
Holy Smoke thats a new side to the debate that never crossed my mind.Well done Im geting educated.
The real plague on this country is Journal.ie articles that treat opinion as fact (especially in headlines) and then instruct us all to ‘deal with it’/'accept it’
Steady on Chuck dont blame the messenger The Journal does a great service 24/7 and I read it every day.
If you look carefully at the headline you will see that it says “Column” quite clearly. It is, by definition, an opinion piece, similar to what you would get in each and every other piece of media, be it newspapers, online news sites, television, radio, etc. It is, by definition, the opinion of the author on what society should be doing. You do not have to agree with it. I read Kevin Myers’s articles quite often, and most of the time I disagree with him – I certainly don’t take umbrage with him for voicing his opinions. Would you prefer if no one was allowed to voice their opinions?
No, but I’d like opinion treated as opinion rather than fact + instruction
It’s only my opinion (see what I did there??) but when people put ‘accept it’ or anything of the sort at the end of a statement it grates on me in much the same way as when people say ‘fact’ after stating something that clearly isn’t, or ‘end of’ after saying something the is clearly only the beginning of a discussion. It’s lazy and it has an inappriopriate air of finality to it
It’s not up to us to accept someone’s opinion as fact just because of some sentence fragment tacked onto a headline. It’s up to them to win us round to their way of thinking. We need to stop pretending otherwise.
Well then Chuck, you obviously didn’t read the piece, because nowhere in the piece does the writer tell the reader “to accept” anything. Neither does the writer state anything as fact that is not verifiable – all facts mentioned by the writer can be checked by doing a simple Google search; and in this case all are indeed verifiable. Neither does the writer doesn’t mention “end of”. If you have read the article, then you have a completely different grasp of the English language than I have – what I read was someone voicing their opinion on a matter that concerns them based on verifiable facts that they have encountered. Perhaps you would have preferred a headline something along the lines of:
I have read the article. You clearly didn’t read my post
So Catherine’s idea to combat racism is to treat people of different ethnicity differently?…….. You didn’t think this one through, did you Catherine?
Why cant we all live in peace as the song says every one hurts and it dont matter the colour of your skin.
Are we not, as human beings, all the same race? Even the term racism seems wrong to me. The human “race” consists of many ethnicities
Try telling a cop a black guy called you a white prick, and watch him laugh and telling you ignore it. But when a black tells a cop watch him asking how high do I jump sir.
Hilarious. Lots of comments about “pc do gooders” – from people who didn’t actually read the article or engage in discussion on the contents of the article.
We Irish want to cop on to ourselves and stand up to all this racist BS we are subjected to! It is not being racist to stand up for our own in their own homeland, the only homeland the Irish have that they can depend on. All these foreigners have their own homelands and are many of them here for the Dole and all the other social welfare benefits.
There is full employment in countries like Germany and Austria , why aren’t they flocking to countries like those for work – because they will only get the Dole in such countries for six months before being cut off!
It is not being racist to investigate and enquire into mass immigration, its causes and effects and to state one’s conclusions, i.e. that mass immigration is destroying the country and robbing our national treasury.
Beyond that the Gardai and the courts are there to deal with genuine cases under the 1988 Race Hate Act . I certainly do not condone such occurrences though I have never heard of or witnessed a case of racism in my life, certainly nothing that evidence was offered for.
Say I’m a greek guy, who wants a brighter future in Irland. Bad choice?
racism is bad but keep them mayo feckers at bay
Our country is raciest like a lot of countries,thing is we have been invaded 3 times (normans,vikings and british) and my point is since we got our independance we do not want people from other countries coming in here for any reason,dont get me wrong i have many good foreign friends and they are better friends than some irish i have come across.I am irish myself,does not matter what country you are from but comes down to what sort of person you are,i am not working now but i have zero problem against seen foreign nationals in jobs here,i see it as motivation to get educated and eentually get a job.I heard talk that national fronts are becoming more frequent in this country,we are a proud nation and should have a tunnel vision approach,does not matter who comes in from other countries,we just need to consentrate on our own lifes and try to improve them rather than focusing on others
Racist violence and crime accounted for three quarters of the incidents reported to the Irish Network Against Racism in 2011
Funny I would have thought it would be 100%, so what were the 25% of incidents reported that weren’t racist, Couldn’t be when someone from the majority reported a race crime or am I just cynical?
Amazing to me that the Irish have invited this plague on their shores. Is it an image thing? You want to be like the UK or the Continent?
its ridiculous in kilnaleck Co Cavan theres nigerian family the mother has twin girls they ve been realy treat like dogs in school heres the name of school san patrick national school in kilnaleck that has been happen often the mother of then has decided to move back to England
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