RACIST INCIDENTS OCCUR almost every day in Ireland a new report has claimed.
ENAR Ireland’s iReport system, set up to track complaints of racism, reported 182 incidents in the six months up to December 2014.
The most common expressions of racism reported in this quarter occurred in face-to-face encounters as well as harassment of people at their homes.
Almost half of those, 70 cases in total, were classed as “shouting or strong language”, but there were 14 physical assaults and 27 threats.
Fifty-seven incidents involved media and social media, with a very small proportion of reports concerning direct online harassment of an individual.
Black Africans were most likely to experience racism, but 14 white Irish people also made complaints.
Perpetrators were significantly more likely to be male, and acting alone, than female. Men and women were equally likely to experience racism. Racist language was common to 57% of the reported cases.
ENAR Director Shane O’Curry said that some of the cases were serious.
Among the disturbing incidents reported were a racist attack on a pregnant woman, an arson attack in Cork and an assault on a Traveller child in Dublin.
“The overall picture is of racism as a consistent, albeit grossly under-reported fact of everyday life for all racialised groups in Ireland today.
“In the absence of a National Action Plan Against Racism, this worryingly persistent problem is set to become a major societal issue in years to come. International events have an impact on Ireland as they do across Europe: a number of reports of anti-Semitic and islamophobic incidents suggest a context relating to overseas conflicts.”
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