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Eric Yao, CEO, Africa Centre, Salome Mbugua, CEO, Akidwa and Clement Esebamen, IWABEC at the Ireland's Black leaders Press Conference this afternoon Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland

Immigrants in Ireland are 'under siege', say black community leaders

Community leaders said that there is evidence of widespread attacks against immigrants in Ireland.

Leaders of the black community in Ireland have said that immigrants here are “under seige” – and that there is evidence of “widespread” attacks against them.

Community leaders described a “regime” of “verbal, physical and psychological attacks on immigrants and Black Africans in particular”.

They were speaking in response to comments made by Fine Gael councillor Darren Scully, who earlier this week said he would no longer represent black Africans in his area.

The group detailed a number of attacks against minorities in Ireland in the past year and said that this is evidence of the “growing boldness” of bigots.

Immigrant leaders and representatives from a number of organisations met in Dublin to discuss the racism “that has been felt by immigrants, non-native Irish and black Irish folk as a result of unprecedented levels of racist attitudes, attacks, and a lack of leadership by the government and the institutions of the state,” the group said in a statement.

Community leaders Eric Yao of the Africa Centre, Salome Mbunge of Akidwa, a network of African and migrant women living in Ireland, and Clement Esebamen of the Ireland West Africa Business and Economic Council, called on the government to act to end racism in Ireland at a press conference in Dublin this afternoon, saying:

We demand the Irish government live up to its responsibility to protect all residents in the Republic of Ireland and to take strong measures to end racism

Speaking on Six-One News this evening, Salome Mbunge said that racism needs to be taken seriously “from the top level” and called on people to speak out against racism.

A recent Gallup survey found that 73 per cent of black Africans in Ireland believed that discrimination based on ethnicity or immigration was widespread in Ireland.

Read more: Darren Scully race remarks ‘an opportunity for education’, says African community leader >

Read more: Darren Scully resigns as Mayor of Naas >

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234 Comments
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    Mute Sean Stevenson
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    Sep 11th 2024, 6:07 PM

    What’s needed is reform of our lenient, mollycoddling justice system. We need more prisons. The rotating door system that is our justice system must completely wreck Gardai morale. Imagine arresting the same scrote for the 5th time in a month, just for him to be out the next week because Martin Nolan slapped him with a suspended sentence. Ffs, there’s lads walking around with hundreds of convictions. A gardas job arresting somebody, dealing with the mountains of paperwork, court appearences, etc, is absolutely ruined when the lenient sentences are handed down time and time again. For example, the justice minister recently increased the maximum sentence for assaulting a Garda. This is a useless measure, as very rarely is a maximum sentence applied. We need mandatory MINIMUM strict sentences

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    Mute ecrowley ecrowley
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    Sep 11th 2024, 6:13 PM

    @Sean Stevenson: 100%

    233
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    Mute Wolfgang Bonow
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    Sep 11th 2024, 6:55 PM

    @Sean Stevenson: 100% correct.
    You can and should, to some extend, pay them more, but if you (the guard) does see that the work is useless again and again, why bother?
    Bad upbringing, “culture”, or supposed mental issues as an excuse for a suspended sentence for the 50th or +100th time.
    Even for driving offence – was it not a young lady, doing almost 200km\h who got away only with a fine, because she “didn’t notice the speed in her mothers car”, she was driving? I think this one was Nolan as well.

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    Mute james rowan
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    Sep 11th 2024, 8:06 PM

    @Sean Stevenson: im sick of this goverment with all there kite flying sound bites all talk more take its all just waffle waffle and more waffle,,

    67
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    Mute Paddy Short
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    Sep 11th 2024, 8:43 PM

    Arguably this is throwing money at a problem in the hope it will fix everything. It won’t do much for the numbers leaving the service and what was the cause of them leaving. What is the turnaround for those taking the training and then leaving after less than 2 years I wonder?

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    Mute Steve Davis
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    Sep 11th 2024, 9:56 PM

    @Sean Stevenson: Glad you mentioned Judge Martin Nolan…. the sex offenders escape card. Needs to be investigated himself, total nonce sympathiser. Even a petition online to get rid of him….

    68
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    Mute John Fahy
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    Sep 11th 2024, 10:27 PM

    @Sean Stevenson: they haven’t built a new prison since Wheatfield which opened in 1989. There’s nowhere to put offenders.

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    Mute Mr “JonnieBoy” Johnson
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    Sep 11th 2024, 10:34 PM

    @John Fahy: they ate building on the new prison site… to accommodate immigrants. Country is in bits.

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    Mute Karl Carroll
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    Sep 12th 2024, 12:33 PM

    @Sean Stevenson: the scrote often leaves court sooner as the Garda as the Paperwork is done for him. The Garda needs to do his own

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    Mute Kush OMeara
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    Sep 11th 2024, 6:11 PM

    End suspended sentences and you’ll see the vast majority of people including the guards get happy.

    Oh wait – judges are ex solicitors – so the legal gravy train continues for Judges and their pals

    322
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    Mute Iron Man
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    Sep 11th 2024, 7:00 PM

    They badly need a new prison in this country, I was reading articles in local paper about lads getting prison for couple of months and then couple of days later seeing same lads in bookies telling me prison so overcrowded they just get released after a couple of days. How demoralising must that be to the garda and where is the rehabilitation? Whats to stop them doing the same stuff all over again?

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    Mute Eamon
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    Sep 11th 2024, 9:13 PM

    @Iron Man: Or more than one.

    21
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    Mute Spanner
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    Sep 11th 2024, 11:39 PM

    @Eamon: Thornton hall was purchased specifically for a new prison and a new central mental hospital. The central mental hospital was built in portrayed and no new prison built and the millions spent buying the site and putting utilities in were wasted unless you count the happy chance that the site was vacant to use for refugee accommodation.

    46
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    Mute Acumen
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    Sep 11th 2024, 7:33 PM

    Meanwhile nurses pay for their own training, get a higher degree, then get paid less, so they leave our country for places where they can afford the rent. But who cares….

    169
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    Mute John Doe
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    Sep 11th 2024, 8:31 PM

    @Acumen: there’s plenty of articles on nurses pay and how disgraceful it is but this article is about the disgraceful pay garda trainees receive, why try pitt one against the other, both serve the country but in different ways and both should be paid accordingly. Oh and there’s plenty of professions that people pay for their education to get a degree in, not just nurses.

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    Mute Karl Carroll
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    Sep 12th 2024, 12:35 PM

    @Acumen: they get paid during practical training but their degrees allow them to work globally in both public and private sector. If nursing couldn’t fill spots, they would need to change the system as gardai are now doing.

    4
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    Mute You're Not Serious
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    Sep 11th 2024, 10:43 PM

    Disgraceful decision by judge Alec Gabbett with the two Chinese illegals that broke the law and entered the country.

    86
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    Mute Patrice Ahern
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    Sep 11th 2024, 11:46 PM

    @You’re Not Serious: That useless o’donnell “judge” is, thankfully, gone from Limk but one of his best students, gabbett in Ennis will keep the pointless, expensive, waste going and further drive potential recruits from joining our police force. Additionally it probably follows that some current police members are contemplating leaving due to the empty stupidity of it all.

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    Mute McCarthy John
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    Sep 13th 2024, 1:32 PM

    @You’re Not Serious: not to mind all those arriving at airports and dumping their passports before they arrive at immigration. They should be automatically returned to sender, dumped out of the country, without access to the courts

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    Mute Eddie Garvey
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    Sep 11th 2024, 7:06 PM

    Can we not just go to the Philippines or India or Africa and hire big strapping lads from there, that’s what we do for nurses. It’s a pity we can’t get solicitors, politicians, accountants etc from these countries because then we could save a fortune.

    65
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    Mute Karl Carroll
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    Sep 12th 2024, 12:35 PM

    @Eddie Garvey: already trained nurses. Medicine is global, law is not

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    Mute Minnie Mouse
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    Sep 11th 2024, 9:25 PM

    I think a lot of the reason for ridiculously lenient sentencing is because of near conflict of interest among the District Court judges. All of them are former solicitors. Usually small town political appointees. It suits them to release the same scrotes time and time again. They keep their ex colleagues happy with the free legal aid fountain pouring our money into their pockets.

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    Mute Dominick Lodola
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    Sep 11th 2024, 7:45 PM

    So that’s €7.62 per hour for a 40 hour week

    44
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    Mute Acumen
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    Sep 12th 2024, 3:47 PM

    @Dominick Lodola: plus accommodation and food. Meanwhile nurses pay for their training . 16k for a four year degree. Plus food and accommodation.

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    Mute Shaun Gallagher
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    Sep 11th 2024, 8:04 PM

    A FG think in. Not many brain cells there

    68
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    Mute DavyDoDa
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    Sep 12th 2024, 5:06 AM

    Who’d be a guard nowadays. They’d zero respect from the many many toerags that walk our streets. Thousands of 13-17 year olds roaming the streets with zero respect for anyone or anything.

    51
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    Mute Dan The Man
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    Sep 11th 2024, 11:35 PM

    Garda numbers will continue to drop. Annual Retirements and alarmingly early resignations eating into the figures recruitment cannot stop. It’s a truly awful job today. People want easy safe degree office work Monday to Friday. Not hell on earth physical manual work involving nights weekends holidays, being attacked and assaulted, spat at.

    49
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    Mute Donna Fallon
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    Sep 12th 2024, 6:50 AM

    Has anyone watched the RTÈ production ‘On the Beat’?? I’ve seriously never had such tummy laughs after switching over from Virgin Media’s ‘The Guards- Into the K’… I genuinely thought it was a parody… it was actually like watching an episode of Father Ted.

    During that initial lockdown, so many graduated early from Templemore it’s farcical.

    My Brother’s friend who is a young photography student was fined €600 for being outside his 5km (Sandyford to the Dublin Mountains ALONE)… 2 members of AGS confronted him. Why were they driving around there together in the middle of nowhere?? Hmmm… therefore I literally have no respect for our Force.

    24
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    Mute Karl Carroll
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    Sep 12th 2024, 12:37 PM

    @Donna Fallon: there was no 600 euro fine. It was 500 and they were patrolling, kinda part of the job

    5
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    Mute Barney
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    Sep 12th 2024, 8:31 AM

    Get the Bully’s out of the Garda and more young people will join and stay. The GRA are a joke and so is McEntee. The government don’t care tbh and only trying to save money. If the public knew the real numbers and issues in Garda stations there would be uproar. But, you can assure the criminals know it. The numbers are so bad at there there must be filtering emergency calls to stations as the numbers are not there. AGS is now unfixable and Harris, his management the GRA, McEntee & FG can take 100% of the blame.

    19
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    Mute Padraig O'Brien
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    Sep 11th 2024, 7:31 PM

    It’s the cry of the weary, more resources!

    15
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    Mute Leandro Santos
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    Sep 11th 2024, 9:52 PM

    Shameful increase.

    10
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    Mute Eugene Comaskey
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    Sep 12th 2024, 11:43 AM

    Any word on how the recruitment of people between 35 & 50 went,- or is going??. We were told that it would make a significant difference,– I doubt if anyone applied at all. In any case She has never mentioned it recently,– so it must be a flop. Apparently, the resignation figures are still very high , it’s the pension rights that need to be amended.

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    Mute Eugene Comaskey
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    Sep 12th 2024, 2:25 PM

    @Andrew Clavin: Of course, it was madness when it was introduced, but McEntee bluffed her way and made it look like a lifesaver . They also bluffed about a load of yellow packs ( reserves) , that was a dead duck too. McEntee is a complete dunce , and is way out of her debt , Drew Harris is a big problem as well, and bringing down Chiefs from the RUC is totally wrong

    6
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    Mute Sean O
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    Sep 11th 2024, 8:08 PM

    Big shit clean up in tullamore

    20
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    Mute Marie Power
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    Sep 12th 2024, 10:10 AM

    Just wait until the mass Garda exit in April (now already known about); then all the wheels will fall off.

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    Mute Keth Tgi
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    Sep 11th 2024, 6:15 PM

    ok

    4
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