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THERE WAS AN increase in racist incidents flagged with an NGO in the first six months of this year, with higher levels of violence, threats and discrimination in public spaces reported.
The European Network Against Racism Ireland (Enar) host a website, iReport.ie, which allows victims and members of the public who witness racism, to report it confidentially. Today the organisation said there was a significantly higher level of reporting in this six month period than all previously recorded periods.
A total of 190 reports were received during that period, with assault appearing in 22 cases, including ten with physical injury and two threats to kill or cause serious harm. Of the 22 assaults, three were against women and three were against mixed-gender groups, but the report shows men are significantly more likely to be targeted by violence.
Today’s report includes a number of examples of reported incidents:
I was on my way to work when a man swung a folded newspaper at me, hitting me and called me a ‘f***ing black woman’. I was in shock.
One of them stopped, leaned in front of the victims face and began racially abusing him. When the man failed to react, he pulled off his headphones and said something along the lines of ‘this is what I hate about this country, all the ‘blacks’ coming in here taking our jobs. After this it escalated into a violent racist attack.
Verbal abuse
The largest proportion of incidents submitted concerned verbal abuse. In 43 cases, the incidents involved perpetrators who were known to the person targeted by the abuse. Ten of these perpetrators were staff members in public institutions and 12 were neighbours.
My nextdoor neighbour came onto my property shouting that his partner was going to kill me, calling me a ‘foreign bastard’ and a ‘dirty foreign bitch’.
He called me a ‘Filthy jew’ and a ‘baby killer’, and said that I should have been ‘Killed by the nazis’.
A neighbour’s son kept calling my mixed race son a nigger and a monkey and a black bastard. He warned him a few times to stop saying such things. I went and asked his parents to please speak to their child as this was unacceptable. I was told to f**k off and that all my kids should watch their back…
At the Trinity Ball, a person approached a girl of Arab descent shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’.
In one incident, it is claimed a councillor told a member of the Travelling community that if they were a housing officer, they would not give them a place in their neighbourhood.
‘…bringing in the likes of dirt like you and I have 220 people waiting to be housed. Why would I help you?’
Social media
Enar said 53 reports concerned the publication of racist statements in media and social media. Of these, 34 were published on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
“Facebook has been a particular producer of collective racist statements as people respond to negative news stories or posts about ethnic groups and share them with their networks,” the report notes.
“It has also been home to new Irish white supremacist groups, anti-immigration groups and Islamophobic groups emerging online with links to (and mostly dominated by members of) international far-right groups.”
According to the report, only 30 of the 190 cases were reported to gardaí.
Twenty cases involving violence were not reported to gardaí Two people said they had previous responses from gardaí to previous incidents, four did not think the gardaí would do anything, one was concerned about the offenders’ response, and four said that the type of incident was too common (despite involving violence).
A number of victims who reported incidents on the site said their fear as a result was so significant that it impacted on their ability to engage in normal everyday activities like attending school or going to work, shopping or talking to neighbours.
Shane O’Curry, director of Enar Ireland, said the report reveals “worrying levels of institutional racism”.
We must clearly understand this: these attitudes and practices have the effect of normalising racist crimes against people.
“We need to be proactive in confronting racism. It is not good enough to blame minorities for the failure of society to integrate them when such high levels of racism are allowed to fester,” he added. “The responsibility must be on the state to first address the racism in its own institutions.”
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How is this institutional racism? This is individuals, in some cases children, reacting to a changing Ireland. When I grew up, you could get grief because you were a North/Southsider, a culchie, a nordie, etc – the music is still the same, just different dancers…
@Jodus: What they mean by institutional racism is that the state enforces immigration policies. Like occasionally deporting people, requiring them to prove claims for asylum, placing them in direct provision, not allowing them to travel in and out of the country freely, not giving them exactly the same rights as citizens until they become citizens etc. The only non-institutionally racist state in their view is one without borders.
Some of the comments and actions reported in this article are disgraceful and outrageous. Let’s accept that and not make excuses for it.
An increase in ‘reports’ can be expected when meddlers go looking for them.
@Henry Porter: Racism exists in Ireland. You don’t have to accept anonymous reports as facts to accept that as a fact. Treating anonymous reports as fact is just silly.
Absolutely right the state inforcment om migrants is place , we are a small nation with finite resources. We can’t be expected to welcome every economic or displaced foreign nationals live of the state. Charity should begin with our own citizens.
@Henry Porter I don’t agree with making abusive comments on any person Irish or otherwise Let me remind you Henry this name calling and abusive comments of people is happening every day on the Journal. I don’t see to many or you queuing up to Challenge it.
@Jodus:
If you read the article you would notice that a quarter of racist verbal abuse came from workers in public institutions.
If the Gardai are not responding to Violent racist attacks and if the Government are not taking measures to reduce racism in public institutions it will fester.
@Marlowemallow:
The report was no anonymous but carried out by The European Network Against Racism Ireland (Enar). Can you substantiate why you are claiming it is anonymous?
@AlanH -AFC: All figure show that inward migration is a plus for the economy. Also standing in solidarity with people helps make sure they stand in solidarity with you. Lets punch upwards not sidewards or down!
@Turlough Conway: I said that the reports’ plural are anonymous. Can you name the individuals who made the reports to ENAR? No – that makes them anonymous. Perfectly understandably by the way. Of course many victims don’t want to report such incidents publicly.
But taking such reports at face value really is mad. People have been known to report things that didn’t happen you know, or exaggerate things that did. It happens in the real world all the time and is done by people of all skin colours.
@Marlowemallow: Here’s what just one faked hate crime looks like. This one was reported to police and all. Everyone important made outraged statements about it and condemned islamophobia. People wrote message of love and support’ around the campus for her:
““During the course of the investigation, the female complainant admitted that she fabricated the story about her physical attack as well as the removal of her hijab and wallet by two white males,” Lafayette police said in a statement. “This incident is no longer under investigation by the Lafayette Police Department.”
LAFAYETTE, La. — A woman will be charged with filing a false report after she admitted to making up a story about two men robbing her near the University of Louisiana at Lafayette campus.
Karl Ratcliff, spokesman for the Lafayette Police Department, confirmed the charge Friday.
The woman told UL police she was walking on Smith Street near campus when two white men attacked her, yelled racial slurs and stole her wallet and hijab, a head covering sometimes worn by Muslim women. The woman also initially said one of the men was wearing a Donald Trump hat.”
@Clever Jake: They’re non EU citizens. How are they getting into this country if they don’t have work and a work visa lined up? 62% of Africans are unemployed. How can this be?
Something amiss there.
@Clever Jake… As marlowemellow’s point below illustrates, just because “Black Africans are almost seven times more likely to report” stuff, doesn’t necessarily translate into a seven-fold likelihood of discrimination having actually taken place..
@Clever Jake: “Black Africans recorded the highest unemployment rate (36%), and were four times more likely to be unemployed than White Irish individuals.” http://emn.ie/index.jsp?p=100&n=105&a=269
Your argument is false. The report is also out of date from a different economic climate of 2010.
@Pat Stapleton: How Are There So Many Capitalisations In Your Comment? Your Job Will Be Taken Next.
I would give racism a go, only the farm takes up most of the day.
@Karl Bauer: Joking aside, even by their own standards I’m quite shocked by the viciousness of the racist comments by Marlowemallow, MackPilon et al. They really have reached an extremely radical and fundamentalist new low in their hate-filled views. These are not the type of views that will be tolerated by Irish people, and the only solace is that the persons posting these lies and racist comments aren’t even Irish, thankfully.
The Increase in illegal immigration, bogus asylum seekers and a ban on debate of all the above in our Dail will inevitably lead to animosity and polarization of Irish and immigrant communities.
Having said, i would take these ‘incidents’ with a pinch of salt – more likely foreign funded NGO trying to maintain relevance. For a country that went from mono ehtnic to 1 in 5 foreign born in less than 20 years I would say we are quite a patient people
@John Byrne:
What increase in illegal immigration and bogus asylum seekers? Can you provide a link for that please?
@Turlough Conway: A link? Open your eyes buddy.
The judgement and determinations section on courts.ie is good. Gives accounts of asylum scammers, how long they’ve been in the country, the number of times they’ve appealed deportation orders etc. Racism quangos love this stuff. Otherwise they’d all have to get real jobs.
@Eamon Mac Gowan:
I dont see through your blinkered eyes Eamon. If you believe illegal immigration is on the rise then supply evidence.
@Turlough Conway:
Here is but on example.
Also, over 90% of asylum applications are bogus.
http://www.inis.gov.ie/en/INIS/Pages/PR07000171
We deport less than 300 people per annum. No wonder so many are trying to take advantage. We need to ramp up the deportations.
@Turlough Conway:
Here’s one of the phenomena that he’s talking about. It may or may not be technically illegal to move here from the UK and claim asylum but that’s not really what people are talking about. If it’s not illegal, it should be. And these are the ones who are within the system. No one has statistics for those who are not in the system because that’s how being undocumented works. As the Irish in the US can demonstrate.
“The number of asylum claims is set to almost treble by the end of the year, with applications from Pakistani and Bangladesh nationals accounting for most of the increase.
Claims by Pakistani nationals have increased eightfold so far this year, while claims from Bangladeshis are up almost fourfold.
People from the two nations now account for 54 per cent of all asylum claims being made in the Republic, compared with just 19 per cent of claims last year.
According to the Department of Justice, applications from those nations are increasing much faster than from other countries because the Irish system is being used by young men on student visas in the UK to prolong their stays in Europe.
A department review found that most of those from Pakistan and Bangladesh claiming asylum here had travelled from England to Scotland and then taken a car ferry to Northern Ireland. They then travel to the Republic and lodge their asylum claims.”
Terribly weak article
“THERE WAS AN increase in racist incidents flagged with an NGO in the first six months of this year, “…compared to when. How big was the increase…
If you are going to raise an important issue then please do so with some professionalism.
@Nick Allen:
Shhhh! The journal are trying to downplay it and discredit what the Irish Times described as the ‘highest racism and hate crimes reported on record’.
The journal is a ‘good weather reporter’, it doesnt do negative stories about Ireland, im starting to think they’re the spin department for the Gov in order to promote Ireland.Inc.
A negative gov report barely sees the light of day and hasn’t since the 80′s and the journal is the ideal outlet for the positive crap churned out.
@Meanderingsz: There are some things I don’t agree with, however I’d be happy to sit down and debate them, that’s what’s done in any civilised society. Burning a child’s skin with bleach, hitting people, shouting abuse, come on, that’s abhorrent in any society.
Would love to know the demographics of the individuals who launched these attacks. On a side…. you can block ppl on FB
Interestingly, there are no complaints of anti-English comments, because that’s about the only one I’ve ever heard.
@Chris Mansfield: I wouldn’t see English people actually formally complaining. Just a shrug it off.
White European
Who would have guessed a colossal increase in immigration in a very short period of time would lead to conflict in a country with very little experience with it
@Mr. Éirxit!: BREITBART!
If we are such an awful racist country why do they all want to come here?
Why ? It might have something to do with the social welfare system in a lot of cases but certainly not in all of them . There are a lot of genuine people coming in to get a new start and want to work.
@Eamon Mac Gowan: What a stupid thing to say. You can be a target of racism but still have an overall better quality of life than your home country.
@Carl Nolan: You’ve just answered my question, most of them get more here on one weeks welfare than they’d get for working a whole year in their own country.
@Eamon Mac Gowan:
What’s your point?
They have a better quality of life here therefore Irish people aren’t racist…? They’re not mutually exclusive things.
Yes, this kind of racism is absolutely vile, no excuses. But you won’t see many media reports showing the toll mass immigration from foreign cultures is having on Europe or even only little old Ireland. Always the positive spin (they do our crappy jobs – do they?) or from the POV of the minority. I just read about Maria Ladenburger, daughtet of an EU official, raped & murdered recently in Germany by an Afghan immigrant whose people she was trying to help. Shocking, but not surprising that only the Daily Mail and Express seem to have carried the story.
@Squarepeg01:
But why would that story be more newsworthy than if a European carried out the rape?
Also there was a story about a 13 year old who was purportedly gang raped in Berlin by immigrants. This story was everywhere. There were mass protests. It turned out the story was engineered by the Kremlin to affect Merkels party in local elections in a continuing bid to de-stabilise the EU. You wont read that in the express or Mail. Not on their agenda.
@Turough: do we have problem with the MSM not covering the crimes of white Europeans? Maybe I’m just old fashioned, but I believe their job is to report on the facts, not to ignore or whitewash them or worry about how they will be received.
@Turlough Conway: What about the rest of the stories then? They all engineered too ha?
who did the crappy jobs before the crappy job doers arrived? someone must have had. taxi driving is not on the skills list nether is nannying, cleaning or shop keeping. keep them coming the business buddies say, i think its illegal and goes against work visa rules.
It would be interesting if we could find out how many people actually left Ireland because of racism. 190 alleged cases of racism made to a website but how many people packed there bags the following morning and went looking for a better, safer and more tolerable Society than our own. ” Welcome to Ireland, it’s not perfect but if you don’t like it then thanks for coming, wishing your better luck where you stop next”. we as a nation have being abused enough by other nations. ” no Irish need apply” is still advertised in Poland today just like it was in America and England for past generations. Sticks and stones baby, sticks and stones. Anyway who reports crimes of hate to a website instead of the gardai. I wonder if this is not a quango seeking attention to keeps its funding.
@leartius: ‘No Irish need apply’ signs in Poland? Is that true?
@leartius:
So if there is institutionalised racism in a country against minorities the solution is not to fix it but for teh affected parties to move on. Are you saying that Irish people who sufferred racism in foreign lands should just have moved on?
@Fox in the Box: Integration is something that the individual who arrives in a new culture does or doesn’t do. And of course there are degrees of it. The dichotomy you’ve created is the wrong one.
From your own chart of ‘targeted racialised group’
What race are Muslims?
What race are Jews?
These are religions and their followers and are not a racial group.
@Maurice Bourke: The way the doctrine of islamophobia works is by starting from the supposed viewpoint of the bad guy, not from any objective criteria. It’s viewpoint epistemology. What they mean is that people who shout ‘Allahu Akbar’ at a woman in a hijab are making prejudiced assumptions about her based on visual characteristics, making a negative judgment based on those assumptions and then engaging in an act of injustice by insulting her.
The bad guy is therefore treating her in a ‘racialized’ manner because the islamophobia-peddlers have essentially redefined racism to mean: ‘making assumptions about and judging someone negatively based on their physical appearance where that person is low on the privilege scale as defined by islamophobia-peddlers’.
@Marlowemallow:
I find it interesting they included 9 cases of where the white Irish were racially targeted. Thought the white Irish would have the highest rating on the privilege scale and would be the bad guy by what you’re saying?
@Maurice Bourke: That’s PR. Observe these groups by what they actually do, where they spend their time, money and resources. That’s the only way to understand what they’re really about.
It’s like lefties who make all the right noises about how they oppose all kinds of religious fundamentalism equally. Talk is cheap. What they do and don’t do always tells the truth.
@Marlowemallow:
With respect you don’t know it is PR. There is the plenty we can call the left (and right) on without making it up.
@Maurice Bourke: I do know but I can’t prove it so feel free to ignore.
@John Smith:
“You really are a relic of the past, borders will no longer exist in the future when there are no jobs because of technological advancements.”
If that ever happens, it will be hundreds of years before the entire world is free of all jobs. Until then there will always be people who have more and people who have less.
“Nationalism is dead”
You’d like it to be, however this is not the case. Just look at the turnout for national holidays across the globe.
” It is always those that seek to deny others the same privilege they have based on illogical, uneducated arguments that bring calamity on society, blaming people over institutions for what they perceive to be attacks on this false notion of their identity.”
Tell that to Sweden or, soon to be, Canada.
“While you have an ability to write English correctly you have no substance to your argument.”
Says the guy who’s basing his entire post on a Star Trek fantasy land.
“And that is the problem for this generation, their voice is empty and hollow, lacking any semblance of interest in actual knowledge of how the structures of political economies work, how society and culture mesh and how historical analysis is paramount to understanding the future.”
Arrogance killed the Remain campaign. Arrogance killed the Clinton campaign. Arrogance will kill the social justice movement.
@John Smith: You true believers in the religion of Progress are regressing us all into a Dark Age much worse than the ones that occupy your imaginations. I’m not a nationalist, by the way. What is it they say about assumptions again?
How about you ‘Progressives’ hold off on dismantling borders until we get those space stations going on Mars ok? Or when algal biodiesel and robots and the Singularity have reduced humanity to the same sterile, lunar, robotic unity that you worship. In the meantime the rest of us will get on with trying to limit the harm you’re doing to human life back in the real world.
@Marlowemallow: comment of the day.
@John Smith: That’s not what Islamophobia means in this context. This is an anti-racism lobby group. They describe muslims as a racialized group. That is what they mean by islamophobia.
@Fox in the Box: I treat members of minority groups as individuals. Therefore I can and will ‘call out’ those individuals who happen to be members of minority groups who refuse to integrate. And in fact, the only aspects of integration that are really necessary are both quite basic and entirely within the power of the individual.
Not preaching jihad, not supporting the muslim brotherhood, not treating women as second class citizens, not carrying out FGM, not sending your children to be forcibly married abroad, not teaching your children bigotry against infidels, not excluding them from music and art classes, not forcing them to wear hijabs or banning them from mixed-sex swimming lessons – such things are in fact entirely within the power of the individual who either chooses to do or not do them.
And no, of course integrating won’t protect you against racism. It’s not something you do for the reward of being treated with the basic respect that you’re already entitled to. It’s something you do or do not do for its own sake.
On the upside we now know it’s not just Brexit/ Trump countries that have racists.
Also looks like we are racist against everyone. One a serious note I wonder how we compare internationally .
Racists are going to be racist. It’s unavoidable.
Social media do they mean the journal If you make critical remarks about travelers or say EU emigration policy is wrong does that make you racist and guilty of a hate crime Sounds a bit Orwellian
@cryptoskitzo: Xenophobia and xenophilia are both normal traits of human societies. Both are harmful when out of balance.
Is it racist to comment on traits of visitors that are not compatible with our culture & values?
@Mairtin Cathbhar: According to them, yes. They will tell you with a straight face that Irish women might prefer the more open sexism of, say, Pakistan, to the slightly more subtle kind we have here. They’ll describe the arrival in Germany of mass sexual harassment combined with theft in public spaces as a ‘cultural quirk’ – that’s how an Irish Times columnist described Cologne on New Year’s Eve. But of course the first resort of such ‘anti-racists’ is to simply lie when confronted with conflicts of cultures and values.
Cultural diversity and differences should be embraced. In equal measure we should avoid PC and feel openly unashamed about our culture and help visitors who choose to live with us, integrate.
That is not racism.
Insults and threatening behaviour .. is.
Not that hard to delineate really.
Mairtin, that depends, to claim that a persons skin colour makes them incompatible with our culture is racist but to express a genuine concern about integrating convicted criminals is not. The difference is one actual is a mark of the character of the person the other isn’t
@Mairtin Cathbhar: Not all cultural differences can be embraced if you have a given set of values and wish to live in a functioning society. FGM, honour killings, child marriage, jihadism, anti-infidel bigotry, sex slavery, slavery, unequal inheritance and divorce rights, death penalties for leaving a religion and for adultery or premarital sex – none of those should be embraced if you disagree with them.
@dave completely agree which is why I say traits.
@Dave O Keeffe: Yes, yes, a nice clean rap sheet issued by your local friendly Afghan police station is wonderful evidence of lack of criminal history. Or better still, the all-clear from Somali police.
Sharia law is incompatible with fundamental human rights as determined by the ECHR and House of Lords. There are states and areas of the world which implement sharia law – usually with the support of a majority of those states’ populations.
If a state is founded on a legal code which is itself inherently illegal, what possible sense can it make to rely on convictions or absence thereof of citizens of that state or area? None.
A Pakistani Christian may be convicted of blasphemy. They are not guilty of any crime by Irish legal standards. An 60 year old Indonesian Christian woman may be found guilty of selling alcohol and caned. She is not guilty of any crime by Irish legal standards.
A Somali muslim may marry a 9 year old, rape his wives and war captive sex slaves, engage in polygamy, execute captured enemies, stone an apostate, beat his wife for disobedience, kill his child for premarital sex – and not be convicted of any crime in Somalia.
That’s the world we actually live in.
Marlow, I’ve just said that’s a genuine concern, what’s your problem?
@Dave O Keeffe: You said that integrating “convicted criminals” is a genuine (i.e. acceptable) concern.
The point is that integrating some convicted criminals should cause no concern while integrating some people who are not convicted criminals should cause major concern. In other words, a clean criminal background check is a hopelessly flawed basis for deciding whether concerns about integration are well-founded or not.
Marlow, I used criminal conviction as a marker of character. Obviously it shouldn’t be the only criteria and obviously the nature of such a conviction should be considered. Character should be the basis, nothing else.
@John003:
It depends on if your remarks are based on fact or prejudice and what your intention is.
So I could say that all banksters are settled people therefore settled people are corrupt.
It might be technically true but it would be prejudicial to make that conclusion.
@Dave O Keeffe: Fine. Currently character is not a criteria for being admitted or denied entry to the country. But if such a test were possible how would an Irish civil servant assess the character of an Iraqi asylum seeker? The Iraqi constitution enshrines sharia as the supreme law of Iraq.
WE have to factor in mental illness into this. There are a number of mentally deranged individuals in this country lacking any sort of verbal filter. If they’re not shouting racial abuse then they’re accusing a white irish person of being a snob on the street or looking down on them or something else. Or they will go nuts if you don’t give them a cigarette.
The implication of that is that no amount of “education” or government policy is ever going to change that.
@Fred Johnson:
mental illness or not they didn’t lick it off the street, the racist messages were picked up somewhere.
And the solution is not a better verbal filter, rather than stopping people sharing their racist opinions perhaps it would be better to change their opinions in the first place?!
Nice way of burying you head in the sand and washing your hands of it fred – put it down to something thats ‘not our fault’ and cant be changed…
We’re always going to have morons. Let’s stand against bigots
You see, by calling them “morons”, you’re simply dismissing the issue at large. Until people start calling it like it is (bigots as wrote afterwards), we are still going to have incidents like these occurring on a frequent basis.
Can we use moronic bigots?
@The Girl:
I agree. We should also stand against those who conflate genuine concerns with racism and bigotry to muddy the water and shut down meaningful debate.
@Jason Culligan:
If the concerns are genuine then they can be demonstrated thus by reasonable argument.
If a person is being bigoted and racist then they should be called out on it with substantiation.
@John Smith:
“Radicalisation comes from militarised foreign policy, nothing else.”
Absolute rubbish and I hope you really don’t believe that. If radicalisation comes from foreign policy, why are countries which have nothing to do with military interventions in Muslim countries also suffering from radical Islamic attacks?
“The construct of borders in a non-argument, we are past that in the main. ”
In your head maybe, however this is simply not the case in a practical or legal sense.
“If you think it will be hundreds of years before all jobs are gone you are probably right, more like half of jobs will be gone in the next 20 to 40 years.”
The exact same thing was said when electricity was invented. The reality is that technology drives a change in the way in which we work and removes jobs that are no longer necessary, however it creates spin-off industries and jobs which didn’t exist previously. Prime example would be the fact that computers were supposed to kill the office worker (IE the typewriter) and instead office jobs have grown exponentially since their introduction.
“turnout for the holidays? What?”
My point there is pretty obvious to anyone who doesn’t want to play purposely obtuse. Nationalism is popular, on top of this nationalist parties are growing in popularity at a rapid pace. While you claim that nationalism is dead more and more people are drifting towards nationalist parties.
“Canada or Sweden? What again?”
Sweden, otherwise known as the rape capital of Europe where Feminist snow plowing programmes result in the shut-down of the national transportation infrastructure. A running joke of a country now:
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/gender-equal-snow-removal-procedures-left-stockholm-paralyzed
Canada is going the same way with Trudeau openly claiming that Canada doesn’t have a culture…
“I have news for you buddy, any killed campaigns are only dormant, they always come back, taking another two steps forward.”
You keep telling yourself that John. In the meantime those of us living in the real world will watch as the social justice movement kills itself off.
Is shouting allahu akbur considered a racist attack now? That’s like shouting Long Live The Queen to a Brit for goodness sake
@John Smith: Complete nonsense. The people on the receiving end of militarised foreign policy has agency of their own just like you. They have their own cultures and histories that long predate your shortened historical viewpoint. Including their own military and imperial histories. Anyway, it’s your western-centric viewpoint that is the dinosaur thankfully.
Oh look another progressive liberal rag painting Ireland as the worst place in the world to live. I would love to know how many in the groups above targeted each other, I remover a recent story of a certain group of irish who want their own culture protesting immigrants been given housing.
About time we got out house in order I’m Ireland boot out those denied immigration, tackle the lawless elements who get away with it by the cry of cultural heritage
@Marlowemallow: My experience in the ME goes back to the early ’60′s and that pre-dates any of the conflicts that are being blamed for the Islamic hatred for the West, in fact this problem started 1400 years ago and has been really festering since the Crusaders drove them out of Europe and back to the desert.
@Turlough Conway: No our laws don’t derive from the EU. They derive from the common law and our constitution and the EU. The ECHR is not the social justice movement. The social justice movement has been pushing specific policies involving multiculturalism and open borders and islamophobia, among other things. That is why it is dying. Human rights are fortunately not reducible to a movement of pampered middle class westerners and that concept will survive just fine.
@Fox in the Box:
The onus is on the immigrants to integrate into Irish society. This is our homeland. They are mere guests. If they don’t like it, then they can leave.
@Mark Malone: I’m not claiming to be a fact though am I.
This comment thread makes me depressed. No sympathetic comments for victims of abuse. Everyone simply justifying these attacks as a inevitable result of our immigration policy.
I have grown up seeing Ireland change and become multicultural. Does that make me want to lash out in the way people have above? Of course not because I am a rational person.
A flood of red thumbs are expected.
@Cillian Lynch: You could just emote bout it or you could engage with what people are saying. Emoting has not worked too well so far as an anti-racism strategy. ‘Everyone’ is not justifying racist attacks – that’s incorrect and irrational.
@Cillian Lynch: I’ve noticed whenever there’s an article on the Journal about racism the vast majority of upvoted comments will be either downplaying the reports or thinly-veiled “if we’re so racist then go home” type sentiments.
@Carl Nolan: I agree completely. I am normally not one to comment on these threads but felt compelled to do so in this instance. In my office I am currently surrounded by two Dutch people, two French, one Swedish and one Greek. They are all white. Do you think they have ever received any abuse for immigrating to Ireland and “taking our jobs”?
@Cillian Lynch:
You’ve seen parts of Ireland turn into a United Nations Convention centre. You may see that as a good thing. I don’t. I see Ireland as the homeland of the Irish people.
As of 2011, 17% of our population were immigrants. It will be even higher today. It’s far too high and this level of immigration cannot continue.
@Sean O’Connor:
“You’ve seen parts of Ireland turn into a United Nations Convention centre”
I have to facepalm at sensationalist rubbish like this. You really have no idea what large scale immigration looks like.
I’m not surprised to see the sorts of stuff you follow and re-tweet on your Twitter.
The National Party (led by a man who hangs out with neo-nazis)
Irish Alt-Right
Marion Le Pen
Ireland First!
Bretbart London
Personally I don’t subscribe to your insular “oireland for de oirish” rubbish and think Ireland is a far more interesting place when it welcomes people from all over the world.
@Carl Nolan: Ireland has the fourth largest immigrant population within the EU 28. What’s that, if not mass immigration?
http://emn.ie/media/2013_PopulationbyBirth2.png
Ireland is the homeland of the Irish people. Do you dispute this and think it’s rubbish?
@Marlowemallow:
You really are a relic of the past, borders will no longer exist in the future when there are no jobs because of technological advancements. Nationalism is dead, those that seek to purport the myth are those that will create a new ideology that leads to the deaths of millions, until we reset again, just like after the industrial revolution’s Luddites layed the groundwork of Communism, or the market crash of 1929, combined with the Bernaysian rise of public relations led to the rise of Fascism. It is always those that seek to deny others the same privilege they have based on illogical, uneducated arguments that bring calamity on society, blaming people over institutions for what they perceive to be attacks on this false notion of their identity.
While you have an ability to write English correctly you have no substance to your argument. And that is the problem for this generation, their voice is empty and hollow, lacking any semblance of interest in actual knowledge of how the structures of political economies work, how society and culture mesh and how historical analysis is paramount to understanding the future.
@Marlowemallow:
Also, Islamophobia is a fear of Islam, nowhere does that infer Islam is a race, much in the same as being pogonophobic does not mean you see beards as a race.
@MackPilon: Yes, Islam has a history of its own and a militant thread dating to its foundation, but the supposed anti-racists insist on treating Muslims as unthinking reactors to the actions of the west.
Suppose the result of the Citizenship Referendum might have given a hint that this was on the way.
@Marlowemallow:
The onus will always be on society to integrate “minorities” for that very reason – they are the minority
You can’t very well integrate the majority can you?
@Marlowemallow:
The onus should not be on any one side
It is in the best interests of all parties to integrate and build relations. Calling out the minority for not integrating is scapegoating. I know of many foreigners who have gone out of their way to integrate into society but still experience racial prejudices
@Mark Malone:
His anecdotal accounts and evidemce aren’t given national media attention. You’re comparing apples and oranges.
Jesus Christ what’s wrong with people. Racism is so pointless. Just badness for the sake of it.
More lies .
Feckin Greeks. They invented gayness!
@Marlowemallow:
Radicalisation comes from militarised foreign policy, nothing else. Religion is the banner under which they fight, but politics is the reason. Oppress people and they will take to violence, this is an ageless fact. You can’t destroy Iraq, cause the deaths of at least 600,000 people and leave it to fester and expect no consequence. But much like the world doesn’t blame citizens of a powerful country for the actions of the hawks in government, the vast majority of Muslims do not blame citizens either.
The construct of borders in a non-argument, we are past that in the main. The real issues are climate change and technological advances, in 50 years borders will be the last of humanities woes. A tide is coming that no one sees because they are too busy arguing about who should be in what country and what should people say.
Education, education , education
personally i dont trust blacks
@Jason Culligan:
If you think it will be hundreds of years before all jobs are gone you are probably right, more like half of jobs will be gone in the next 20 to 40 years. This in itself will cause capitalism to implode, without buyers you can’t sell. Unless we accept a basic living wage, become more socialist and remove the notion of work being the sole driver of humans we are doomed, no question.
All your other points are to difficult for me to understand, turnout for the holidays? What? Canada or Sweden? What again? Star Trek? You calling other people arrogant after being arrogant?
If you knew anything of what your final points mean you would know that we have been through exactly the same thing as now between the 60′s and the 80′s. It is cyclical, generations fail to learn from their parents. We move two steps forward and one step back, over and over, because people like yourself enjoy the status quo. I have news for you buddy, any killed campaigns are only dormant, they always come back, taking another two steps forward.
@Marlowemallow:
Not at all. In Ireland our laws derive from the EU. There has been a concerted attempt to associate the inequalities of globalisation with social justice in an last ditched attempt by traditionalists to renew their regressive Christian past. Not going to happen. We will abide by the ECHR.
Sigh. Rise in reports just means more people are reporting them. Doesn’t mean they weren’t already happening regularly.
@Marlowemallow: “Treating anonymous reports as fact is just not good enough” says anonymous account on a comment section of a website.
Racists are irreverent out of touch dickwads.
I think there needs to be space for Irish people to have a respectful dialogue about the impact of having so many non native Irish people living here. Closing down all debate and calling it racist may only force resentment and anger underground. At the same time I am extremely uncomfortable with the tone of some of the comments. On this article. As for the racist abuse being anonymous, my guess is that the victims may be too scared to report. I have witnessed a Black bus driver being demeaned and harassed by a group of young men. I reported it to Dublin bus afterwards and it must have been captured on CCTV. No one stood up for the driver including myself. This was probably because we all felt a bit scared of this group, afraid of provoking violence. There was that sense of threat there.
have your say