Suzanne Harrington: Reel in the anti-immigrant rhetoric 

I worry about the normalisation of racist anti-immigrant rhetoric in Ireland — not to mention its irony, given how Irish immigrant communities are everywhere on earth, and have been forever,  writes Suzanne Harrington

If people like Bertie Ahern – a former taoiseach, no less – can spout anti-immigrant rhetoric on people’s doorsteps, how are black Irish people meant to feel safe? Picture: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

“The ones I worry about are the Africans.”

Me too, Bertie Ahern, me too. I worry that in a busy Dublin city centre street, an African man accused of taking something from a shop died in broad daylight after he had been restrained by a group of so-called ‘security guards’. Watching that horrific footage reminded me of watching George Floyd being killed - nobody did anything. Nobody intervened. People just stood there, watching this unfold. There is no doubt whatsoever in my mind that had Yves Sakila been white, he would still be alive. So yes, Bertie Ahern, I worry about the Africans.

I worry about Tobi Omoteso, the Limerick dance teacher and youth worker, who was reported to have lost sight in one eye after he said a man attacked his car with a baseball bat, shattering the windscreen and blinding him with broken glass. Mr Omoteso said he was followed by a car through the streets of Limerick before the alleged attack.

I worry about the Sligo science student, Suad Mooge, who has endured an onslaught of racist abuse online since being chosen to represent Dublin in the Rose of Tralee pageant.

I worry about Helen Ogbu, the Galway Labour councillor whose campaign posters were smeared with racist slurs, and who has consistently endured racist abuse online while trying to do her job.

I worry about the normalisation of racist anti-immigrant rhetoric in Ireland — not to mention its irony, given how Irish immigrant communities are everywhere on earth, and have been forever. I worry about the distinction made by Bertie Ahern between Congolese people fleeing war — black, unwelcome — and Ukrainian people fleeing war — white, welcome. 

I worry about how immigrant communities are perceived as being to blame for the housing crisis, rather than decades of systemic government failure to build more bloody houses.

What I emphatically do not worry about is the implied dilution of Irish culture by the presence of African communities, Muslim communities, Indian communities in Ireland. Irish culture is pretty robust. It survived 800 years of British occupation — it does not need gatekeeping by self-appointed flag-shaggers. It proliferates around the world. It’s fine.

Imagine if Irish immigrants living in other countries — of which I am one — were treated with suspicion, seen as an existential threat, othered and bothered, no matter how long we had been there. This is what’s happening in Trump’s America, and we all broadly agree that Trump’s regime is fascist. 

On this side of the Atlantic, we are only five or six decades past ‘No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs’. Our shared histories as colonised peoples are being forgotten as the new fascism, fed and fuelled by those keen to divide us, takes hold.

Palestinian solidarity, for which we Irish are famous, and for which we should be rightly proud, means little if black people are abused and — horrifically — die on our streets. 

If people like Bertie Ahern — a former taoiseach, no less — can spout anti-immigrant rhetoric on people’s doorsteps, how are black Irish people meant to feel safe? To feel at home? Jesus Christ almighty. Black lives matter.