Candidate calls on community leaders to condemn racist vandalism of his posters

A local election candidate whose campaign posters have been defaced in racially motivated attacks yesterday pleaded with community leaders to condemn the vandalism.

In an open letter to the people of Castleknock/Blanchardstown in Dublin 15, People Before Profit candidate Memet Uludag said recent incidents in which his posters had been plastered with raw bacon and, more recently, plastered over with pictures of pigs were “racist acts of vandalism”.

Writing on his blog, Mr Uludag, who is originally from Turkey but who has lived in Carpenterstown since 1998, said: “What is happening to my posters is outright racism and it is not a spontaneous act of vandalism. Nobody walks around with a pack of bacon, pictures of pigs, cellotape, and a stepladder. This is, however, small number they may be, an act of people who are motivated and who are planning these acts of racism.