Women assaulted - Disgraceful and un-Irish

The court case involving the disgraceful assault by three young Cork men on two foreign women on St Patrick’s Street in July of last year has the most disturbing ramifications.

There was a time when people would have considered such behaviour by any Irish man as not only loathsome but also distinctly un-Irish.

The outrageous assault — in which the two women were punched and kicked, and one had her eye socket broken — is all the more disturbing against the backdrop of the report published earlier this week by the ESRI on the changes in attitudes towards the immigrant population in Ireland.

The survey found that almost 20% of people are critical of immigrants in this country from different ethnic backgrounds. An earlier survey conducted between 2002 and 2008 — while the influx of new immigrants was at its height — found most people said Ireland was a better place to live because of immigrants.

Unfortunately, the attitude towards immigrants has clearly deteriorated since the onset of the economic recession. The number of people opposed to the admission of immigrants from different ethnic backgrounds has more than trebled — from 6% in 2002 to 20% in 2010. More than half of the respondents surveyed in 2010 said Ireland was a worse place because of the immigrants.

Irish people have apparently developed a more intolerant attitude towards immigrants than our EU counterparts in Spain, Netherlands, or Germany. A more negative attitude was found only in the UK.

Yesterday’s court case is a warning of the danger of such intolerance. Otherwise we are all going to be the losers.