Irish Examiner view: We need to enforce hate crime laws

Disturbing rise in racist and homophobic incidents in Ireland

Adam Pidgeon, Enya Eccleston, Tia Weldon, Éadaoin Walsh, Fina Eccleston, Debbie O’Rourke, and Mayor of Waterford Damien Geoghegan outside Waterford City and County Council's buildings at the Mall flying the Pride flag that was cut down last night. Picture: Eoghan Dalton

If anyone still doubts whether we need specific hate crime laws enacted in Ireland, they need only consider the disturbing rise in racist and homophobic incidents here.

On Sunday night, hideous graffiti was daubed on the walls of a building adjacent to one of Dublin’s best-known gay bars, PantiBar on Capel St.

Owner Panti Bliss, aka Rory O’Neill, posted an image of the graffiti which shows the words ‘pedo bar’ spray-painted on the wall of a building with an arrow pointed in the direction of the LGBTQ+ venue.

Last week, Pride flags raised in Waterford City were cut down again in what the city’s mayor has described as a “truly despicable act”. 

The new flags had been raised at Waterford City and County Council’s buildings at the mall after the previous flags had been taken down and set alight.

Other minority communities also suffer from an increasing number of hate incidents. A record 700 racist incidents were recorded by Irish Network Against Racism (INAR) in 2020 in Ireland, up from 530 in 2019.

Accounting for 32% of reported racist incidents, Asian people are the second most commonly discriminated against group in Ireland — just behind the grouping of black African, black Irish, and black other, who experienced 33% of all criminal cases in 2020.

Pandemic-fuelled attacks

The situation has got worse for Asians globally since the pandemic, fuelled by its identification as the ‘Chinese virus’. 

As Covid-19 progressed, INAR became aware of incidents where Asian people in Ireland were blamed for the virus in person and online. Racially motivated incidents on the street, in shops, and on public transport were also logged.

INAR also noted a significant number of serious incidents, including Xuedan (Shelly) Xiong being pushed into the Royal Canal in Dublin and Martin Hong and Arthur Ma in Cork being assaulted in August of last year.

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While such violent assaults make hate crime more visible, they only account for a small minority of incidents motivated by prejudice. Minority ethnic communities, including Travellers and Roma, experience racism on a daily basis.

In April, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee published the general scheme of the Criminal Justice (Hate Crime) Bill 2021. 

For the first time, it will become a specific criminal offence to commit a hate crime based on the colour of a person’s skin, sexual orientation, or gender, including gender expression or identity.

Our current incitement to hatred law is ineffective.

According to the Department of Justice, there have been 55 prosecutions for incitement to hatred since the law was introduced in 1989. There have been five convictions under the act — a conviction rate of less than 10%.

If you still think we don’t need hate crime legislation, talk to Westmeath intercounty footballer Boidu Sayeh, who says he regularly experiences racism online.

“You can’t do anything about it,” he was quoted as saying. “You just need to soak it in.”

Hopefully, this new law will do something about it.