Ireland: Asylum policy and media blamed for racist attacks(feature)
01 March 2000
As Ireland introduces EU asylum and migration policies with large-scale dispersal programmes targeting villages and poor inner city areas and the media continues to play on populist sentiments, racist attacks in Ireland are increasing on an alarming scale. Two independent surveys have indicated a dramatic increase in public opposition to immigrants as well as racist attitudes towards settled ethnic minority communities and Travellers. Especially following the implementation of the asylum seekers dispersal programme, there have been a series of verbal and physical attacks on black communities all over Ireland. After the recent, particularly vicious, attack on an African shop in Dublin, Sinn Féin, anti-racist and civil liberties groups are urging the government to take part in round table talks to diffuse increasing racial tensions.
Anti-racist groups have long warned politicians and the media of the dangers of inciting racist sentiments by "playing the race card", especially during the past few years of Ireland's public debates on asylum and migration issues while the country struggles to implement restrictive EU-led policies. Years of anti-immigrant propaganda now seems to have taken their toll, and media attention on the "race issue" is at an all time high.
Attack on shop and its aftermath
When violence broke out in Dublin's north inner city area the Gardaí cordoned off a section of Parnell Street, located in one of Dublin's poorest districts. Windows of a shop owned by 34-year old Nigerian Kola Ojewale were smashed and women and children narrowly avoided injury during the attack, which was clearly racially motivated and led by around 20 white men drinking in the pub opposite.
The attack, which began at around 10pm and lasted for 15 minutes, is thought to have started with a man shouting racist remarks at a black motorist sitting in a car outside the shop. According to a local resident, after a minor scuffle, "the white guy went into the Blue Lion Pub across the street and came out with two or three others and began hurling bottles and glasses at the Infinity Ventures shop. Then bottles and glasses were hurled from both sides of the street." Whilst those attacked retreated and sought shelter in the shop, more people came out of the pub and started smashing the shop windows with pool cues, went inside and assaulted the shop assistant. "Her jewellery was torn off, her arms were twisted and she was shoved around."
Local resident Senator David Norris condemned the attack, called for improved community relations and recommended the closure of several unnamed pubs in the area. Although the attack led Mr Ojewale, father of three, to assess his future life and family's safety in Ireland, he maintained that direct talks offered the best hope of diffusing racial tension. "I hope that this situation can be sorted out if people talk to each other", he said. However, attempts by a journalist to talk to the pub's clientele about the incident, indicate more deeply rooted racist sentiments. The reporter writing for The Examiner (2.5.00.) was abused by customers and one man who was willing to discuss the event was called a "scumbag". On leaving the pub the journalist was told, "Go back to your niggers". This experience led him to conclude that "unfortunately, the indications from Parnell Street is that Sunday's attack may not remain an isolated incident."
Indeed, Gabriel Okenla, executive director of the Pan African Organisation says that black people in the area have received a number of threats in recent months. Although the incident on Parnell Street was the first serious attack on property in Dublin, the same does not hold for racist violence. On 20 April, 17 year old asylum seeker Paul Abayomi suffered head injuries and severe bruising when he was racially abused and attacked from behind whilst standing in a shop. The attack on this young political refugee from Nigeria led to the first self-or