Ireland is a racist country…full stop!!!
September 6, 2007 at 3:47 pm (General, Ireland)
I have lived in Ireland for almost two years. I have worked as a professional and my work environment had been great to me and supported me in every aspect of my being here. In short, what I’m trying to say is that if you are dealing with educated, polished and well-traveled Irish people, you are dealing with a great bunch of people.
On the other hand, if you are dealing with your everyday Irish person who is very parochial, you are in for a surprise. I’ll just mention incidents that have led me to stereotype the some Irish people as racist and narrow-minded:
I was in a bar once and I went to the bathroom. In there, I met a very drunk Irish man (the Irish will get the courage to talk to a foreigner when they are under the influence). You’ll be the judge of what he said to me. He said “I’ve lived in London and never was I once assaulted by a black man. It was always the white guys that tried to steal from me.” I was very offended by this but I don’t have a temper so I brushed it off.
I was driving in a small town in the west of Ireland. I had gone visiting some friends. There I was, stuck in a small traffic jam in the middle of town. There was a group of about 20 youths including girls hanging about. My window was down as the sun was up and I wanted to feel the breeze. When my car was close to the youths, a big object smashed on my passenger window, and water splashed all over my car. I was very lucky because I realized that whatever object had been thrown at me, was intended to hit me in the head or face through my window. I heard all the youths break into laughter. I quickly closed my window. I was left that town with the following questions lingering:
If I got hit, and got injured, who would have been blamed? Those kids would have probably run away.
Would anyone in the traffic jam who had seen the incident be willing to point out the culprit or even act as a witness? I don’t think so.
Why was my car the only target out of a possible 20 cars in the traffic jam? I would have possibly caused an accident if I got hit. I guess I would be blamed and my insurance would cover the cost even if I wasn’t at fault.
I once took a cab and the cabbie asked where I was from. When I told him my country of origin and asked if he’d ever been there? He said he had not been. I then proceeded to tell him how highly I thought of my home country and that it was a good tourist destination. I was basically selling the country like anyone else would. He asked me “so what are you doing in Ireland if you say your country is so good?” I told him, I’m here to get the experience. I don’t blame him for asking me that question but the tone that he asked the question in led me to believe that he isn’t too happy with immigrants flocking to Ireland.
Last but not least, I was assaulted by two Irish men in Dublin because they wanted to steal my car. They were very high on drugs and they really beat me up badly and I ended up with a swollen cheek bone and a tore lip and bleeding gums. They used the controversial “N” word as they assaulted me. They then proceeded to damage my car after they failed to steal it because I refused to hand over the keys. (I paid 400 Euro to fix the car…didn’t want to loose out on my no-claims bonus). After they left the crime scene, I called the Gardai (Irish police) and they showed up after 30 minutes. Their attitude didn’t help because they didn’t seem concerned about my injuries and they told me that as long as I didn’t have any broken bones, the most the culprits would get is a fine. Does that mean that if I assault someone in Ireland, as long as I don’t seriously injure them, I can walk away with a fine? How convenient for criminals. I saw the house that my attackers walked into and I pointed this out to the police and they said that they would come back the next day and make inquires. They were supposed to give me a follow-up phone call regarding this but I never received even a single call from them.
My basic judgment of the Irish police attitude was that, they couldn’t be asked to do a thing. They basically discouraged me from pressing charges or pursuing the matter further. Maybe it’s because I’m black. Who will protect me if the police can’t? I’ll include pepper spray and a baseball bat in my next shopping list.
I’ve heard different cases where immigrants’ cars have been set ablaze, or have had their houses vandalized and I wonder whether the Irish government is turning a blind eye or they know these things happen and chose to ignore them. A Nigerian woman was murdered in Dublin and the authorities declared it a suicide but everything surrounding the incident shows that it was a racial assault/crime. How many more immigrants will be assaulted or killed before any action is taken?
The RTE1 9pm evening news always has news on crime.
Recently, immigrants have been having problems getting their kids into schools. If you are not catholic, your child gets least priority when school places are being handed out. To make matters worse, 3 schools have been setup in Dublin and the surrounding areas to accommodate these children who didn’t get places. How does the Irish government expect integration and diversity to foster in Ireland if segregation is happening at the grassroots level?
If you’re foreign and living in Ireland or hoping to move to Ireland, you need to be at the right place at the right time if you want no trouble…that’s my final word.
Leave comments here or at tafsiri@gmail.com
Honestly I’m being very sceptical here. I know guys tend to have a thick and inpenetratable skin when it comes to issues to do with love, emotions…expressing their feelings. These days I think relationships to a greater extent are geared towards convenience and there isn’t much emphasis on the old fashioned way of courtship. These days it’s all about “what can he/she do for me?”
Being Kenyan is a God-given gift. Identity is something we all have. A wise man once said that you need to know your identity to know the direction that you are going. If I was born in any other country, I'd most likely have interacted with different people and developed different goals. I love my life as a Kenyan, with it's joys and it's sorrows. Even people from the first world cry.
