Prisoners in their own home

The Mandiangu family are virtually prisoners in their own home. Such is the hostility the African refugees face from their neighbours that the five children do not play with local kids, some of whom call them "niggers" and pelt their house with eggs and stones.

Their corner house stands out from the others in the rundown, litter-strewn Dublin Corporation estate in Killinarden, Tallaght. There is a hole in the living-room window from when it was stoned last year. There are anti-racism posters in two other windows, and a wallmounted security light to deter ongoing attacks by local children.

Gilmar (9) was recently bitten on the face by a gang of boys in a local park on the way back from school.

The three oldest children sit lined up on a large leather couch in the living room, neatly dressed in their school uniforms with tightly braided hair. Ask them why such bad things happen to them and they reply without hesitation in their heavy Dublin accents: "Because they hate blacks. Most people hate blacks."

Their parents, Nindja and Natalie, desperately want to move from Killinarden, where they have lived for two years. They have talked to school teachers, the garda and corporation officials, but little has changed. Nindja says when they arrived in Ireland from the Democratic Republic of Congo six years ago, there was less racist aggression. He says politicians are partly to blame for the hostility, as they have fuelled the perception that asylum-seekers and refugees are all after one thing: social welfare benefits.

"The Government, the politicians, make people not like us because they tell them we are here just to take money," he says. "We know we are blacks. This is not our country but we don't want to take this country back to ours."

Despite their experiences, the Mandiangu children have developed a sense of Irishness. The eldest child, Lariche (16), has long attachments in her hair like the black-Irish pop star Samantha Mumba. She is a keen athlete and, like Mumba, wants to become an icon. She hopes to get sponsorship to help her achieve her sporting ambitions. "My dream is to go to the Olympic games for Ireland," she says. Nindja's children, acutely aware of their difference, will be taking part in events to mark United Nations International Day Against Racism next Thursday. Gilmar has written a song, Just the Way We Children Are, which he plans to sing. His performance will be at one of hundreds of events this week in Ireland, North and South, to mark the day which commemorates the 1960 massacre of anti-apartheid demonstrators in South Africa. There are music and sporting events, activity packs for schools and youth workers, anti-racism college campus initiatives and a conference on Traveller accommodation in Belfast.

But it will take a lot more than a week of feel-good functions for Ireland to combat the problem of racism which has lately tarnished the State's reputation abroad.

"Like any other EU country, there is strong evidence of racism in Ireland," says the director of the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI), Phillip Watt. "It is a major problem in our society and a big challenge for public policy."

The racism committee, a government advisory group, last year devised a three-year, £4.5 million public awareness programme to combat racism and promote interculturalism. Its projects will cover media and communications, the statutory sector, education, community development and politics. It has been beset by delays, but is due to get underway within months.

Watt cautions against people viewing the public awareness programme as a panacea. It can only be one part of a wider State anti-racism strategy, he says.

"Its aim is to be catalytic and to create change and ongoing change, and have a multiplier effect," he says.

"To maximise its impact, it must result in changes in policies and practices and that should be one of the measures of how successful it is."

Watt says the quality of public services to minority ethnic groups must also monitored to ensure they are inclusive. He cites shortcomings in the delivery of health services to Travellers, who still have a very poor health record.

Institutional change is crucial, and public institutions must "take ownership" of addressing racism and promoting inclusion, he says. The British Metropolitan's Police's failure to do this led to a finding in a 1999 report into the murder of Stephen Lawrence that it suffered from unwitting "institutional racism".

The Garda has been criticised repeatedly by Residents Against Racism for heavy-handedness in cases involving non-nationals, including several cases of mistaken identity. Nor did the recent sight of 19 Moldovan workers being jailed and brought to court in handcuffs enhance the reputation of the prison or police authorities.

A Garda Racial and Intercultural Office was set up last year in recognition of the growing ethnic diversity of Irish society. It was to be formally launched tomorrow by the Garda Commissioner, but the event has been postponed due to the foot and mouth crisis. Chief Supt Catherine Clancy, who is in charge of the office, says its function is to advise, monitor and co-ordinate all Garda activity in relation to ethnic diversity and to develop work practices for the force. She acknowledges that mistakes have been made in the past, but says it would be foolish to make the same mistake twice.

The office has just made a hard-hitting video on discrimination and prejudice which will be used to train its members. But given that racism exists in Irish society, is it not inevitable that it will also be present in the Garda which is made up of members of that society?

"We are developing a strategy and training to counteract any negative attitudes that may exist within the Garda Siochana," replies Chief Supt Clancy. The Garda recognises the need to monitor race crimes, and plans to introduce a reporting scheme this year through the Pulse computer system.

Watt says it would be too simplistic to expect a public awareness campaign to end to violent racist incidents. "There will always be people who will be racist and will not have their attitudes changed but then we must have effective laws to deal with such people," he says.

He compares the battle against racism to the ongoing fight against sexism. "You can't stop men being sexist, but you can challenge their behaviour by policies that make sexual harassment unacceptable in the workplace and that then feeds back into general attitudes and has a circular effect."

Information on anti-racism events this Thursday is available from the NCCRI at 4785778

Chief Supt. Garda Catherine Clancy is in charge of the Garda Racial and Intercultural Office