Looking different. Feeling Irish

Veena: “I don’t know how I got into the habit of it, but when I go out with my friends I act as an Irish person but when I step in the door I step into my own language and my [Hinduism]. My mum and dad are bringing me and my brother and sister up as Indians, but they don’t want us to become total Indians, if you know what I mean. They want us to experience both cultures . . . I don’t know how to explain it.”

Raf: “That cultural question has never been an issue for me. There’s no clash. My dad was a vet, so we were always part of the community. I was mixing with farmers and farmers’ children. My dad came over in 1993, after getting a job offer. It was kind of economic. But he was coming for something rather than running away from anything . . . I wouldn’t say I’m raised Irish or as a member of my parents’ own country. I would occasionally speak my parents’ language, but I’d speak more English with them and maybe some French. Growing up I watched Ray D’Arcy on The Den and learned Gaeilge in school . . . I can’t speak it now, though.”

Nally: “I was nine when I came here. When I’m in Brazil I miss Ireland and when I’m in Ireland I miss Brazil. We were very involved with the Brazilian community, but there’s not too much of a Brazilian community now. I was in school and had Irish friends, but we always wanted to keep that little bit of home with us. We went to Brazilian events. I even did Brazilian martial arts. I wasn’t very good at it, but it was a way of holding on to home, because I remembered my childhood in Brazil . . . Sometimes it’s hard being half and half. If I went back I’d be afraid I wouldn’t settle, because I’ve been here 12 years now. I’m two people now, I guess.”

Lee: “My father came here by himself 20-odd years ago. He has good English. He was probably one of the first Chinese to come to Wexford. His two brothers used to live here as well, but I was never really involved with my Chinese Malaysian family. All the relatives I know are Irish. I’m Irish.”

Experiences of racism

Lee: “The main place I would get racism was during games. It was a lot of heat-of-the-moment stuff. Pure jealousy, sometimes. I wasn’t one to go home and talk about it. I just dealt with it in my own way. I never really spoke out about, but recently, because someone else spoke out about it and then people got in contact with me . . . After [two players with Duffry Rovers club were suspended for racially abusing him] I was playing a game and a guy said, ‘I won’t say what you want me to say, so you can go to the papers.’ Basically, he hinted that he’d like to say something racist but was smart enough not to. For me it was the same thing, but what can you do about that? Nothing.”

Hailuu: “One time I was hopped on by a bunch of people I’d played football with. That was a bit crazy. Another time I ended up getting stabbed after some youths started hurling abuse at one of my friends . . . Last Easter Sunday I was living in Inchicore with my partner and my daughter and a bunch of youths kicked in the door. I had to fight them off. There are places where racism is tolerated. Sometimes I get abuse on the Luas and people will be sitting there like it’s normal. It’s a regular thing in Dublin for a lot of my peers.”

Nally: “I’m often called a prostitute because of headlines in newspapers about Spanish or Brazilian prostitutes. When I was 13 a boy came up to me and said, ‘How much?’ I didn’t know what he was on about . . . I was shocked. He kept following me, and I took out my phone and rang my friend and was explaining every single place I was, so she knew where I was. I’ve gotten it on buses from elderly men. My own mother’s gotten it . . . A man pretended to ask directions and then told her to get into the car.”

Raf: “I haven’t experienced racism. And I mix with all sorts of people. I go to the old-man pubs. It just hasn’t happened. I read in the paper that the whole place is getting more racist, but it’s not happening to me.”

Veena: “Yeah, it’s kind of shocking to hear the different things that have happened, because they’ve never happened to me.”

Daisy: “It doesn’t surprise me, because all of it stems from the same lack of understanding. If you don’t know and understand who these new people are you go to stereotypes . . . When we talk about different races we forget that they’re all just people. I remember someone asking, ‘So what’s it like living in a house now as opposed to mud huts?’ I could have flipped out . . . but she’d never met a black person.

I think there are different kinds of racism. A lot of racism isn’t malicious and isn’t intended to hurt or make you feel like an outsider. Everyone has a capacity to be racist if they don’t stop themselves, and the bulk of it is about ignorance. People think that only crazy American rednecks are racist; that I can’t be racist because I’m a nice middle-class person. I think if we categorise racism as this evil horrible word that’s only for bad people nobody will really engage with the idea of racism and talk about it.”

The effects of racism

Hailuu: “It’s like being in jail and you have to eat slop or something . . . It’s f***ed up, man. It’s not nice and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. It’s really dehumanising. The worst thing is you have to explain it after it happens to other people close to you.”

Lee: “It’s embarrassing.”

Nally: “It still shocks me. I’ve been here 12 years, and some days I feel so much a part of Ireland and other days I feel like the elephant in the room. I could be sitting in a room full of Irish blond, blue-eyed people and I’m not thinking about the fact I’m the only dark-haired tan person. But if somebody points it out I immediately think, Oh my God I’m so different; I’ve got to get out now before I’m noticed.”