Sir, - In Aine McCarthy's piece "No racism here please, we re Irish" (April 2nd) we have yet another article which fails to address the question of racism in Ireland. The whole premise of the article linking immigration with racism is a very flawed road to go down. Racism is both structural and ideological. The Irish have shown themselves to be racist both at home and abroad for many years. There is an underlying assumption that by virtue of being Irish that we aren't racist.
Yet as a white western society we cannot have escaped the legacy of ethnocentrism and colonisation and all the inherent racist attitudes and practices that go with that legacy. Institutionalised racism has resulted in inappropriate policies for Travellers. The denial of racism as an issue in Ireland is apparent in the fact that successive governments have failed to enact the necessary domestic legislation to enable Ireland to ratify the UN International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
As an anti racist organisation Harmony welcomes the proposed Employment Equality Bill (1996) and the Equal Status Bill (1997) as a public statement of policy. However legislation alone won't change attitudes and a process of awareness raising of the issue racism must also be implemented. The argument of Dr Mary Corcoran that "the reason violent racist attacks and murders of the kind happening in England, France and Germany have not happened here is probably that immigrants are not as yet arriving in numbers significant enough to pose a threat" again focuses on immigrants as the cause of racism and goes back to numbers. For each person experiencing racism, numbers are not the main issue, what is relevant is their experience and the lack of a network of support including legislative redress. It would be perhaps be more beneficial to extend the public debate to why the Irish deny their racism and are reluctant to apply the same civil liberties to Ireland that we are so concerned with being applied abroad. 1997 is the designated European Year Against Racism, it is an opportunity to address the issue of racism at a national and international level and to make Ireland a better place for all.
The subtitle of the article: "Racism is expected to become more of an issue here as immigration increases" is a common misconception. Immigrants do not cause racism, rather they present an opportunity for the racism present at individual, institutional and cultural levels to manifest itself. - Yours, etc.,
Harmony,
Morehampton Road,
Dublin 4.