anti racism rally snubbed by media

national | miscellaneous | news report Thursday February 14, 2002 18:47 by ciara o' connor ciaraoc_ at hotmail dot com 087 2315536

globalise resistance disapointed by media blackout

This article highlights the anti racism rally in dublin recently and how it is a backlash against racist attacks, verbal and ohysical, in recent times. It also attacks the media for blacklisting the rally despite a huge turnout of 600 people. It is a decent cause and was simply ignored.

Following the murder of Chinese student last week in North Dublin, over 600 people took to the streets in an Anti-Racism march designed to raise awareness of the plight of ethnic minorities in Ireland.

People from the Chinese and Irish communities assembled at the GPO on Saturday, including representatives of Amnesty International and the Association of Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Ireland.

The brutal murder of Chinese student, Zhao Liu Tao, led many leading figures including representatives from trade union MANDATE, and President of the Dublin Trades Council to come forward to speak at the march.

Joe Carolan from Globalise Resistance said "People are genuinely sickened by this racist murder and want to see immigrants welcomed in this country." Carolan had predicted "hundreds of Chinese and Irish will unite and show that these bigots are a minority in Irish society… if the government keeps whipping up racism, we will see more racist murders."

The objective of the march was to display to the Government and to racists that immigrants are welcome in this country.

Despite a huge turnout and a GR press release sent generally around the media, there was no media presence at the rally. It was the first racist murder in the country and clearly matters to people, particularly the Chinese community living in Ireland.

I wrote an article about the rally and submitted it into the Independent (I am a freelance journalist) and it was entirely ignored. I doubt if the editors must sleep much at night.
This march was crucial in promoting racial awareness and equality. The support given was vital but it needs to be documented and displayed to the rest of the country.

This march comes at a time when verbal and physical attacks upon non-nationals are becoming increasingly violent.

Cavan Councillor Seamus Fitzpatrick, at a in meeting in Belturbet last week, jumped on the racism bandwagon when he said some areas in the town will have to be renamed "Bucharest Heights."

He claimed the refugees were breaking into houses in the area. "They are a law unto themselves and they do as they like. When the Gardai arrive there is a communication problem, and they play innocent."

The irate councillor Fitzpatrick went so far as to say "they are not welcome in this town." He claims it is not a racist attack, but that he was, in fact, speaking on behalf of the people in the town.

He claimed that the refugees had been out "begging at funerals," despite him having spotted one of them driving around in a ?30,000, 02 registered car.

These remarks show people like Cork TD Noel O'Flynn are not alone in their racist slurs against immigrants.

It is clear from Saturday's march that there are many people who think that this sort of public outrage is very destructive to people's attitudes towards refugees and immigrants.

In an Irish Independent article, 4 Feb 2002 Justice Minister John O Donaghue said he did not believe racism was rampant in Ireland. He believed the death of Zhao Liu Tao to be "a very isolated incident."

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has also distanced his party and his government from comments made by Noel O'Flynn.