Vote No to the Racist Citizenship Referendum due on June 11 2004 –

national | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Monday March 29, 2004 01:01 by John Meehan

Residents Against Racism organised a founding campaign meeting on Saturday March 27 2004 in the ATGWU Hall, Middle Abbey Street, Dublin.

Over one hundred people attended a lively meeting that lasted almost three hours.

This is a personal report by John Meehan. Others who attended might like to add their own comments and news, and correct any factual inaccuracies that have slipped in here.

Vote No to the Racist Citizenship Referendum due on June 11 2004 –
Campaign Against the Racist Referendum (CARR) is founded.

Residents Against Racism organised a founding campaign meeting on Saturday March 27 2004 in the ATGWU Hall, Middle Abbey Street, Dublin.

Over one hundred people attended a lively meeting that lasted almost three hours.

This is a personal report by John Meehan. Others who attended might like to add their own comments and news, and correct any factual inaccuracies that have slipped in here.

The campaign will circulate further information about activities, meetings, and so on in the next few days.

Minister for Justice Michael McDowell will soon publish a suggested amendment to the Irish Constitution. The Fianna Fáil/Progressive Democrat Government will propose a bill to the Dáil to facilitate the holding of a referendum – almost certainly on June 11 next, coinciding with elections to Local Government bodies and the European Parliament.

That means we have ten weeks to organise an effective statewide campaign against the measure.

Fine Gael Justice spokesperson John Deasy has expressed his personal support for the measure; media reports suggest that the party leader Enda Kenny shares this point of view. Maybe not all Fine Gael representatives and supporters will endorse McDowell’s proposal – time will tell.

Dáil opposition may be confined to The Labour Party, Sinn Féin, the Greens, the Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins and other independent deputies in Dublin : Finian McGrath and Tony Gregory.

Perhaps they will be joined by some other independent deputies – opponents of the referendum living in counties represented by, for example : Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim), Jerry Cowley (Mayo), Paudge Connolly (Cavan-Monaghan), Liam Twomey (Wexford) – might consider contacting these deputies.

On behalf of Residents Against Racism (RAR), Aindrias Ó Cathasaigh welcomed everyone to the meeting and chaired proceedings.

He stressed that the June 11 date means we have only ten weeks. RAR’s suggested the name Campaign Against the Racist Referendum (CARR) – but it was open to the meeting to come up with alternatives or propose amendments.

RAR offered its phone number and some other facilities. RAR proposed that the campaign meet on a weekly basis in Dublin, and agree a regular time and place.

He stressed fund-raising was an important priority, and that it was possible to defeat McDowell’s proposal. The attendance today showed we were starting from a very good basis.

Aindrias introduced Ian Brown-Hovelt, who analysed the legal and political background of the proposal – a discussion followed; then we broke into smaller issue based groups, and recovened to make a number of decisions.


Ian Brown-Hovelt pointed out that, up until recently, the Irish state did not have an immigration policy. Huge numbers of Irish people have been emigrating for decades. In the last 15 years or so, that has changed.

The Irish State has copied measures from other EU countries.

Michael McDowell has stirred things up by talking of 'citizen tourism', “massive inflows” of non-nationals to maternity hospitals, and a situation “snowballing out of control”.

When people are described as “Non National” it is assumed you are black, or from a deprived third world country. This is wrong.

Ian himself is a “Non-National” – he’s a British citizen living and working in Ireland for many years. He has the “insurance policy” of possible Irish citizenship because parents and grandparents were Irish.

We need accurate information, but we do not get it from government or state sources.

For example how many non nationals, and from which countries, are having babies here? We do not know.

Mary Raftery, writing in the Irish Times (March 18) discussed thee same point :

“Take the Coombe Hospital, for example. The increase in non-national births was just two per cent. As with the other Dublin hospitals, a major portion of foreign mothers were living and working in Ireland entirely legally, with many from Britain and other European Union countries, and the US”.

McDowell is proposing a change to Article 9 of the constitution, so that the Oireachtas can remove the automatic right of citizenship from non-nationals born on the island of Ireland whose parents lived here for less than 3-5 years.

Fianna Fáil research has shown that voters rate Immigration 17% higher than health as a priority issue now. That is a factor encouraging the Minister to proceed with this amendment.

Several people then contributed to a lively discussion.

Points Raised included :

Daithí Doolan of Sinn Féin confirmed that his party is opposed to this amendment. He stressed the need for the campaign to broaden out to trade unions Community Groups and so on. Sinn Féin believes this should be tackled on an All Ireland basis, and the measure constitutes an "attack on Good Friday Agreement".

Pádraigín Drinan from Belfast asked if there were implications for Irish citizens born in the six counties – Ian Brown-Hovelt felt this was unlikely to be included (but, of course, we await McDowell’s wording).

Tom O'Connor suggested quoting and referring to an NCCRI “Protocol” against racism during the campaign.

Rosanna Flynn noted the Government argument that we are “only” bringing the Irish state into line with Europe. There are plenty of other international examples : for example, Canada, the USA and New Zealand – that grant the same or similar rights of citizenship as exist today in the Irish Constitution.

Dónal Mac an Earraigh of the Socialist Workers’ Party (SWP) expressed his party’s support for the campaign, and congratulated RAR for organising the meeting.

He argued that parties such as Fine Gael and the Unionists in the North, were exploiting people’s fears on the “race” issue. It was important that the campaign produce literature exposing myths circulated by the state.

He reported that Another Europe is Possible (AEIP) is building an Anti Racist Carnival for May 1 next, and we should support this initiative.

A speaker from the Latin American Solidarity Campaign (LASC) stressed that black people are not the only targets – people from many different third world and poorer countries in Europe will suffer if this proposal is passed.

Ireland needs immigrants, who should have a right to work legally, have the same legal social and welfare rights as Irish citizens, and so on.

We must work at different levels.

Joe Kelly argued this was not just about racism it should be put in the context of Civil Rights. We must be willing to work in a broad based way, if we want to win. William Binchy, for example, has come out against the proposal.

Dermot Connolly noted that the focus has shifted for many people. Many non-national people working for much lower wages – many Irish workers are confused about this.

Elections taking place on the same day as the referendum need not be a problem; we should try to get a large layer of candidates to oppose the measure. Parties can be asked to include CARR literature and material with their own manifestoes.

A speaker from Galway asked how did so many illegal Irish get into the USA, and what was the policy of Irish politicians?

Mary Muldowney explained that no legal route could stop this proposal - It will go through the Dáil. We need to get the facts out. Research, resources, a premises – all these things will be needed. We need a platform all can agree with. We need to develop a media strategy.
Political Parties should make this part of their manifestos.

Alice Higgins suggested that people consult an information leaflet produced by Comhlámh – it shows that the Government gets more money from people coming into Ireland than it spends on them.

Ciarán Cuffe TD from the Green Party expressed his party’s support for the campaign; he reassured everyone that the Green Party will attack Fine Gael for giving support to McDowell on this issue.


People with experience in the advertising/media world stressed the need to get across a key point - and find the simplest way to express it. We can make this message very strong and emotional.

Paul Dillon, President of the University College Dublin Students’ Union suggested staging a large public meeting in Dublin. Students could help make the campaign stronger in different parts of The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) is against the referendum.

It was suggested that political parties be asked to affiliate and pay €200.

Brendan Young argued the referendum was definitely racist – we need equal rights. This is a "Fuck off and Die" Referendum. Objectively, that is what it’s about. All children have the same rights.

Shannon Brook Murphy works in the office of Sinn Féin TD Aengus O Snodaigh. She worked for many years in Toronto. Experience there showed that state racist measures open the vacuum – it creates a space for right wing and racist parties to operate and organize. We need a Cross Party opposition to this measure.

Sinéad Kennedy drew attention to the successful pro-choice campaign against the Government constitutional amendment in March 2002. The Alliance for a No Vote produced a mass leaflet giving voters 5 reasons to Vote No.

The meeting broke up into 4 sections discussing Outreach, Fund Raising, Media and a Leaflet.

These will be followed up during the next few days – the next full meeting of the campaign will take place next Saturday, April 2 @ 3.00pm – venue will be announced in the next day or two.

After a short discussion, it was agreed to establish the campaign. Some people wanted to leave the adjective “racist” out of the campaign name. On a show of hands, a clear majority opted for :

Campaign Against the Racist Referendum.

John Meehan, 28 March 2004