Tag: Ireland

Racism and citizenship

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Ronit Lentin

citizenshipRacism is in the news again in Ireland. Not only has the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) uncovered a high incidence of racism against migrants and people of colour, racism has also been reported widely in the Irish media and – importantly – was highlighted by Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence Alan Shatter in his speech welcoming new citizens last week. ‘The history of this State is now your history and the narrative of your life is now part of our history’ said the Minister to his delighted audience, and I wondered how a person can acquire another people’s history.

Racism, according to the Minister, is ‘attitudes based on hatred and ignorance’ which ‘have no place in our society’, rather a system of categorisation and discrimination. As the seasoned politician he is, Shatter told his captive audience, some of whom, according to The Irish Times, shouted with joy at their newly bestowed citizenship (the cost of which, as I have written here before, is the highest in the Western world; but why be petty?), about his work on a European level to highlight and combat racism. He did this, he said, ‘because failure to live up to the values of the EU in one part of Europe is something that affects all of us’. As if (fortress) Europe itself is not based on systemic racism. Continue reading “Racism and citizenship”

Patrick Guerin – Death of an anti-racist

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Ronit Lentin

pat-guerinIt was with great shock and sadness that we heard of Patrick Guerin’s sudden death last week. Above all, Pat was known to his friends and many others as a dedicated anti-racist. I first met Pat in 1998 when he enrolled in the MPhil in Ethnic and Racial Studies of which I was the coordinator for the first 15 years. He was challenging, original, and knowledgeable, bringing anti-racism into the classroom and was always keeping me on my toes – a true pleasure to teach. His MPhil dissertation was a set of life narratives of Irish anti-racism activists, but he managed to lose his computer file and to my great regret, never deposited the bound dissertation in the Department of Sociology, thus it is not available for consultation.

Teaching at Masters level means that some of your students and graduates become friends – Pat was certainly a friend. In 1999 he suggested we run a seminar in Trinity, titled ‘Emerging Irish identities’. Though I am a critic of the concept of identity, the seminar was a great success. It was organised jointly by us and by the National Federation of Campaigns against Racism, which, Pat wrote, was formed in March 1999, inviting affiliations from all open, democratic and non-party political groups campaigning against racism. Consisting of eleven groups, the NFCAR supported the right of immigrants to seek meaningful well paid employment; opposed the scapegoating of immigrants for the deficiencies of the Celtic Tiger and the deportation of what was then called ‘non-nationals’; opposed the discrimination against all ethnic minorities including Travellers and supported free movement for all. Concerned about the anti-immigrant hysteria, Pat linked this to his critique of Irish identity as overtly nationalistic, suggesting that ‘emerging Irish identities’ are anything but nationalistic or closed. His interest in anti-immigrant discourses was developed in a chapter he wrote for Racism and Antiracism in Ireland, which I edited with Robbie McVeigh, and which dealt with anti-refugee media discourses in the early 2000s. He developed his writing and editing skills in Asyland, a journal he edited for the Irish Refugee Council for which he worked as an outreach worker. Continue reading “Patrick Guerin – Death of an anti-racist”

Childcare in Ireland – has anything changed?

Ronit Lentin

toddlercrying_largeFollowing the screening, on Tuesday 28 May 2013, of RTE’s investigative programme ‘Breach of Trust’, which raised serious concerns about the standards of childcare in Ireland, based on evidence gathered from HSE Inspection reports, internal HSE documentation and undercover filming in three crèches, people in Ireland felt shock and horror. Staff were shoving toddlers to sleep, forcing them to eat, leaving babies to cry for long periods, strapping children to their chairs for up to two hours… The programme that demonstrated that standards in three crèches were in breach of HSE regulations and childcare guidelines, was followed by an investigation by the Health Services Executive and the Garda, upon complaints by parents about the mistreatment of their young children.

I went back to Who’s Minding the Children?, a book I co-wrote with Geraldine Niland (and Stella McMahon on Northern Ireland), published by Attic Press in 1980.  Many of the issues highlighted by RTE were covered in our 1980 book. Here I quote from the final chapter, ‘The future and what needs to be done’ to demonstrate that while our demand to introduce day care has been met, largely by private operators, some things have not changed in relation to childcare in Ireland, a country obsessed with protecting unborn children, but apparently less concerned with children after they are born. Some things have changed, of course. In 1980 crèches were few and far between, today there  clearly is  a wide supply; our demand for a Department for Children has been met; finally, today I would not insist that childcare is a women’s issue – it’s clearly a parents’ issue. However, some things have not changed, particularly in relation to standards, training, inspection, and fair wages to staff; and reading the 1980 conclusion is interesting : Continue reading “Childcare in Ireland – has anything changed?”