The house at the centre of the Ballyshannon controversy was burned down
ANTI-racism campaigners have targed this weekend’s Fianna Fáil’s Ard Fheis over comments made by Cllr Sean McEniff about travellers – in the wake of the rural home row earlier this year.
Cllr McEniff had hit out at the county council for allocating a €220,000 home to a Traveller family near Ballyshannon. The house was subsequently burned down in an arson attack.
The Irish Network Against Racism (INAR) today called for the party to take action against Fianna Fáil representatives who “use racist language for political gain.”
INAR – comprising over 50 voluntary, community and grassroots groups throughout Ireland – will have a presence outside the Ard Fheis at the RDS throughout tomorrow, urging Fianna Fáil to follow through on the promise it made by signing up to the Anti-Racist Protocol in 2011.
Shane O’Curry, Director of INAR, said “Calls for segregation of Travellers and a nativist ‘Irish-first’ policy for social housing are utterly outrageous and tantamount to incitement to hatred. They have no place in Irish political life.
“Micheál Martin’s insistence on making excuses for hate speech gives license to party representatives to peddle racist myths and deliberately set communities against each other. Fianna Fáil is touting its new “Fairer Way”, but there’s nothing fair about attacking vulnerable groups in order to score cheap political points,” Mr O’Curry continued.
The European Network Against Racism, in Dublin as part of the EU Presidency, warned of the rise of organised racist violence in Europe and the dangers of Irish political parties allowing racist rhetoric to go unchecked.
Mr O’Curry concluded, “As our European partners in ENAR remind us, it is standard practice across Europe, even for more conservative political parties, to expel members who express racist views. In the UK, Tory MP John Cherry was swiftly forced to resign last week after making racist remarks. Why doesn’t Fianna Fáil hold its representatives to the same basic standards of decency?”