Letters to the Editor: Protests show we are not learning the lessons from our local past

(Meath Chronicle)

Dear Sir - In light of recent events I ask people to cast their minds back to the year 1938 and the constituency of Meath East. The similarities to the recent protest about Ukrainian migrants are uncanny. The migrants then were not, however, Ukrainian, they were Irish.

The West of Ireland was a poor place when the Free State came into being. An early social initiative involved the purchase of land from wealthy British landlords by the Land Commission, typically in places like Meath, and the resettlement of families from impoverished small farms from the western seaboard, many but not all of Gaeltacht origin.

The migrants made this journey in the face of fierce and, at times, vitriolic opposition. Slogans painted on roads and rooftops proclaimed: “No migrants here”, “Meath land for Meath men”, and “Migrants not welcome”. Shots were fired through windows in the Gaeltacht of Rathcairn.

The rhetoric used in the protests today is very similar to that used by Capt. Patrick Giles a Fine Gael TD who was vociferous in his condemnation of the scheme. Among his various outbursts he stated that disgraceful things had been happening since the establishment of the Gaeltacht with members of the colony acting like tinkers and tramps. He called for more Garda patrols in the vicinity to protect the lives of local residents.

On November 2nd 1936 The Irish Press reported that Giles had accused the migrants of being ‘fish out of water’, he stated that they had the best land in Meath yet they were to be found at the labour exchange every day.

He further accused the scheme of being little to do with the spread of the Irish language and more to do with ensuring an increase in the Fianna Fáil vote in the area.

The similarities to the rhetoric of today are uncanny and unsettling; it is designed to instill fear in local communities.

My own father a migrant himself from Mayo used to talk about the regular weekend brawls between young men from the two camps. One would wish that this example from the 1930s of a cold and hostile reception for strangers was an exception, but sadly this is not the case.

In the last few months we have seen a hardening of racist attitudes in the community, with protests organised by so called citizen journalists, coupled with counterfeit patriots draped in our national flag.

The rhetoric is the same, only the targets have changed. Two of the new players in Irish politics are the National Party and the Irish Freedom Party. Despite their names they are not republican or nationalist in any traditional sense and are funded and supported by the British far right. They constitute a poorly organised, highly fractured group almost entirely lacking in effective leadership.

In recent years they have fruitlessly endeavoured to weaponise populist sentiment about a variety of issues, most notably the pandemic and now the homeless.

But thus far they have failed to translate any such populist feelings into a viable political movement.

In light of the above, how can we explain the recent upsurge in street activism in several parts of Ireland, often directed at the very community which was warmly welcomed here as recently as last February, the people from Ukraine, who fled in their millions to escape war?

The sheer numbers involved and the rapidity of their arrival from a country at war has inevitably required an urgent scramble to provide a range of services as well as housing, often in less than satisfactory circumstances, as local authorities and government agencies countrywide struggle to cope.

There is no doubt that mistakes have been made, both in the failure to provide a joined-up, whole-of-government approach and in the messaging which should accompany it.

The vast majority of people are not opposed to Ukrainian refugees or others seeking refuge. That view is only to be found among a tiny minority of xenophobes, masquerading as ‘housing activists’, falsely claiming to have the broader interests of the community at heart while spreading the vilest forms of hate, racism, homophobia, and misogyny online.

What we do need is better information processes, we do need clearer messaging, and we do need a much more serious approach to integration and inclusion. We also need a long-term approach to community development infrastructural planning, and housing which is our biggest current crisis and has been long before the Russian Ukrainian war started.

Yours

Stephen McGowan.

Carlanstown

Kells,