Archbishop of Dublin Dermot Farrell urges public to report any racist attacks they see

Vivienne Clarke

The Catholic archbishop of Dublin, Dermot Farrell, has issued a message of support to the Indian community in Ireland.

“Many of these members of the community have been invited here to Ireland to work in our essential services. They're very much integrated into our society,” he told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.

“The other message I want to convey is that the community in which they live also need to support the gardaí in terms of dealing with this matter because I assume it's a small cohort of people who are making life exceedingly difficult for them when they go out into the public domain.

“There are people who know these people who are doing this, and what we need to do is to come and talk to the gardaí and identify them, and actually call them out, so that they can be prosecuted. There's no place for this behaviour in our society, where people are attacked on the public streets simply because of their skin colour," Archbishop Farrell said.

"When you think about it, I've been in and out of hospitals and nursing homes on a regular basis. I meet many, many members of this community who are looking after our loved ones, our sick relatives, and are recognised as being exceptionally good in the roles that they do. So we need to support them.

“We have some Syro Malabar priests here in the city of Dublin, who are priests working in the Irish Diocese, and I had a meeting with them last week. And they specifically mentioned this to me about the attacks that were happening in the city, and in particular parts of the city. So I was aware of them from that point of view."

He also said he has asked people if they experience racial hatred, and that they say yes.

“Anecdotally, you'd meet people, because sometimes I ask people, do they experience racial hatred? And sometimes, yes, they say they do, particularly when they're on the street. But not all with violence, of course. You know, there's people spitting at them, people shouting at them. People shouting them on buses, you know, this sort of behaviour is just completely and utterly unacceptable. And as a community, we need to deal with it as well, as the guards can't deal with this just on their own; they need community support.

“They're writing to all of our parishes and parish councils, they're asking them to support the community and to help with them, help them particularly through this difficult time. They also intend to write to the schools, you know, when they open now in a couple of weeks' time – because I think schools are a good place to bring about the integration of the different communities in our country, and they're doing a good job of that, but just to encourage them to continue along that line and to name what's actually happening by some elements in our society.”