AS The Irish Voice goes to press the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) is preparing to scrutinise governments of the UK—including the Scottish Government—and assessing their compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination.
Following submissions made to the international body the UN has published on the committee’s website the views of those involved in anti-racism initiatives in Scotland as well as groups representing the interests of the Irish community in Scotland.
The Irish Voice was delighted to offer a submission alongside colleagues such as those from Call It Out, and the publication of these submissions by the UN, detailing the issues surrounding anti-Irish racism and the approach of public authorities both in Scotland and the UK more generally to the deep-rooted problem, is itself a major recognition of the issue.
“The Irish Voice newspaper has been publishing in Scotland for 11 years and throughout that time has received countless reports from within the Irish communities of incidents and issues which do not receive consideration by the public authorities in Scotland,” our submission, now published by the UN, said. “It is our considered opinion, based on these many interactions, that the position of the Irish community leaves its members unable to enjoy the rights and protections to which all people are entitled.
“Though suffering disproportionately as victims of hate crimes, the conflation between Catholic and Irish identities means that the Irish community is not identified as the victims of these crimes, with statistics recording that 47 per cent of all victims of religiously aggravated hate crimes in the reporting period of 2021/2022 were Catholic. Within the Irish community, however, there is a clear understanding that the motivation for these crimes is the Irish identity of the victim as much as it is the Catholic faith with which that identity is often conflated.
“Scotland has for many decades pursued a sectarianism agenda. This approach pulls the Irish community—the victims of hate crime and intolerance—into a false binary, regarding them equally as victims of racism, intolerance and hate and as participants in those offences.
“The Irish community, while not denying that those of an ethnically Scottish identity and nominally Protestant faith may encounter intolerance, utterly rejects the approach led by the Scottish Government, public authorities and publicly funded organisations.”
Experience and understanding
Call It Out, in their published submission, also drew attention to the difference between the lived experience of the Irish in Scotland and the understanding of the issues we face from government.
“The multi-generational Irish community in Scotland, like all other communities, are not a homogenous block,” the campaign against anti-Irish racism and anti-Catholic bigotry said. “However, there are key cultural, social, political, faith and sporting organisations around which the community congregates and identifies. Organisations like the Gaelic Athletic Association (sport), Conrad Na Gaeilge (language), Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann (music), St Patrick’s Festivals, An Gorta Mór Commemoration Committee, Cairde Na Éireann and Celtic fans groups with strong records of anti-Racist activism.
“Some of these community organisations have been active in our community in Scotland since our community arrived as refugees due to an enforced starvation in Ireland. There are multiple generations of families, oral history, experience and relationships with the state and power that have informed our lives.
“There is a unanimous agreement within and between these groups for decades that anti-Irish racism has existed in Scotland, they have experienced it directly and that we should draw attention of CERD to the very specific issues of anti-Irish racism and anti-Catholic bigotry and the intersectionality between them.”
Action
Following their assessment, CERD will offer feedback to the Scottish Government and highlight areas which require action, and while the extensive issues around racism and discrimination will ensure the needs of various communities in Scotland are addressed, there is hope within the Irish community that the calls made by Call It Out and others will bear fruit when CERD interact with the Scottish Government.
“The Irish Community call on CERD to remind the Scottish Government of the specific institutionalised and structural nature of anti-Catholicism and anti-Irish racism in Scotland that is clearly identifiable in our communities continual experience of socio/economic disadvantage,” Call It Out's published statement said. “[...And] to recognise the Scottish specific issues of poverty, health and criminal justice inequalities faced by the Irish Catholic community clearly evidenced in independent academic and institutional research. In addition that to deal with these societal problems our community must be independently engaged and spoken to as with any other community in the creation and implementation of law and policy which directly affects our community.”
In our submission, The Irish Voice also called on CERD to raise these issues with the Scottish Government, relying on its experience and standing in this area to make clear for the Scottish Government something which they have studiously ignored.
“It is clear in the experience of the Irish community in Scotland that such efforts have done nothing to alleviate the pressures of intolerance and racism that the Irish in Scotland face and that—given the resources, financial and otherwise, which have been devoted to these misguided efforts—their failure itself serves as a proof that the issues facing the Irish community in Scotland cannot be addressed by the approach which Scottish society insists upon taking,” we wrote. “It is the reasonable expectation of our community that serious and honest efforts should be undertaken to deliver to the Irish community of Scotland the same legal protections and public recognition that all such communities deserve.
“We call on CERD to reinforce for the Scottish Government that the dignity of some of its citizens is not being respected, and that the Irish community not only exists, but is deserving of the same respect as the other ethnic and national identities which add to Scottish society; to clarify the obligations of the Scottish Government to the Irish in Scotland; to challenge the false binary which is created by forcing the issues of the Irish community in Scotland into the sectarianism narrative, which has not only led to decades of wasted resource but also actively hinders the attempts of honest actors to deliver change, and to articulate the depth of the issues facing the Irish community in Scotland, issues which encompass health, housing, imprisonment, employment and victimhood from hate crime, amongst other difficulties.”
Our edition next month will feature more extensive coverage of the findings of the committee.
PIC: SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT
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