So we have become xenophobics now

2lazytogetup

One of the things i was proud of in ireland was there was no far right groups.

But looks like we are are xenophobic as the rest of them:

https://www.rte.ie/news/connacht/2019/1031/1087856-achill-asylum-seekers/

Those protestors should hang their heads in shame.

im a bit disappointed the department of justice is bowing to pressure.

Samuel T. Cogley

Cant help but read the title with adding father on the end of it.

timmyntc

It's not xenophobia to be opposed to badly thought out plans - dumping asylum seekers in a remote area like Achill Island with feck all services, public transport or employment prospects hardly makes sense does it?

Put asylum seekers in high density buildings in or near cities - at least there there are some amenities for them.

2011abc

This isn’t anti - ‘foreigner’ it’s anti -direct provision .Housing ANYONE in cramped bedrooms in hotels when there are so many houses empty is unacceptable .The only winners are Hotel
Owners and fast food providers .There are hardly any staff even ,in the god forsaken places .
Of course this is being twisted by media .
And there are hundreds of empty houses ON ACHILL ISLAND ?!

Faith+1

2lazytogetup wrote: »

One of the things i was proud of in ireland was there was no far right groups.

But looks like we are are xenophobic as the rest of them:

https://www.rte.ie/news/connacht/2019/1031/1087856-achill-asylum-seekers/

Those protestors should hang their heads in shame.

im a bit disappointed the department of justice is bowing to pressure.

You can lead by example and ring the Dept of Justice and tell them how many you're taking in.

wakka12

I despise when media refer to collective 'we' as becoming more racist or prejudiced. Im not becoming more racist, whatever group is in question in Achill ,may be.I would also say youre trivialising what is probably a much more complex issue than you recongnise if you think the only reason people might be apprehensive about something like this is because they are racist. 'We' Irish are not becoming more racist, and most irish people are not racist, at all. Despite some irish people wishing with all their hearts that more irish people were racist so they would have justification give out about it all day online

Bobblehats

Hey mama we’re all racist now

suicide_circus

They took the roads in!

s7ryf3925pivug

I think the attack on the TD for speaking in support of asylum seekers probably qualifies. Dunno about the Achill Island thing.

Plumbthedepths

'Heard you're a racist now Father'.

biko

2lazytogetup wrote: »

Those protestors should hang their heads in shame.

Pledge a bed OP
Take personal responsibility instead of trying to shame people you know nothing about.

topper75

The majority of people who have moved to Ireland from abroad have been decent. Thankfully. I hope that continues.

But there have been notable exceptions, some of them high profile such as ISIS fundraisers. Local papers around Ireland have covered court stories on individuals who are definitely not here to 'enrich' us in any respect. National papers tend to be more suppressive on this side of immigration. Are we really going to blame Irish people about caution in that respect?

Small tight-knit communities are being instructed to take a leap into the dark with no end to the downside and not much offered by way of an upside. I don't think it is helping anyone's cause to attempt to hyperbolically link that natural caution with far-right nazism.

In a few cases recently the attempted impositions were ludicrously disproportionate to the size of the towns.

pgj2015

I honestly do think that the issue of lack of services is just an excuse to keep the foreigners out, I have seen it in small towns in the west of Ireland, a family moves in from Dublin and the locals wont even talk to them because they are Dubs, what chance do foreigners have?

TheValeyard

Plumbthedepths wrote: »

'Heard you're a racist now Father'.

Should we all be racist now? What's the Church's position? I'm so busy down on the farm I won't have much time for the ol' racism.

Cordell

So, while going through some estate in Galway (pretty much) the only people I've heard speaking English were black. I can understand the locals being unsettled by things like that and wanting less of it, even I being an immigrant myself was a bit surprised by it. Race and skin color has nothing to do with it, just some people will not like or accept this kind of change. Their opinion is just as valid as anyone's else.

So, "what chance do foreigners have?" - no one should be forced to accept or embrace them. It either happens or it doesn't.

suicide_circus

Much like the Japanese, Achill Islanders seek to preserve their unique and delicate cultural ecosystem

Antares35

"Achill is very welcoming"... if you're a paying American tourist we can suck up to.

Bobblehats

pgj2015 wrote: »

a family moves in from Dublin and the locals wont even talk to them because they are Dubs, what chance do foreigners have?

Sub-zero?

silverharp

pgj2015 wrote: »

I honestly do think that the issue of lack of services is just an excuse to keep the foreigners out, I have seen it in small towns in the west of Ireland, a family moves in from Dublin and the locals wont even talk to them because they are Dubs, what chance do foreigners have?

Foreigners aren't Dubs though , evidence would suggest most fit in grand if they genuinely try to fit into and contribute to the community. Helicoptering in a relatively large group on a temporary basis is not really an asset for the local community

Jimmy Rabbitte:
The Irish are the blacks of Europe. And Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland. And the Northside Dubliners are the blacks of Dublin. So say it once and say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud.

blueshade

It's hugely worrying to read the words of a FF spokesman saying that Ireland should be accepting economic migrants. Why? We have 10,000 homeless on housing lists, a shortage of hospital beds, the guts of a million people waiting to see a Consultant, people are having to give the government a percentage of the sale of their homes to pay for accomodation in Care Homes yet these gob****es think we should be letting in anyone who shows up here.

We have borders for a reason. Europe's lax border controls have made it easy for modern slavery to make a comeback in the 21st century. These people aren't working for the interests of the Irish public, they're working on their CV for their future careers in Brussels and the UN. Ireland isn't racist or xenophobic, people just aren't taking this crap lying down anymore. Genuine refugees have always been welcome, until it's safe to go home. Bogus economic migrants should be booted out on the first flight home.

Bobblehats

silverharp wrote: »

Foreigners aren't Dubs though , evidence would suggest most fit in grand if they genuinely try to fit into and contribute to the community.

That’s reverse basket casism

LillySV

Faith+1 wrote: »

You can lead by example and ring the Dept of Justice and tell them how many you're taking in.

And suggest that their prospect of employment is far greater in the wealthier south side of Dublin ...

I’d doubt a lot of our top tds/ministers and business men living there would mind...

Deebles McBeebles

I stayed in that hotel once. Good auld spot. Thats it.

Wibbs

I'd be fairly "right wing" on this, well in the sense that I consider modern multiculturalism to be a failure. It does few people any good, much less those that aren't of the indigenous population. So no, I don't want Ireland to be going down the same bloody stupid road of every other European nation's multiculturalist nonsense.

Mad_maxx

I oppose the current policy of population transfer but believe Irish people ( and EU citizens) should contribute more to both the development of Africa and safe zones for genuine refugees

The current policy helps nobody bar career building NGO hacks

We have no obligation to want multiculturalism, none

jimgoose

Oh for the luvva Jaysis - no, we are not "xenophobic". There is, however, a good chance that anyone who thinks housing asylum seekers in a hotel on Achill Island is a blithering idiot.

Mad_maxx

blueshade wrote: »

It's hugely worrying to read the words of a FF spokesman saying that Ireland should be accepting economic migrants. Why? We have 10,000 homeless on housing lists, a shortage of hospital beds, the guts of a million people waiting to see a Consultant, people are having to give the government a percentage of the sale of their homes to pay for accomodation in Care Homes yet these gob****es think we should be letting in anyone who shows up here.

We have borders for a reason. Europe's lax border controls have made it easy for modern slavery to make a comeback in the 21st century. These people aren't working for the interests of the Irish public, they're working on their CV for their future careers in Brussels and the UN. Ireland isn't racist or xenophobic, people just aren't taking this crap lying down anymore. Genuine refugees have always been welcome, until it's safe to go home. Bogus economic migrants should be booted out on the first flight home.

I made a decision three months ago not to pay the TV licence, we are bombarded with cultural Marxism daily on rte and the Irish media in general

They hold us in contempt

Mules

I just read an article about psychiatric patients having to sleep on hospital floors in Waterford... How in god's name can a health system this overstretched cope with any more increase in population. Immigration is massively increasing the population and we don't have the infrastructure to keep up. The population has grown by over 1 million in the last 20 years and has contributed to chaos in health and housing. Varadkar has already spoke about increasing the population by another million, it's madness.

Cordell

On this particular topic the system is the problem, not the population increase. Stopping the population increase will just hide the problems that needs to be fixed. Per capita healthcare spending in Ireland is higher than other countries that have stellar public healthcare systems.

Antares35

Mules wrote: »

I just read an article about psychiatric patients having to sleep on hospital floors in Waterford... How in god's name can a health system this overstretched cope with any more increase in population. Immigration is massively increasing the population and we don't have the infrastructure to keep up. The population has grown by over 1 million in the last 20 years and has contributed to chaos in health and housing. Varadkar has already spoke about increasing the population by another million, it's madness.

What himself? He will be busy so :pac:

Perhaps I am a cynic but I can't help but think all this weeping and nashing of teeth over "our own" is just a smokescreen to blot out the NIMBYism that is rife in Ireland, in back árse villages especially. Nobody really cares about mentally ill patients sleeping on floors until their plight can be used to refuse immigrants. And I am on the fence about the whole thing in terms of whether it should or should not be happening, but I wish people would have the decency to stand up and say "I don't want him here because he is not Irish" or whatever instead of bandying about some faux concern about social issues affecting Irish people that in truth they could not care less about.

Antares35

Mules wrote: »

I just read an article about psychiatric patients having to sleep on hospital floors in Waterford... How in god's name can a health system this overstretched cope with any more increase in population. Immigration is massively increasing the population and we don't have the infrastructure to keep up. The population has grown by over 1 million in the last 20 years and has contributed to chaos in health and housing. Varadkar has already spoke about increasing the population by another million, it's madness.

They could stop haemorrhaging money to middle management deadwood, but I guess that is a conversation for another day. We could double the money being pumped into the HSE - the system would still be shít.

Cordell

I wish people would have the decency to stand up and say "I don't want him here because he is not Irish"

Well, they can't do that anymore.

TheSegal

Achill Island, in particular the Achill head, is one of the most depressing places in existence during the Winter months with very few services. Could the 13 asylum seekers not be placed closer to Galway/Westport?

Mules

Antares35 wrote: »

What himself? He will be busy so :pac:

Perhaps I am a cynic but I can't help but think all this weeping and nashing of teeth over "our own" is just a smokescreen to blot out the NIMBYism that is rife in Ireland, in back árse villages especially. Nobody really cares about mentally ill patients sleeping on floors until their plight can be used to refuse immigrants. And I am on the fence about the whole thing in terms of whether it should or should not be happening, but I wish people would have the decency to stand up and say "I don't want him here because he is not Irish" or whatever instead of bandying about some faux concern about social issues affecting Irish people that in truth they could not care less about.

You mightn't care about psychiatric patients sleeping on hospital floors but I guarantee you that I do. Some people truly don't give a sh*t about social issues affecting Irish people but I'm not so removed from those conditions that I don't. "For the grace of God here go I" is true for more of us than you might think.

Antares35

Mules wrote: »

You mightn't care about psychiatric patients sleeping on hospital floors but I guarantee you that I do. Some people truly don't give a sh*t about social issues affecting Irish people but I'm not so removed from those conditions that I don't.

I think you missed my point.

Ready4Boarding

timmyntc wrote: »

It's not xenophobia to be opposed to badly thought out plans - dumping asylum seekers in a remote area like Achill Island with feck all services, public transport or employment prospects hardly makes sense does it?

Put asylum seekers in high density buildings in or near cities - at least there there are some amenities for them.

These people have discovered that any large development can be mischaracterised as badly planned, and are using it to deflect the charge of xenophobia.

Mules

Cordell wrote: »

On this particular topic the system is the problem, not the population increase. Stopping the population increase will just hide the problems that needs to be fixed. Per capita healthcare spending in Ireland is higher than other countries that have stellar public healthcare systems.

I agree there is structural problems with the health system. Having said that I had a look at stats in health expenditure when adjusted to amount per capita and we do spend less than Greece, Chile and various eastern European countries. At any rate population growth is exacerbating the problems in both health and housing. It's a massive factor in shortages in all public services. It's not the only factor but it's a problem.

Mules

Antares35 wrote: »

I think you missed my point.

I appear to have, can you clarify?

Graces7

You need to go back on the Mayo News website and read the whole saga. OK? OK ! Then come back with a balanced opinion.

As the local councillor has said over and over again; Achill welcomes immigrants but in families, in houses where they can be integrated fully into the community. Not dumped in numbers out of proportion to the local scene with no preparation or facilities for them

The Dpt admitted they had not even visited the place. They had not as they were duty and law bound to do even told HSE and informed the tiny local GP surgery that 30 men were arriving which was the original plan

it is the Dept who are zenophobic, treating immigrants like that.

2lazytogetup wrote: »

One of the things i was proud of in ireland was there was no far right groups.

But looks like we are are xenophobic as the rest of them:

https://www.rte.ie/news/connacht/2019/1031/1087856-achill-asylum-seekers/

Those protestors should hang their heads in shame.

im a bit disappointed the department of justice is bowing to pressure.

Bobblehats

Ready4Boarding wrote: »

These people have discovered that any large development can be mischaracterised as badly planned, and are using it to deflect the charge of xenophobia.

Yeah well I hope we develop some sense.

topper75

blueshade wrote: »

Genuine refugees have always been welcome, until it's safe to go home. Bogus economic migrants should be booted out on the first flight home.

What screwed all this up was permitting asylum 'shopping'; it became the norm for somebody to turn up at an Irish port or airport claiming to seeking refuge but having passed through many other places en route.

Historically we did our bit with Hungarians, Vietnamese, NI etc. Ireland's track record on this and its financial contributions to the developing world show us to be a people not all short on compassion.

If a reasonable share of unfortunates is brought to Ireland from some Godforsaken UN camp, that is legit. But rocking up as an asylum shopper makes it a joke, one that the Irish don't care for when their exchequer is run on tick. Genuine compassionate desire to improve the lot of our fellow travellers in this world and not being taken for a mug are not mutually exclusive.

Wibbs

Ready4Boarding wrote: »

These people have discovered that any large development can be mischaracterised as badly planned, and are using it to deflect the charge of xenophobia.

Personally I couldn't give two hoots if someone charges me with xenophobia, work away. Not if it means we don't go down the same idiotic route of every other example of the "multicultural" experiment in other European countries. We have enough social ills as it stands, we don't need to be importing more, just because politicians crow on about "diversity", when it will almost never impact them personally. Sod that. Sadly, I think it's too little too late and roll on a few years and we'll have the same social problems as others in Europe have. But it's not like we couldn't have seen this coming... :rolleyes:

JohnnyFlash

Extremely disappointing decision for the hotel owner.

beejee

Why try to put all these places in the most remote, isolated, structurally lacking areas in the country with tiny populations?

It's a good, positive thing, right?

Right?

Or is it a bad, negative thing, hence the people in charge want it as far, far away from themselves as possible?

What message does that send to these areas? "it's good enough for ye, but not for me"

The hypocrisy is laughable!

Wibbs

topper75 wrote: »

Historically we did our bit with Hungarians, Vietnamese, NI etc.

Actually we didn't T. We were guilted into those examples(save for the NI bit) and the Hungarians left pretty quickly because of a certain lack of cead mile failtes and we only took them in on the proviso that the able bodied ones were moved onto Canada as quickly as possible. Oh and we only agreed to take in/transit 500 of them. The Vietnamese number was even smaller, 200 and that was only after repeated entreaties by the UN. Tiny numbers compared to today. Though we were dirt poor then, so not so many wanted to come here and those that did were doing so for far fewer economic reasons. Contrast that with what went on during the "Celtic tiger" with mostly sub Saharan Africans having their waters break on the pier of Rosslare. We've already let too many in and mark me we'll see the wonderful results of that in the future.

Ireland's track record on this and its financial contributions to the developing world show us to be a people not all short on compassion.

Our track record on work in the third world through the missions and charitable work is pretty impressive given our size, but while we were only too happy to do such things "on the ground", we weren't too happy to bring them here.

If a reasonable share of unfortunates is brought to Ireland from some Godforsaken UN camp, that is legit. But rocking up as an asylum shopper makes it a joke, one that the Irish don't care for when their exchequer is run on tick. Genuine compassionate desire to improve the lot of our fellow travellers in this world and not being taken for a mug are not mutually exclusive.

+1.

timmyntc

Ready4Boarding wrote: »

These people have discovered that any large development can be mischaracterised as badly planned, and are using it to deflect the charge of xenophobia.

:rolleyes:

I genuinely can't tell if you're taking the piss or not :pac:

Anyways:
The whole issue of direct provision has recently become a nice little scam to extract money from the government. The RHI of the Republic so to speak.
All you have to do is buy/acquire a hotel (mostly rural/not in use since these are the cheapest) - then apply to department to have it used as a DP center. The department will approve them without any consideration for how suitable it actually is - so long as you can fit X amount of people inside the hotel it will be approved.

It's a failure of a scheme and clearly the whole process is not fit for purpose.

auspicious

It's fear of the unknown and the strong possibility of a lack of integration. There is an arrogance of even the left to assume the societal pull is always in the direction of westernisation.

cj maxx

Wibbs wrote: »

Personally I couldn't give two hoots if someone charges me with xenophobia, work away. Not if it means we don't go down the same idiotic route of every other example of the "multicultural" experiment in other European countries. We have enough social ills as it stands, we don't need to be importing more, just because politicians crow on about "diversity", when it will almost never impact them personally. Sod that. Sadly, I think it's too little too late and roll on a few years and we'll have the same social problems as others in Europe have. But it's not like we couldn't have seen this coming... :rolleyes:

Our masters in Europe say we need to become multi cultural like they are. Mind you they ie. Britain,France, Germany, Belgium , the Netherlands and others all had vast empires that they ravaged before seeing the light. Race riots are nothing new to them so we should just get used to it. After all we had plenty of riots in the north so it's not much different to bring thousands of un- integrated people into our small country.
It's not xenophobic to say that we don't want to make the same mistakes as they did , nor is it xenophobic to say accept asylum seekers but at least put a plan for them into action. But this bollix of accepting our quota without the means or political savvy to do it right will cause problems in the coming years. Anyone saying otherwise is imo , in total denial

blueshade

Wibbs wrote: »

Personally I couldn't give two hoots if someone charges me with xenophobia, work away. Not if it means we don't go down the same idiotic route of every other example of the "multicultural" experiment in other European countries. We have enough social ills as it stands, we don't need to be importing more, just because politicians crow on about "diversity", when it will almost never impact them personally. Sod that. Sadly, I think it's too little too late and roll on a few years and we'll have the same social problems as others in Europe have. But it's not like we couldn't have seen this coming... :rolleyes:

I am genuinely sick to the back teeth of the word ''diversity'' being shoe horned in to whatever story the media/government is talking about. It's become really really obvious that there are major cultural issues arising in Ireland and that there are far more minorities here than we're led to believe. Where I live we have had people from all over the world, many different cultures and religions and everyone just gets along because people have worked together, their kids have gone to school together and there has been no discrimination.

Fast forward to the last few years when we've had Syrians and Africans. The Syrians DON'T integrate. They stick to their own, they dress like they did back home the kids either aren't allowed to mix or don't want to mix with kids their own age here and when you have a culture/ideology that forbids women from shaking hands with men and men won't shake hands with women you have a disaster waiting to happen. The ones in my town aren's short of funds, they often have better cars than their neighbours and the cops aren't doing anything about them driving unaccompanied in cars with L plates.

JohnnyFlash

auspicious wrote: »

It's fear of the unknown and the strong possibility of a lack of integration. There is an arrogance of even the left to assume the societal pull is always in the direction of westernisation.

The majority of people don’t want asylum seekers in their town. Lots of people also think we are in danger of completely changing the fabric of society by allowing large scale immigration, as well as putting our housing, health, education, and social welfare systems under enormous and unsustainable pressure. Not sure I agree with all that, but that’s what people feel.

Immigration is great for the capitalist men and women of money. It’s not great for Joe and Josephine in a town down the sticks. It’s always about money.

CrabRevolution

It seems we've thousands of people condemning these villages and towns for not enthusiastically hosting hundreds of immigrants, but no town ever seems to volunteer to take them in themselves.

I'm also curious about the abuse these villages get after rejecting these plans. You'll see accusations of them being backwards, boring, nowhere towns that have no right to object to anything. Does that not only lend support to the suspicions from the locals that the towns are seen by officialdom as unimportant spots only suitable as a dumping grounds for immigrants out of sight?