i’m taken aback by sick racist web trolls
Writer’s fury over abuse at direct provision drama
TAKEN Down writer Stuart Carolan has hit out at the “sick racist commentary” online about the new series.
The screenwriter, who also penned gangland hit Love/hate, admitted he was shocked by some of the reaction to the debut episode of the new RTE show, which follows the lives of asylum seekers living in direct provision in Ireland.
Carolan described the anti-asylum seeker backlash to the first episode, which was watched by 445,000 on Sunday night, as “poisonous”.
He said: “There was a great reaction with a lot of people talking about direct provision and I suppose some of them knew what a horror it was. It brought home to a lot of them, visually and in an emotive way, the horror.
“At the same time there was this really kind of sick commentary, just racist commentary that came up. Very poisonous.
Carolan “You know it’s there but you’re always shocked at how vitriolic it is. It’s always there, there’s this sort of seeding bed of it – you see it with the Peter Casey stuff, the anti-traveller stuff.
“You know it’s there, but it’s just how nasty and vitriolic it is that does sometime shock you.”
Speaking to Eamon Dunphy for his podcast The Stand, Carolan also revealed he hopes people in direct provision will get more recognition because of the show.
He said he thinks they should be on the Late Late telling their stories – instead of guests like controversial presidential candidate Peter Casey.
Carolan added: “What we found is there’s a huge number of very articulate people who come through direct provision, who are really interesting, have great stories to tell and have different perspectives.”