COUNCIL CRACKDOWN ON ANTI-IRISH RACISM
POLICE and the Scottish Government will be asked to intervene and help the council tackle anti-Irish racism on the streets of Glasgow. It comes as a city councillor described how he was verbally abused on the subway by a man in a suit for being Irish.
Councillor Ruairi Kelly said only a few perpetrators face repercussions for anti-Irish racism despite hundreds being “caught on camera”.
Politicians condemned anti-Irish racism and they demanded action to “remove these outpourings of hate from our city” at a full council meeting. SNP councillor Kelly gained support for a motion which called for Holyrood and the police to address the problem.
He said anti-Irish racism is “the elephant in the room” and talks on the issue are “long overdue”.
Kelly added: “You would have thought that the scenes we repeatedly see on the streets of our city would be a thing of the distant past.
“Unfortunately they are still a regular occurrence, with a number of very high profile incidents in the past month. The fact that this happens in Glasgow and they often involve football fans, allows people to dismiss this anti-Irish racism as a west coast problem or a football problem. I do not believe it to be either.”
Council leader Susan Aitken will now write to the Scottish Government and Police Scotland requesting they help the council and city residents to address their concerns.
Kelly added: “When I was verbally abused on the Subway on a Monday afternoon it had nothing to do with football, they didn’t ask about my religion.
“Why should a sizeable proportion of Scotland’s population or an individual have to put up with being told to go home? And why shouldn’t we call it out for what it is? Racism.”
Why shouldn’t we call it out for what it is? Plain racism