Racist graffiti is spray painted on walking trail
Shocking racist graffiti was discovered recently on a popular walking trail in north Wexford.
The graffiti which was painted on one of the main paths to the left of the Willow Park entrance in Ramsfort Woods in Gorey is thought to have been done on the afternoon of Friday, April 19. The graffiti has since been removed and reported to local gardaí as well as Wexford County Council.
Local election candidate and voluntary Trail Manager for Ramsfort Woods, Darragh McDonald has condemned the horrific graffiti which he says was hard to miss as it was around 14ft in size and done using red and white spray paint. “It’s not a conversation about emigration or asylum, it’s much much more sinister than that. I condemn it completely, it’s a disgrace,” said Darragh.
It took Darragh several days and four coats of black paint to cover it completely. “I’m very happy to do my part and tidy it up in some way, albeit very small. It just shows the danger of the fringe movements around Ireland at the moment and we’ve see it in other countries. We have to be careful to have adult conversations and not to let it grow to extremes.”
“People have genuine concerns and we need to have conversations about migration and emigration and that kind of stuff. People want to have genuine conversations and maybe we’re not the best at the moment at having those conversations, we need to get better at that. This is not a discussion on our policies on asylum seekers however, this is pure and simply fascist and Nazi stuff. It’s different altogether,” said Darragh.
Only 15 minutes walk from Gorey Main Street, Ramsfort Woods has two walking trails, the Deerpark Trail and the Sweet Walk Trail, that are used regularly by locals.
“It’s not ideal. It’s a community space, it’s a lot of mammies walking there. A lot of people walking by with kids and buggies, people of all ages walking their dog, different nationalities, it’s a very multinational space. Gorey’s a great place to be and to live it’s better than that kind of nonsense,” said Darragh.