Irish Diaspora in Scotland Association

Scotland’s Future and Ethnic Minority Communities Conference.

30th Sept. 2009.

Corn Exchange.

Edinburgh.

Choosing Scotland’s Future : A National Conversation [www.anationalconversation.com]

I arrived in Edinburgh on 30th September to meet with the Scottish Government as a representative of the Irish Diaspora in Scotland Association [IDSA]. Many of Scotland’s Ethnic groups were to be represented at this meeting to discuss aspects of the future of Scotland and Alex Salmond, Scotland’s First Minister, would be there answering questions.

Various questions were asked regarding issues that affected people from different backgrounds. After introducing myself and IDSA, I asked several questions that have landed on IDSA’s desk over the past year or so:

“Mr Salmond, for the last 4 years members of Glasgow’s Irish Community have been the largest contingent on the annual St. Andrews Day Anti Racism March organised by the STUC which winds it’s way through Glasgow City Centre. Every year we are abused and often told to get back to Ireland by some shoppers in the city centre. We have also been on the receiving end of some anti Irish attitudes from individual officers within Strathclyde Police.

At IDSA we have received numerous complaints from parents of pupils in Schools in Scotland that when children show any kind of pride in our Irish heritage they are quite commonly ridiculed by teachers (some of who are of Irish descent themselves) Would you, Mr Salmond, condemn this behaviour from the teaching profession?

Delegates from various Irish groups (including IDSA) met with Show Racism The Red Card [SRTRC] to discuss the singing of the ‘Famine Song’ about 15 months ago. From the start of the meeting, SRTRC conceded that it was ‘definitely a racist song’. However, it subsequently took SRTRC over a year to make a public statement condemning it’s singing?

Lastly Mr Salmond, would you join me in congratulating Scots born Irishmen like Aiden McGeady and James McCarthy, among others who chose to celebrate their Irishness by representing Ireland at soccer, and would you condemn the racist abuse these men receive at various sports grounds in Scotland?

Mr Salmond’s response was political in the sense that it was no answer at all. His answer did not reflect the questions and proved ultimately irrelevant. Nevertheless, an Irish representation was heard for the first time at such a meeting and with effort, perseverance and with good planning, we can in the future, assist Scotland become a society that truly reflects its multi-cultural and multi-ethnic status and rids itself of its inherent capacity for either ignoring the Irish, misrepresenting or abusing us.

Joe McAleer

Vice Chair IDSA

IDSA Website