New Connections, Old Exclusions: Ethnic Minorities in Ireland’s Information Society (Media Monitor)

New Connections, Old Exclusions: Ethnic Minorities in Ireland’s Information Society

Ireland: From a country of emigrants to one of immigrantsIreland

until the very recent past, was a country of re-occurring and sometimes massive emigration. This, however, does not mean that there were no immigrants and minority ethnic groups (for example, Jews, Travellers, Chinese) in the country before the pronounced presence of the visible ‘other’ from the 1990s. In-migration and minority ethnic groups “have been a reality in Ireland long before the moral panics created by the arrival of a relatively small number of asylum seekers in the 1990s (Lentin, 2001).” Dr Ronit Lentin’s perception is shared by Fintan O’Toole (2000), Piarais MacEinri (2000), and Robbie McVeigh (2002). Prior to the mid-1990s when in-migration surpassed out-migration for the first time, immigration to Ireland was low, intermittent and mainly from the United Kingdom, the United States of America and continental Europe. The immigrant groups consisted mainly of retirees and high-skills immigration (mostly non-permanent) within the multinational sector (MacEinri, 2001).

To Read the Full Report

Black Africans ‘most likely to suffer racism in Ireland’(Media Monitor)

As reported in the Irish Times on March 13,2005 by prof Maureen Reddy (Professor of race relations from Northeastern University in Boston).Prof Reddy Concludes:

1. A hierarchy of attitudes exists to different ethnic groups
2. Racism is expressed largely in terms of a willingness to work, with those excluded from Irish society characterised as lazy
3. In a survey of Irish attitudes, 63% of those polled felt travellers were not like the rest of the Irish population, with 23% admitting to being “unfavourably disposed” to them. Black Africans were the only other community found to provoke similarly negative responses, with those questioned citing a culture of laziness and fraud.
4. The research found that negative attitudes to work were applied to both the Traveller and the black community. At the other end of the scale, Chinese immigrants were generally portrayed in a favourable way, having a stereotypical “hard-working” character
5. Although immigration is a new phenomenon in Ireland, a hierarchy of attitudes is already solidifying. According to Reddy: “The Irish are at the top and recent African immigrants at the bottom.” In between, in roughly descending order are white European immigrants, the established Asian community, travellers and Roma people
6. Refers to a 1997 episode of Father Ted to illustrate the differing degrees of acceptance immigrant groups have found in Ireland. “Satire can easily deal with comic representations of the Chinese-Irish community whereas there is no similar treatment of the African community. It would not be possible to portray such a comical representation of the black community without straying into conscious racism.”

Africans In Ireland: Developing Communities (Media Monitor)

Africans In Ireland: Developing Communities
By Fidele Mutwarasibo & Suzanne Smith
Published by African Cultural Project: December 2000.

This report attempts to answer the following questions:

1. Do Africans in Ireland experience a sense of community belonging and what does ‘community’ mean for Africans?
2. What barriers exist (if any) which prevent the development of, and participation in communities for African immigrants?
3. What kinds of resources do Africans identify as necessary to support their communities and develop a sense of social inclusion in Irish society.

Read The Full report in PDF

Visit The Africa Solidarity Center

The Late Fallen Heros of America and The Dog! (Media Monitor)

Those pictures made some intellectuals call for "whiter" Blacks and to "Acting White" but does it answer all the questions or solve all the trouble to attribute the difficulties of the Blacks to the "White" Whites? The answer is NO.but I hope to share those questions from "Acting White" (...Why are African-Americans on the bottom? How has 'right' behavior become White, and something for Blacks to avoid? What are the true roles of heredity, geography, evolution, culture and critical thinking? “Until there's a convincing answer why history really took the course that it did, people are going to fall back on the racist explanation.” Jared Diamond, PhD. ..)

The Golden Apples (Book Review)

Golden Apples is an interesting read fro Bill Cullen who shares ,through his personal life success, his SIX SUCCESS recipe.

I enjoyed reading the book.It is easy,direct and honest with fantastic fluency which makes your dreams ACHIEVABLE.


The books takes you From Market Stall to Millionaire: A Wealth of Wisdom You Can't Afford to Ignore

ISBN: 0340838981

the website for B Cullen is here

The Wind That Shakes the Barley

Jude Collins wrote an interesting article "Old Story of Empire is Revisited in Loach Film" in the Daily Ireland on 08.06.2006 where he looked at other stories shown in previous films like .Some of the Interesting points are:

1. He hadn't seen the film by then.
2. "The british empire ,while it brought a number of benefits in its wake,was essentially greedy,cruel and arrogant"
3. He quoted other films he watched with intereting viewpoint.That the victims of the empire are shown as cruel ,uncivilized
4. he explained the meaning of Mau Mau(Mzungu Aende Ulaya-Mwafrica Apate Uhuru)

The web site for J Collins

Searching for Fortune: The Geographical Process of Nigerian Migration to Dublin, Ireland

Nigerian emigration to Ireland is still in an embryonic stage. This movement began after the Second World War, increasing modestly after Nigeria's independence from Britain in 1960. Unfortunately, it was impossible to be entirely accurate. Since there was no hard data of past Nigerian migration to Ireland since neither Nigeria nor Ireland registered past Nigerian migration departures and arrivals. For this study, information on past Nigerian movement to Ireland came from various individuals. However, this data in spite of its imperfections is the best to date, for assessing past Nigerian movement to Ireland. Most of the past Nigerian migration to Ireland was by businessmen, mostly in the fishing business. It is from Ireland that most of the mackerel fish (òkú èkó) that is consumed in Nigeria is exported. The most recognized Nigerian trading partner was Killybergs in Donegal, the northern part of Ireland (Kómoláfé, 1993.) Others who migrated in any noticeable number prior to 1981 were Nigerian medical students. They reportedly did not desire to establish establishing permanent residence in Ireland. Past Nigerian migration to Ireland did not have any significant effect on the recent trends in movement because most Nigerians presently in Dublin do not even realize that past Nigerian migration existed.
In more recent times, Nigerian migration became noticeable in 1981. At the time, the number of migrants was relatively small. By 1996 there were significant changes in the inflow of Nigerian migrants. The Nigerians who came to Ireland prior to 1981 tended to study, to undergo various kinds of training and to visit. For the purposes of this paper, 1981 is regarded as the first phase of contemporary Nigerian migration to Ireland.
In considering the historical panorama of Nigerian migration to Dublin, there is need for some chronology and categorization. The population includes those who migrate to Ireland to extend their visa, those who migrate to seek legal residence, "Celtic Tiger" migrants, who were attracted by the Irish economic boom, refuge-seeking migrants, employment -seeking migrants and providence-seeking migrants. According to the historian Nancy Green, (1997:59) "only through comparison can we understand what is specific and what is general in migration." Thus, categorization is done to facilitate the historical comparative analysis of the different categories of migrants.

This is an interesting scholarly work on the subject by Julius Kómoláfé .Read More

The Official Site for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany

This is the Official web site for the tournament.The link will be available on the side bar until the end of the world cup competition.