Anti-Racist activist threatened with attack

galway | rights, freedoms and repression | press release Thursday April 01, 2004 03:12 by Orla Ni Chomhrai - SWP nichomhrai at eircom dot net

Wednesday, 31 March

One of the organisers of a meeting against the upcoming nationality referendum and against deportations received a threatening phone call the night before the meeting. The caller threatened to organise a group to come to the meeting and rape Orla Ní Chomhraí (one of the organisers of the meeting) and another speaker at the meeting.

It is feared that the lead-up to the referendum will see an increase in this sort of abusive behaviour, both towards immigrants and people who stand up for their rights. Orla Ní Chomhraí commented on the incident by saying:

'This just proves the point that the actions and comments of the government encourage racist views and abuse. I think the lead up to the referendum will see an increase in these sort of comments and possibly even in racist attacks. I would urge everyone to see through the lies of the government and vote against this referendum.'

There are many myths about refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants, which echo comments made against Irish people in the past. A national campaign has been set up to expose these myths and campaign against the referendum. A recent meeting in Dublin which launched The Campaign Against the Racist Referendum was attended by members of 30 groups including: Residents Against Racism, Green Party, Sinn Féin, Socialist Party, Socialist Workers Party, the Anti-Racist Network from Belfast, and Cómhlámh. This meeting in Galway, organised by the Socialist Workers Party, is intending to highlight some of the issues facing refugees and immigrants in this country and begin the work on a campaign against the referendum. The meeting is taking place in the Imperial Hotel, Eyre Square at 8pm Thursday the 1st of April.

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Since I wrote this I got another phone call, the person didn't manage to finish what he was going to say before I hung up but you can get the idea from the start of it: 'Nigger.....'
Orla nichomhrai@eircom.net