Ireland Against Racism : Breaking Past Pre-conceptions

by Flavia Woulfe

I was born in Wexford, Ireland where I grew up and my family still resides. My mother’s family is “Wexfordian” as far back as we can trace and my father’s family hails from a small town in Co. Cork. I received a Catholic education in both primary and secondary school, where I struggled with Irish grammar and faked foot injuries to avoid playing Camogie. I associate St. Patrick’s Day with bacon and cabbage and Good Friday with house parties. My skin is fair and littered with fading freckles and my hair, when undyed, is black. Although I don’t know all of the words to the Amhran na Bhfiann, the sense of patriotism when its sang, strikes me as much as the next Irish person. I can say with certainty that I am Irish, through and through.

My name, however, is another case. Flavia, my first name, translates as “blond” in Latin. My second name is Woulfe, which derives from Norman times and is popular in central European countries such as Germany. On introduction, the majority of people question where my name come from. I chalk it down to eccentric parents with good taste and although most agree, some remain dissatisfied with that answer. In some cases further explanation as to my Irish past fulfils their enquiry, but in other cases, an unfamiliar feeling of distrust is formed. It’s as though I’m hiding something, and this makes me sometimes feel as though I am. 

During my time as a waitress, it was mandatory for all staff to wear name badges. The hotel industry in Ireland is formed by an eclectic mix of staff from different nationalities so amongst colleagues, my name was “average” to many. The formally unfamiliar feeling of distrust that I experienced from time to time began to frequent my life more often while working with the public. “Why won’t you just tell us where you’re really from” “Are you embarrassed?” “But your name is definitely not Irish, so…?” were some of the questions that arose. Other times people would speak very sl-ow-ly and cl-ear-ly so I could understand what they were saying. And in one extreme case, one woman “preferred to wait for the Irish girl” to serve the table to “save time”. I vented my frustrations to my fellow staff. Their reactions ranged from empathy to laughter because, little did I know, this was an everyday occurrence for them. To be made feel like a piece of gum on somebody’s shoe was normal to my colleagues, but how could this be in little old Ireland? 

Us Irish, for the most part, tend to think of ourselves as an accepting bunch who value equality with those who choose to share our country with us. In terms of governance in Ireland, there is little tolerance for racism in that there are no discriminatory laws in place. There are also no representatives for people of colour serving in Parliament. Racism, many Irish believe, extends as far as having a laugh at the British under whom we were colonised for so many years. But it is the more subtle racism that is damaging to Ireland and impactful on its children. The off-hand comments about the “blacks” in the nightclub bathrooms or the “Pakis” that run the shop are the remarks that people view as OK to make. The normalisation of these terms, and worse, is rampant in Irish society. Many people know someone of an older generation who is notorious for making racist slurs, which are memorised and repeated by youth. Although some claim to repeat these derogatory terms in order to highlight the generation gap between “us” (the youth) and “them” (the old), the fact that the youth, with knowledge that times have changed in the past 50 or so years, choose to normalise this language is not acceptable.

A common discrepancy is that because somebody doesn’t understand your language, you are smarter than them. Language is just one of the foundations for communication but when two people can’t converse in the same phonetics, issues can arise. Frustration and a sense of hopelessness can form while trying to utilise broken language/ signals and the result can often be miscommunication. When I built relationships with the longer serving staff in the hotel that I previously mentioned, I soon realised that pre-conceptions are dangerous to forming relationships. Naively I believed that my fellow staff were mostly working in the hotel because of either a lack of qualifications or a passion for the hospitality industry. I would estimate that 70% of the foreign national staff working in the hotel had degrees that they obtained in their home country. Fields such as law, nursing and teaching were popular amongst the staff but, because of differing regulation and practices in the workplace, they couldn’t work in their area of qualification here. On speaking to these people further I gained great insight into a side of emigration that I had never previously thought about.

Although my experience with racism wasn’t actual “typical” racism, it was more presumed racism, the feeling of worthlessness and anger is still the same. To be judged by what you look like, your name or your job is unacceptable in the 21st century. The media plays a role in the way society perceives immigrants because the media is our language provider. Only covering immigration stories and negative news about non- Irish nationals leads the way for society to normalise discrimination and associate minority groups with negative news. It’s time the Irish media began to celebrate the growing diversity of Irish society. “To be” is an arbitrary state, and much like I am Irish, I would like to see multinationals joining me in being Irish too, by facing racist intolerance in solidarity.