When I was a high school English teacher in Canada, one of the texts I enjoyed teaching was To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. As you probably know, the setting is Alabama and the plot revolves around the false accusation of a black man for raping a white woman. My students used to express outrage, at the blatant injustice being practised, particularly since the novel reflected real life at that time. “It’s disgusting – what makes people think they’re superior, just because they have a. white skin?” one girl said.
Then I’d mention the native people in Winnipeg at that time, many of whom had moved from northern reservations and were living in a haze of squalor, alcoholism and teenage pregnancies in the city’s Main Street. “Ah jeez – there’s nothing you can do about people like that. They just want to sit around all day drinking and collecting their welfare cheques” I was told.
We’re all a bit that way – eagle-eyed at spotting and condemning prejudice when it’s happening somewhere far away, not so keen when it’s on our doorstep. I don’t doubt the sincerity of the people who gathered in Dublin, Belfast and Derry over the weekend in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Fintan O’Toole is some way from being my favourite political commentator, but in today’s Irish Times he draws attention to the fact that there are 3.9 infant deaths among the general Irish population, but 14.1 among the Traveller population; Traveller women live an average of 11.5 years less than Irish women generally, and Traveller men live 15 years less than the general Irish population of men. (Fintan’s almost certainly quoting figures for the twenty-six counties only, but sin sceal eile – that’s another story.
So tell me this: when was the last time you saw a mass demonstration in Dublin, Belfast or Derry against at best the neglect of Travellers in our society and at worst a visceral hatred of them? And I haven’t even mentioned attitudes to immigrants who want to make Ireland their home.
Maybe we should attend to the filth of our own backyard before moving to protest against the social hygiene of our neighbours.
Comments are closed.