ANALYSIS:The reputational damage to Northern Ireland from the recent racist attacks has yet to be calculated
ASIDE FROM the suffering caused to more than 100 Romanians hounded out of their homes – and out of Northern Ireland in racist attacks, there has been a broad, despairing realisation in recent days of the harm this has done to the North.
Tourist bosses, hoteliers, people striving to bring foreign investment to Northern Ireland know full well that the image of impoverished people with their pitiful possessions forced to flee because of race hatred is irresistible to the world’s media.
It is a story that can only be damaging to Northern Ireland at a time when the North, even in the face of a world recession, is beginning to exploit some of its potential.
Belfast is viewed as one of the most friendly and interesting cities in the world and that is reflected in the growing number of tourists and the variety of accents and languages evident in the city.
But when more than 100 of 117 members of the Roma community reckon Northern Ireland is not safe and have flown home or are preparing to head to the airport, then inescapably that must send a dreadful message of a dreadful place around the globe.
When the City Church close to central Belfast which provided refuge for the Roma families is attacked, as it was on Monday night, then that only exacerbates the problem.
The intimidation of the Romanians was followed at the weekend with attacks on Polish families in Co Tyrone.
To add insult to injury, also at the weekend, stone-throwers smashed a window of an open-top bus as it toured nationalist west Belfast on Sunday, alarming and in some cases terrifying English, American, Australian and Scandinavian visitors to Northern Ireland.
Terrible for the Romanians and the tourists, but terrible also for those trying to build on the peace.
What is hugely galling and frustrating is that the amount of trouble caused by the racists and vandals is totally disproportionate to their numbers, their organisation – and their intelligence.
Maybe a dozen or so, mostly young people, appear to have been involved in the initial spate of attacks on the Romanians.
Police want to speak to two youths in connection with the intimidation in Moygashel, Co Tyrone.
Three youths were blamed for the attack on the bus.
The UDA in south Belfast has insisted it is not behind the attacks on the Romanians and the PSNI agrees that the intimidation was not centrally organised by any group.
Literature from the English racist group Combat 18 has circulated in the loyalist Village area of south Belfast, from where the attacks on the Romanians emanated.
But again there is no evidence of central direction.
Moreover, these are hardly the brightest sparks.
Sinn Féin’s Alex Maskey went on BBC Radio Ulster’s Stephen Nolan programme yesterday morning to advise two young men “if they were awake” to hand themselves over to police because they were allegedly caught on CCTV smashing the windows of the City Church.
The intimidation raises questions about an underclass that is found in many cities on these islands, of social deprivation, of disaffected youth, of parental control, but it also raises an important issue about basic policing.
The big question, many were asking this week, is why the PSNI using local intelligence and community goodwill could not direct sufficient frontline resources to prevent “mindless thugs” from inflicting so much damage to Northern Ireland itself.
