Sir, – Micheál Mac Gréil (October 25th) hit the nail on the head when it comes to the appalling treatment of the Roma community in Ireland.
It was also encouraging to read your Editorial of the same date (“Roma treatment an outrage”). But you missed a key point. The Irish/national media has also failed the community, by running wildly with a story of a blond haired child and blue- eyed boy found in a Roma family. Your actions generate reactions in the population and in this case, the broad Irish media had a role to play by stoking negative sentiment. The media as a whole has a duty to report responsibly. – Yours, etc,
GIANPIERO CAVALLERI
PhD, Royal College of
Surgeons in Ireland,
St Stephen’s Green,
Dublin 2.
Sir, – Spare a thought for the frontline workers of the system so thoroughly vilified in your pages (October 25th). Gardaí and social workers are obliged by law to act for the child when concerns – however misguided – are raised for his/her welfare. The decisions made by these young public servants affect the lives of thousands of children every year. In most cases, the reasons are very clear, in some, the decisions have to be made on the balance of probabilities and sometimes, as in this case, at very short notice.
The gardaí in this case made a call based on their training and experience. It happened to be the wrong call and lessons will be learned from that. Instead of his condescending lecture on genetics, perhaps Prof Thomas Cotter (October 25th) could tell us what proportion of Roma children are blond-haired and blue-eyed. This information could be usefully incorporated into training so that mistakes like this do not occur again.
In the meantime, it is important to express our support for these frontline workers. Even in the good times, provision for enforcing child protection legislation was inadequate. Five years of cutbacks have made the situation far worse. God forbid that a garda or social worker faced with the next difficult decision will be deterred by today’s hysteria. – Yours, etc,
JOHN MOLLOY,
Seapark,
Malahide,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – We would like to condemn, in the strongest possible manner, the recent taking of two Roma children from their homes. The institutions of the State and the media have behaved appallingly. The Minister for Justice defends the actions by saying that the authorities acted in “good faith”. What does this mean? It is now good faith to abduct children from their families if the colour of their hair and eyes does not match that of their parents? If this is not racial profiling can anyone point to a situation where a member of the majority Irish population have been treated in a similar way? We certainly cannot remember one situation where families were treated in this way because of the colour of their hair or eyes.
We totally condemn the trafficking of children around the world. But that does not give the institutions of the State permission to target one part of our community.
The Irish were vilified for long enough for being lazy, dirty and of lesser intelligence. Have we learnt nothing from our history? Surely the Irish of all people should condemn these actions as being unacceptable, unjust and undignified.
We have been working hard on a voluntary basis with the Roma community in Cork and other parts of the country. We have a vibrant and active membership who have being engaged in language training, cleaning dirty rivers in Cork on a voluntary basis, attending training, engaging with our children’s education. The recent ignorant media coverage both at home and abroad has undermined our work and the goodwill being generated by these steps towards increased social inclusion. – Yours, etc,
GINA IORDAN (Chair);
BILLY DUNLEAVY &
GERTRUDE COTTER
(Committee members),
Roma Support Group
Ireland,
C/o Community Centre,
Great William O’Brien
Street, Blackpool,
Cork.
Sir – What evidence has Fr Micheál MacGréil that the children were removed “without evidence” (October 25th).
I suggest we all take a deep breath, step back and wait until the evidence emerges from the inquiries. Only then can we make an informed and balanced judgment. – Yours, etc,
BRENDAN BURKE,
Gainsborough Park,
Malahide,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Will the authorities make it compulsory for all blonds to get their roots done? – Yours, etc,
GERRY ARMSTRONG,
Newcourt Road,
Bray,
Co Wicklow.