The following is an edited extract from a real-life case study in the Immigrant Council of Ireland’s ‘Taking Racism Seriously: Migrants’ Experiences of Violence, Harassment and Anti-Social Behaviour in the Dublin Area’ (2011):
The following is an edited extract from a real-life case study in the Immigrant Council of Ireland’s ‘Taking Racism Seriously: Migrants’ Experiences of Violence, Harassment and Anti-Social Behaviour in the Dublin Area’ (2011):
Arthur* described receiving ongoing racist abuse from the children of their next-door neighbours.
His family has been living in northwest Dublin since 2005. Several years ago, their next-door neighbours’ young children began calling Arthur and other members of his family names.
Even though these children were very young, they engaged in constant harassment of Arthur’s family. One of the children, aged about six years, took to urinating at their window in front of his daughter as well as using racist terms of abuse.
Arthur’s family also experienced some harassment from those children’s parents. For example, they left loud music playing for two weeks while they were away on holiday. As a result of this anti-social behaviour, Arthur and his family had difficulty sleeping.
Arthur called the gardaí three times to deal with their neighbours. In the absence of proof, no charges were made.
The abusive behaviour of their neighbours’ children continued. Arthur and his wife began to take photographs every time the children crossed over the boundary on to their property.
They provided the photographs to the gardaí. One local garda, who was supportive, asked Arthur if he wanted to press charges. Arthur just asked him to talk to the neighbours and tell them he had documented proof of their harassment. The garda did so and the children admitted what they had done. The harassment came to an end.
* Name has been changed
