AN INTEGRATION group has formed in one of Ireland’s most diverse towns.
A local politician and a Nigerian resident of Balbriggan have united to create the Balbriggan Integrates group to foster better relations.
The initiative, which is the brainchild of town councillor Frank Snowe and local resident Seyi Allen Taylor, took its first steps last week at a public meeting in the north Co Dublin town.
Cllr Snowe told Metro Éireann around 70 people attended the event, which featured speakers from local organisations such as the Tidy Towns committee and the African communities. He said future events will “expand into other nationalities”.
The non-party councillor, who recently completed his term as cathoirleach of Balbriggan Town Council, said he had been approached by Seyi Allen Taylor to “see if something could be set up” as regards integration in the town.
Cllr Snowe said the lack of interaction between nationalities in Balbriggan was an issue of concern he particularly noted during the St Patrick’s Day celebrations.
“I noticed there was not so great integration. Afterwards there were photos of white families and the odd photo of black families but not black and white families together.”
He said “rumours and myths” had led some people to tar all immigrants with the same brush.
“Unless you have some way of communicating with each other, you’re not going to silence the problems,” he added.
Co-founder Allen Taylor said when he moved to Balbriggan in 2007 he had to tackle numerous assumptions about his life.
“For several months I struggled to find my feet, having bought a house and commuting to work in the southside of Dublin... [yet] I still had to face the stigma of been accused of benefiting from the social welfare system. Why? I reside in a brand new house and had two cars. The myth was that all immigrants, most especially Africans, were living on the dole.”
Allen Taylor, who is currently working in financial services, said both he and his wife are marketing and business degree holders respectively.
Cllr Snowe said that according to some people in Balbriggan, “every black person in the town is on rent allowance”.
Sources in the town said that what appear to be high concentrations of immigrants on rent allowance has fuelled the issue, backfiring on the overall immigrant population. There has also been concern at the manner in which some Africans parent and discipline their children.
A number of months ago, Balbriggan Town Council called on the HSE to explain why “40 per cent of its €20m rent allowance budget allocated for Dublin North East is spent in Balbriggan town”.
For further information about Balbriggan Integrates, email balbrigganintegrates@gmail.com.
