Many people have a much-practised and perfected socialising programme. A group of us, for example, have followed the same pattern after Dublin matches in Croke Park for the last number of years.
Meeting on Clonliffe Road, we all venture towards a popular haunt in Drumcondra that offers barbeque burgers, and we generally stay there until we have dissected and trisected the match to death. After last month’s game against Louth, and considering that Poland were entertaining Germany in the first game in this year’s European Championships, our plans altered. Ireland’s absence from the tournament meant that we decided to join in the festivities with one of the largest of the new communities in Dublin. The excitement before the match was remarkable, as Dublin and Polish fans mingled and swapped the post-match satisfaction of the Dubs with the pre-match anticipation of the Poles. Cheers of ‘Polska Polska’ were quickly replaced by ‘Dubska! Dub-ska!’ as we all settled down to enjoy the game. I’m sure that we would have all settled for a 2–0 result with both goals coming from a Polish striker – the only problem was that the same Polish striker, Podolski, plays for Germany! Yet a great night was had by all, and it gave me a glimpse of what we can look forward to for years to come. Then, last Friday, I had the good fortune to be invited to witness the signing of a twinning agreement between the Maltese soccer club Floriana and Shamrock Rovers at Tolka Park.
Again, old habits die hard, and my usual spot across from the main stand was replaced by a position in the director’s box, rubbing shoulders with Governmental ministers and other League of Ireland managers.The warm reception that the announcement of the twinning received from the oft-maligned Rovers home support augers well for the success of the project and again reinforced my belief that perhaps the Irish are becoming more
international in mindset, that we understand the benefits of opening our minds to other ideas and our borders to other peoples. However, it was while I reflected on the first half fare over my cup of tea and digestive biscuit with other political colleagues from across the political divide that a more sinister realisation raised its ugly head, in terms of the Lisbon Treaty defeat. It was widely agreed that the immigration question was an unspoken but nevertheless a real component of the emotions that lead to some eight per cent of our electorate to vote ‘no’ in the recent referendum. Are my experiences with Polish and Maltese soccer fans at best a simplistic view of how things can be? A former colleague on Dublin City Council, and a recently elected TD for Dublin South East, spoke in the Dáil in the aftermath of the referendum about the level of antipathy towards our new communities that he had experienced in the poorer areas of his constituency. Although the medicine that Deputy Andrews prescribed would be a little different to what I would endorse, his intervention certainly dimmed the warm glow of cosy multiculturalism that I was basking in at the time.
It is true that we have made great strides, but we certainly as a society cannot take anything for granted if such a sizeable minority can vote on the basis of their immigration concerns, an issue which has precious little to do with the Lisbon Treaty itself. It is clear that many in our more disadvantaged areas consider themselves to be in direct competition with newcomers for basic resources, most notably employment. What have persisted throughout this time are the urban myths of the weighted preference for all foreign nationals in regard to housing, welfare payments, Statesponsored hair extensions, mobile phones and indeed motorcars! It is a measure of working class discontentment that such tall tales are readily believed. There is no room for complacency, especially as the tide turns in the economic forecast. Self-congratulatory studies and reports won’t help either as they hide the hardening of views in areas where resentment can fester and manifest itself into a time bomb. This is a habit that we have recently fallen into, and one we must shake ourselves out of. We have a hard nut to crack, and we must crack it before it hardens beyond all treatment.
Aodhán Ó Ríordáin is a primary school principal in the Sheriff Street area of Dublin, a member of the Labour Party, and formerly Dublin’s Deputy Lord Mayor. His column appears every week in Metro Eireann
