Two swallows never make a summer, yet it is undeniable that journalists have been on the receiving end of aggressive nationalist intimidation. Last week the efforts by a Sinn Fein element to intimidate Sam McBride of the Belfast Telegraph was flagged up on TPQ. Since than it has emerged that the Irish Times journalists Kitty Holland and Dara Mac Dónaill have also been the target of intimidation attempts, this time by a much more extreme nationalist element, the far right.
What drew the ire of the far right is a piece worked on by both journalists about an attack on a self-improvised tented shelter inhabited by a number of East European, Portuguese and Indian homeless men near the Tolka River in Ashdown. The brace of Irish Times journalists had been reporting on how the inhabitants of the migrant camp coped with their arduous existence in a country that supposedly welcomes refugees and migrants:
What drew the ire of the far right is a piece worked on by both journalists about an attack on a self-improvised tented shelter inhabited by a number of East European, Portuguese and Indian homeless men near the Tolka River in Ashdown. The brace of Irish Times journalists had been reporting on how the inhabitants of the migrant camp coped with their arduous existence in a country that supposedly welcomes refugees and migrants:
Having interviewed the homeless and while getting ready to depart on the nearby road, The Irish Times witnessed the men and dogs entering the camp, from which screaming and commotion could then be heard. The men and four dogs – including a German shepherd, an American pit bull terrier and a Rottweiler – were then seen leaving. One man was wearing a black balaclava. The Irish Times has photographs of the men, which cannot be published at present for legal reasons.
According to one of the people sheltering at the camp
It was like a Blitzkreig. Literally, from the moment when I see them coming with the dogs and starting to shout, within a minute they were on the other side of the camp. One had a baseball bat. It was hard to react. They were screaming: ‘Get out. We’ll burn the tents down. Get out now.’
It conjured up chilling memories of footage I had watched a year or two ago in which Russian racists attacked people from a different country on a Moscow street, beating them and vandalising their property.
One of the Hungarian homeless placed the violence at the camp within a wider trend in Irish society:
In all my eight years here, I have not seen so much racism as in the last few months. There is a very nasty racism. I feel it every day, this rise of nationalism.
Enraged about violent racist intimidation being exposed and challenged by the Irish Times, a torrent of online abuse was showered down on Kitty Holland and Dara Mac Dónaill.
The NUJ has condemned the threats with its Irish Secretary Seamus Dooley stating:
The abuse of Ms Holland, in particular, is vile and beneath contempt. There have been suggestions that the story was fabricated. Kitty and Dara are journalists of the highest integrity who behaved with utmost professionalism. This was a despicable incident, and their presence thankfully prevented a more serious incident.
It hardly needs reiterated that the function of journalism is vital not just in a society that values transparency but also in societies where malevolence desires opacity so that dirty work can be conducted in the dark. When Kitty Holland & Dara Mac Dónaill shine a light on the violence of the far right against vulnerable and powerless people, they are doing Irish society a great service and demonstrating what Ireland should be about: warmly welcoming those from foreign climes; increasing the chill for home grown racists and fascists.
⏩ Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.
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