On the evening of July 14, Jane* heard a banging at her front door, in the Dublin suburb of Clondalkin. She ignored it but a short while later her neighbour rang to say two men were in her garden – one at her door, one at the gate. When Jane eventually went outside she saw someone had sprayed on her front window “Blacks Out”.
It was just one in a series of attacks on Jane’s property in recent weeks, with the tyres on her car slashed twice in the fortnight preceding the graffiti, and slashed again two nights later, the Irish Examiner reports today.
Jane, a single mother who has lived in Clondalkin for more than six years, has since moved her two children to a friend’s home in Donegal. The children, a girl age 8 and a boy age 12, were both born in Ireland and are Irish citizens. Jane says they are now too scared to return to their home in Clondalkin.
LISTEN: Jane and Cllr Gino Kenny spoke to The Pat Kenny Show today
Speaking with The Pat Kenny Show this morning, Jane said “we haven’t been there since last week because I cannot stay there.”
The Clondalkin community have responded by supporting Jane and her family.
“They’re so angry and they are so upset. I’m not Irish but we are all friends.”
The community have aided in the clean up of Jane’s home and have encouraged her to continue living in the south Dublin suburb but she is still afraid to return while her attackers remain unidentified.
“Everybody is trying to not let me go, but I have to go because of my children. I don’t know who is doing this.”
“I hope they find that person,” Jane said.
“I want to know why – if the person is racist why are you racist?
“What reason? That is what I want to know. I have not done anything against anybody.”
Jane’s local councillor, Gino Kelly from the People Before Profit party, also spoke with Pat Kenny this morning.
Racist intimidation “isn’t common around Clondalkin” he said, although he said he believes racist attacks are on the rise in general around Ireland.
European Network Against Raacism Ireland report 137 racist hate crimes in Ireland 2014, the Examiner reports.
Jane’s uncle had moved out of Clondalkin the previous week after a series of racist attacks – in one incident someone broke in and left a kitchen knife on the bed
“There’s no theory” around the motivation for the attack, Mr Kenny added.
Echoing Jane’s praise for the community, Mr Kenny said there is a communal desire to ensure incidents of this nature are not tolerated.
“The way people see it is it’s not only an attack on the family, it’s also an attack on the community.
“It’s not going to be tolerated. The way people in the neighbourhood see it is the attack is not only on the family, it is an attack on the community.
“This cannot be allowed to manifest itself. Racism is a poison and if it’s not treated it will destroy a community.”
“The community as a whole has been absolutely fantastic. People are repulsed, absolutely sickened by what happened. Some of the kids came over and cleaned off the graffiti, ten-year-olds came over and started cleaning.”
Listen below to the full interviews with Jane and Councillor Gino Kenny
*Jane is not her real name
