The following accounts highlight the level of racial abuse that people from ethnic minorities encounter on a daily basis in Ireland.They bear witness both to personal abuse and to institutional racism.

For each of these stories, dozens more could be told. A recent survey carried out by the African Refugee Network in Dublin found that a third of refugees had experienced verbal or physical abuse, and last year The Sunday Independent noted 27 racially-motivated, unprovoked attacks in just the first three months of the year.

©Derek Speirs/Report

In the past year, the near-fatal stabbing of tourist David Richardson and the attack on Paul Abayomi made headline news. But many racist attacks go unnoticed and uninvestigated because members of ethnic minority groups are too afraid to go to the gardaí or do not believe that the gardaí will follow up a report with an investigation.

This lack of trust in the authorities reveals an urgent need for the establishment of an independent mechanism for dealing with racial incidents. Until such action is taken, ethnic minority groups are left to suffer in silence.

"The sooner the shotguns are at the ready and these travelling people are put out of our county the better. They are not our people, they aren't natives."
Remarks of a Fianna Fáil Councillor at a Waterford County Council meeting. (Sunday Independent, 14 April 1996)

"Travellers are followed around shops by security, get dirty looks from people who own shops and some customers. It gets worse coming up to Christmas. It's difficult to have a social life because of not being allowed into pubs."

"There is a huge lack of trust between the Gardaí and members of the Travelling community. The Gardaí don't trust us and we don't trust them. Until these barriers are broken we won't make progress."
Member of the Travelling community quoted in 'Policing Pluralism' 2000, by David Walsh

One day Ahmed wanted a light for his cigarette and so he asked local women who were approaching him wheeling a buggy. The response he got was "Fuck off you black bastard".

The city centre is the worst place. Ahmed thinks the gardaí stop a lot of black drivers in certain areas for things like motor insurance and tax, where they are not stopping white drivers.

Ahmed says he has had many bad experiences on public transport. For example, one time he was on a bus, in one of the middle seats, and some kids down at the back started singing and chanting "I'm just a nigger monkey". "I knew that I was the only black person on the bus and felt deeply humiliated and helpless," says Ahmed. It did not surprise him that nobody, even older people, asked them to stop.

Ahmed told us that "every black person has a story - everyone has experienced racism". He says that he feels threatened from the moment he walks outside his house and always "expects the unexpected".

"Verbal abuse is part of my daily routine."
George

Petre's restaurant does good business but it is constantly under threat from racist assaults.

©Derek Speirs/Report

The windows at the front are broken from regular stone-throwing. But Petre does not want to fix them any more because he sees no point if people are going to break them again. As a result, he has put up a metal sheet over the window and closed the curtains. No natural light gets into the restaurant. "It feels like a prison in here now," said Petre.

The assaults are not just on the premises. While making his way into the restaurant Petre has been hit by stones, and so has his son. The perpetrators call them "Romanian bastards" and "spongers". They are left in no doubt as to why they are attacked.

He constantly reports these incidents to the gardaí but he says nothing is ever done. In fact, he said that for the first year the gardaí did not come around to make further enquiries. Now the gardaí come around all of the time, but taking down Petre's name and the nature of the complaint has become a joke.

Mary sells African products in her Dublin shop.

Her windows are constantly broken. She tells the gardaí about it but she feels they cannot do anything to help her. Nor does she bother to get her windows fixed as it would be too expensive.

She has also been the subject of personal abuse. She says she is regularly spat upon by the residents of nearby flats. They spit from the balconies as they call her a "fucking nigger" and tell her to "go home to where you came from".

"My children have been bullied on the way to and from school. They have been called 'niggers' and 'monkeys' and so now I have to escort them to and from the school grounds".
Mary

Married to an Irish woman, Kwame lives in a small town. Last year, at a local petrol station he was paying for petrol. The man working there, who knew Kwame's wife, took the opportunity to seat himself in the car beside her. He asked her if Kwame was her boyfriend and she said yes. He then said to her, "I see that you have not seen the light...".

One Friday night, Kwame, his wife and some friends went to a local pub for a drink. All of the friends (white and Irish) were welcomed by the bouncers until it was Kwame's turn to enter. He was stopped and told that he could not go in.

"Like so many of my white countrymen and women, I come from rural Ireland. But unlike them I don't know what it's like to be considered Irish or to enjoy and take for granted my Irishness. From the time of my childhood I have been led to believe that only white people in Ireland are Irish and anyone who does not fit this sterotype is excluded."
Sharon Murphy

Etomi is afraid to go out after dark on her own. Every time she goes into the city centre somebody calls her a nigger or tells her to go back to Africa. One day people started to throw stones at her warning her "to stop taking our money".

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Alain said "The kids in school send me text messages on my mobile phone saying 'you black nigger bastard'. I am afraid to look at my messages."

Neither Etomi or Alain have told their teachers or the gardaí because they do not think that anything can be done.

Some names and personal details have been changed to protect the identities of the individuals involved.

"I couldn't walk around without getting called names. People were so busy staring at me they put themselves in danger - walking into traffic or drivers almost hitting other cars. Friends thought I was being paranoid - nobody believed the land of open arms was racist".