‘The abuse we suffered due to our skin colour is being airbrushed from Irish history’ |
‘The abuse we suffered due to our skin colour is being airbrushed from Irish history’
TheJournal.ie
Dublin, Ireland
2014-10-22
Nicky Ryan, Staff Reporter
Members of Mixed Race Irish before the committee today. Source: Oireachtas.ie
Mixed Race Irish is asking for the Government to recognise the abuse they suffered in State-run institutions.
IN A EMOTIONAL appearance before an Oireachtas committee, mixed race survivors of institutional abuse in Ireland have called on the Government to recognise the suffering they endured.
The group, Mixed Race Irish, believe the alleged racist abuse they experienced in these institutions is being “airbrushed from Irish history”. They say that few, if any, records exist of mixed race Irish in any State institutions.
“Our research suggests this racism was endemic throughout all the institutions attended by our community,” co-founder Rosemary Adaser told the Justice Committee.
“The nuns showed us films of missionaries going to tame the ‘savages’, and we were told, ‘look at that, they are savages, that’s what you are’,” she said.
Co-founder Carole Brennan said that parish priests “would single out mixed race children and abuse them.”
“We believe we were treated differently, resulting in inequality, in these systems due to one simple fact – the colour of our skin,” she said…
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Tags: Carole Brennan, Ireland, Nicky Ryan, Rosemary Adaser, TheJournal.ie