| |
‘No Irish’ attitudes
• THE Race Relations Act of 1975 put an end to signs which said “No Irish, No Blacks”. However, within Islington’s Lib Dem council, there is still a less obvious, but very large, sign which says “No Irish”.
Responding to an advert by Islington Council’s Cambridge Education, I requested an education welfare service administrator application form for a friend. Noticing a reference to ethnic minorities in the advertisement, I asked the human resources person despatching the form to explain their definition of an ethnic minority. She listed the communities considered ethnic minorities and then said, with conviction and authority, that they did not include Caucasians. I explained to her that the Irish are the largest ethnic minority community by immigration to Britain and there is a large Irish community in Islington.
Concerned that the prevailing culture within the council was leading this woman to believe we are not an ethnic minority and thus Irish applicants like myself, should I wish to apply, would be deliberately discriminated against, I asked to speak to her manager. However, her manager believed exactly the same thing, and confirmed that this way of dealing with Irish candidates was coming from above.
If this is their belief, then, after receipt of the contract, did Cambridge Education exclude Irish applicants when it recruited its own staff to deliver this council contract? Within the service area it delivers, how many Irish applicants have been rejected before interview stage simply because they put Irish on their application forms. If there was monitoring of the contract by the council, why did it allow this discriminatory behaviour?
I would like council leader Councillor Terry Stacy to explain this breach of the law. I would also like Labour Opposition leader Councillor Catherine West to ask a council question about this discrimination. The Labour opposition took this council to task when a presentation on ethnic minorities excluded the Irish community. The Lib Dem council said it had rectified this discriminatory behaviour but obviously not.
Róisín Ní Corráin
N1
|
 |
|
|
|
| |
| |
| |
