Clonakilty SF anti-racism motion
At the recent meeting of Clonakilty UDC, Sinn Féin's Councillor Cionnaith Ó Súilleabháin proposed a motion condemning racial intolerance and committing the council to working to ensure equal rights and respect for all ``regardless of race, colour, creed or origin''.
The local branch of Amnesty International had written to the UDC outlining its concerns that a recent survey published on the Sunday Independent stated that 51% of Irish people believed that Ireland was a racist society. It asked that a motion it had drafted be adopted by the council as a public declaration against racism in the community.
In proposing the adoption of the motion, Ó Súilleabháin said he was glad to once again propose a common sense motion that would treat all human beings as equals.
He recalled mooting a civic welcome for representatives of local asylum seekers when they arrived in Clonakilty in early 2000. He had also put down motions calling for the right to work and advocating that third level education be extended to asylum-seekers pending the outcome of their applications for asylum. These and similar proposals had been consistently rejected by a majority of councillors in the past, he pointed out.
On this occasion, Cathaoirleach Jer White (Fianna Fáil) said he had great pleasure in seconding the motion, and it was passed unanimously. Ó Súilleabháin said that at the risk of sounding cynical, he was left in no doubt that if he had proposed the motion in his own name rather than that of Amnesty, other councillors would once again have rejected it. The fact that it came from the local branch of Amnesty International meant they saw it as something that should now be supported, probably for reasons of vote-catching rather than what the motion was all about - equality!
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