Former president Mary McAleese has criticised the use of the Irish flag to intimidate and compared it with the experiences of some Irish people who emigrated to the US and the UK.
Mrs McAleese was interviewed by human rights lawyer Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC at an event at Trinity College Dublin marking 50 years of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL).
She was asked about incidents of racism in Ireland, and said that while Ireland was “fortunate” with its political leadership, racism was being “promoted by people in serious leadership positions” in the world.
“The language of racism, the language of misogyny, the language of rich is good and the poor is bad has just taken hold, social media helps it to course and gives it such spread.
“More importantly, people in leadership positions who are able to create audiences, audiences who in the past would never have heard that kind of language, (and when they did it) would have been regarded as completely unacceptable,” she said.
Mary McAleese spoke about the history of the Irish as emigrants across the world
She added: “Now, because it is said by people in eminent positions, racism is on an agenda, misogyny is on an agenda, which seems to me now a cause for organisations like this – we’ve got to stand doubly strong.
“To be honest, I don’t think this is going anywhere but bad, that’s the truth.”
Mrs McAleese compared people who use the Irish flag to intimidate and say “Ireland for the Irish”, to the “no Irish need apply” signs in the UK and the US.
“Do they know nothing about our history as immigrants?
“Do they know nothing about the impact of immigration-based racism on our people, have they no conscious about that?
“I never thought I’d live to see that day in Ireland, where the Irish flag would be used by people like that, but it is all the more reason to say you will not colonise our thinking, you will not colonise our flag,” she said.
Mary McAleese spoke about the history of the Irish as emigrants across the world
The Belfast native said “other people tried in the past to do it for really malignant reasons that were visited upon us as Irish people but we will not let that happen to those who have made their lives among us”.
Mrs McAleese, who was the first Irish president from Northern Ireland, serving two terms from 1997 to 2011, experienced first-hand the violence of The Troubles and would later go on to play a role in the Northern Ireland peace process.
She trained as a barrister and journalist at RTÉ and also completed a doctorate in canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, with the thesis to be converted into two books on children’s rights.
Since 2013, she has taught courses in various higher educational institutions on topics including children rights, LGBT rights in international law, conflict resolution and the Irish peace process.
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