Cork vs. Racism – International Day Against Racism 21st March 2013
Photo by Marcin Lewandowski. In the photo (from top left): Nollaig Cleary, Simon Zebo, Fiona Finn, Sean Og O hAilpin, Simon Prim, Brendan Mills, Lord Mayor John Buttimer, John O’Connor
To mark the International Day Against Racism (21st March) and the European Week Against Racism (16th – 24th March), GAA legend Seán Óg Ó hAilpín, Ireland and Munster Rugby’s rising star Simon Zebo and Nollaig Cleary, Cork Ladies Footballer have joined together to stand up against racism. The Lord Mayor Councillor John Buttimer was also present, as well as Community Gardaí John O’Connor and Brendan Mills.
The PR photo is to mark the International Day Against Racism and this year’s focus on racism in sport. It was organised by Nasc and the Cork City Community Policing under Community Garda Sergeant Trevor Laffan. As lead organisations in the Cork City Integration Strategy, both An Garda Síochána Community Policing and Nasc work to combat racism and promote integration in the city. Nasc operates a confidential third party racist reporting mechanism, originally piloted by Sgt. Laffan.
CEO Fiona Finn comments, “We were delighted to have such prominent Cork stars out to mark the day. It shows a real commitment to tackling racism in our city. It’s about having zero tolerance for racism in sport certainly, but also zero tolerance for racism in our everyday lives.”
Nasc recently sent in a submission to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications hearings on social media and cyberbullying. The submission focused on the issue of online racism and how to combat it through legislative reform, awareness raising and ratification of the European Convention on Cybercrime. The submission can be downloaded from the website here.
Racist Reporting Officer Simon Prim states, “Online racism is an area we are particularly concerned about as we have had an upsurge in reports coming into Nasc of this nature in recent months. It’s an area that is very difficult to monitor and we don’t believe the current legislation is adequate to combat online forms of racism.”
March 21st is International Day Against Racism, a day when the people across the globe show their opposition to racism. This annual event started as a memorial by the United Nations in response to the murder of 69 anti-apartheid demonstrators in Sharpeville, South Africa, in 1960. The European Week Against Racism centres on the International Day Against Racism and is co-ordinated in Ireland by the Irish Network Against Racism (ENAR Ireland), of which Nasc is a member. This year the focus is on making hate crime visible by reporting racist incidents. To find out how to report a racist incident, click here.
Media coverage:
- Rugby and GAA stars get together to kick racism off the pitch (Irish Independent, 21 March 2013)
- Cork sports stars raise awareness of racism (Cork Independent, 21 March 2013)
