The fleeing of over 100 Roma from their houses in South Belfast, and the subsequent departure of most of them back to Romania, has hit the headlines all over the world. Esther Rantzen has accused the people of Northern Ireland of being addicted to hate. Roma history, and indeed the history of minorities in Europe, would suggest that the people of Northern Ireland have simply added themselves to a long line of other addicted people.
At a service held by the South Belfast Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church to oppose racism there was a reading about Kristallnacht when Jewish shops and homes were attacked in 1938. What the events of Kristallnacht and South Belfast share are despised and vulnerable minorities and the smashing of glass. But there is one significant difference. Kristallnacht was carried out by the agents of a criminal state; the events of South Belfast were the acts of a number of youths acting as far as we know on their own. Political representatives of all shades condemned what happened so, that’s alright then, we are really a liberal society, part of a liberal State, and what happened in South Belfast was an aberration, the criminal acts of a few youths.
But we are not really a liberal society. We have the appurtenances of a liberal State – an Equality Commission, a Human Rights Commission, a Community Relations Council, human rights compliant policing – and we are part of a liberal state – the United Kingdom – and closely linked to another – the Republic of Ireland. However, the history of this space is profoundly not liberal over the centuries and particularly over recent decades. We know intimately how to expel people and use violence. We are currently dominated by two political parties who have hardly incarnated liberalism. This is a situation of fragility and we can easily revert to our deepest instincts.
And these youths from South Belfast also ‘represent’. They are the marginalised ‘other’ attacking the even more marginalised ‘other’, from communities bearing the brunt of socio-economic and political change. Who bears the burden of change? Usually those least able to bear it. And what about the racism of the leafy suburbs – the polite version. So, these youth may have some ‘representativeness’ about them, after all.
The events surrounding the expulsion of these Roma have exposed our fragility, our discomfort, and our powerlessness. The Roma have left and maybe we can live unhappily ever after in our little Ulster. And, as in all situations, some people rise to the situation. Thank you City Church.
David Stevens
Leader of Corrymeela Community