'You're welcome - as long as you're Irish'. 7th March 2008

Question: What kind of thoughtless scumbag throws three paint bombs at a family's house, just because that family are "foreign"?
Answer: An ignorant, thoughtless scumbag.An ignorant, thoughtless scumbag with no idea, not only of how to behave, but of the hypocrisy of his actions.On Sunday evening, a Romanian family's home in the Nelson Drive estate was attacked by paint bombers. The family have three young toddlers and one of them suffered cuts to his foot when their living room window was smashed.The family also discovered paint smeared across the front door spelling the word 'OUT'. I'm surprised the cretins who carried out the stupefyingly pointless, and dangerous attack, managed to spell 'OUT' correctly. A child could have been killed.Malin Rostas, his wife Elena and their three children were all at home when the attackers struck on Sunday evening.Mr Rostas told the 'Foyle News': "I just saw two guys in black but I didn't see their faces. They broke the windows and the three children were sitting on the sofa by the window when it happened. You can imagine they were terrified. I came out and they ran away. We have had nothing like this happen before, we have just moved here."The Rostas family only arrived in Derry last month to start a new life. What a welcome!? Cead mile failte indeed.Mr Rostas says he will have to think about moving if they are targeted again, and nobody could blame him."I have a few friends round here and they are ok so that is why we came. I got a job here and brought my family over. Derry people seem to be ok but if this happens again we will have to think about leaving. "I just want to know why someone would do this. They know there are children in the house and they shouldn't do this," he said.The Irish people pride themselves on being a jovial, welcoming bunch in whatever part of the world you meet them. We had to be - because we travelled all over the world to find work and raise families. We had to endear ourselves to the people of America, Canada, Australia, Europe, Africa, and beyond because we landed on their shores looking to thrive and prosper. IntegrateWe needed
to integrate into their societies in order to survive and they way we did it was by being nice, charming and jocular. It became a stereotype which is still prevalent today: "Ah, to be sure, to be sure - the craic'll be mighty so it will" etc etc.It is a pleasure to travel to other parts of the world as an Irish man because, for the most part, we are treated with affection and kindness. The same cannot be said of the English because they have a history spiked with imperialism and colonialism.If the poisonous seed of racism is allowed to take root here then we could soon be heading down the same road and our good name will be destroyed.As the Irish economy has been flourishing in the last decade it is no wonder that more and more people want to come here to live.Our ancestors left these shores and headed West to the Americas where there were no taxes nor tithes to pay.
How can we blame others for following suit a century or two later?Irish Americans number over 44 million, making them the second largest ethnic group in the country after German Americans.You would be hard pushed to find any country in the world that doesn’t have at least one Irish pub. Scratch that, you’d be hard pushed to find any CITY in the world that doesn’t have a Wild Rover, Blarney Stone, or - most likely - an O’Neill’s stuck away in some corner.Local politicians and clergy are falling over themselves to condemn the Nelson Drive attack but that isn’t going to stop a similar attack happening again.Righ Rev Ken Good, Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, said the actions of the attackers did not reflect what the majority of people think. He said: “Our
hearts go out to the Rostas family today. The citizens of this city want to assure this Romanian family that they are very welcome among us and that we deplore the attack on their home.”I hope he’s right, but I’m not entirely convinced. What we need is to educate children on ‘who they are’ and ‘where they came from’ - a society from which many had to leave, and go to a foreign country in order to survive.ActionWaterside Sinn Féin Councillor Lynn Fleming said: “The issue of hate crimes covering racism and sectarianism, is one of the major challenges facing our society today.” That’s all well and good but action is required - not political hyperbole.The most basic lesson of how to be a decent human being is all that needs to be remembered: treat others as you’d like them to treat you. It’s not rocket science and we, as Irish people, should never be allowed to forget it.