‘Safe harbour for all’ in first Cork Against Racism event

A large crowd turned out at the first ever Cork Against Racism Carnival which took place on the Grand Parade on Saturday afternoon.

The event, which saw the Lord Mayor of Cork Fergal Dennehy among the main speakers, was a community led celebration of solidarity against the rise of racism and hate in Ireland.

The event included music and dance from Cork’s Romanian, Indian and Mexican communities, along with speakers from ethnic communities in Cork.

Cork Labour Party Senator Laura Harmon, who was one of the event organisers along with Green Party Cork city councillor Honore Kamegni, told The Echo she felt the Cork Against Racism Carnival sent out a clear message.

“Events like this are really important to show the diverse communities in Cork, that they are welcome here, to celebrate their cultures and the value that they bring.

“I think that it is really important that Irish people show solidarity. Particularly because we are seeing a number of attacks on these communities over the last number of years.

“I was actually approached by the Indian community initially, who were worried about attacks on their community and they wanted to do something about it.

"So we set up this broad alliance and one of the actions was to organise this event."

Ms Harmon added: “We were delighted that the Lord Mayor of Cork Fergal Dennehy addressed the event. He gave a very powerful speech, about why Cork is a safe harbor for all and racism in all of its forms is completely unacceptable.

“We need to keep the pressure on to tackle hate.

"Some of the calls I made in my speech yesterday include that we need more Gardaí in Cork, we need to have more funding for education and awareness campaigns to tackle racism.

“We also need to properly resource the national action plan against racism in Ireland, and we do need to strengthen our hate crime laws, particularly around hate speech."