For the past fortnight I have been ashamed to be Irish. The savage beating and humiliation of an Indian IT worker – only three weeks in this country – by a teenage gang in Tallaght provoked a series of messages from other people from the Indian sub-continent who had suffered similar attacks at the hands of young Irish people.

As the son of a father who was a political refugee and an Irish mother, perhaps this affects me more deeply than many 100% born and bred native Irish people. Although probably not: I imagine (and hope) that the great majority of Irish people would have reacted to that attack, like me, with the same emotions: disgust, alarm and compassion. It is a profoundly depressing and frightening development in a country that prides itself on its friendliness, inclusivity and anti-imperialist history. We were shocked at the attacks on Roma and other immigrant families in Ballymena in June, but comforted ourselves with the complacent thought that such racist hatred and violence was the work of bigoted loyalists and could never happen here. Like hell it couldn’t!

There were shocking online images of the victim dripping with blood and walking the streets with bare legs (his assailants had torn his trousers off). He kept saying: “I came here to make a living and live in peace. I was just walking to my place of worship. What wrong have I done, why me?” Videos of the bloodied man were quickly put up, alongside claims by a so-called ‘journalist’ that he had been acting inappropriately around children before the attack. The gardai said this was a blatant untruth.¹

Below is a heart-breaking letter put up on LinkedIn by the distinguished Cork-based Pakistani-born community activist, Fahmeda Naheed.

LETTER FROM AN INDIAN NURSE IN IRELAND – WHY WE’RE LEAVING

I don’t usually write things like this.
But today, I feel like I have to.
Not just for myself, but for my wife, my children, my friends, and that little Indian girl I saw being attacked yesterday.

We came to Ireland with dreams — not big ones.
We didn’t want luxury or fame.
Just a peaceful life.
Honest work.
A little respect.

My wife and I are both nurses. Like so many others, we left behind our families, our childhood homes, everything we knew — to come here and help. To work hard. To live quietly. To make a better future.

But now?

We’re planning to leave.

And we’re not the only ones.

In our circle alone, around 30 to 35 Indian nurses are talking seriously about quitting their jobs — some are applying to Australia, some going back to India. Even doctors are being targeted now. You might’ve seen it in the news. Or maybe not.

But we see it.

We feel it.

We live it.

Yesterday, I saw something that broke me.
A 8-year-old Indian girl, surrounded by a group of Irish boys and girls, maybe 15 or 16 years old.
They were pushing her. Bullying and laughing.
For no reason. Just because she looked different.
I helped her escape. They ran.
And I stood there shaking, wondering…

What kind of place is this becoming?

We came to Ireland to save lives — and now we’re scared to walk home after a shift.

We kept going during COVID.
We missed weddings and funerals back home to stay here and work.
We followed every law, paid every tax, waited for every visa.
We believed this was a country of kindness.

And now?

Now we’re afraid for our children.

Afraid to send them to school.

Afraid they’ll be treated like less than human — just because of their skin, their accent, their food, their culture.

We know not everyone here is like this.
We’ve met wonderful Irish people. Some have become like family.
But that kindness is starting to feel like a whisper…
…and the hate is starting to feel like a storm.

I don’t want to write this letter. I want to stay hopeful.
But hope starts to fade when you see that even an 8-year-old brown girl can be treated like she doesn’t belong.

To Ireland, please listen:

If we leave, it’s not because we don’t love this country.
It’s because this country stopped loving us back.

If you lose your nurses, your doctors, your care workers — don’t ask ‘why.’

You already know why.

We didn’t leave because of money.
We left because we’re tired of being afraid.
Tired of being ignored.
Tired of watching silence win.

There’s still time. But not much.
This isn’t about politics anymore. It’s about basic human decency.

If this letter reaches even one person who didn’t understand before — then it’s worth writing.

Immigration to Europe – and therefore Ireland – from the countries of Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America is here to stay. Migration has rocketed worldwide, driven by warfare, climate change, rapid population growth in lower-income countries, advertising of opportunities on the Internet and the relative ease of travel. The demand for workers in the rich countries of Europe has also risen, as their populations fall well below the replacement rate at which population levels are stable. As a result, more and more countries are becoming dependent on migrant labour to sustain shrinking and ageing workforces.

A newly prosperous Ireland, with a falling birthrate, is part of this phenomenon. There are nearly 18,500 registered nurses and midwives here from the Indian sub-continent, nearly one fifth of the total. As somebody who has been visiting elderly relatives and friends in care homes in recent years, I can attest to the huge dependence of that sector on Indian and other developing world care workers. India has one of the world’s most developed IT sectors, and the man who was attacked in Tallaght is one of thousands who have come to work in our tech firms. My house was recently retrofitted and redecorated by an extraordinarily hard working and efficient team of builders from Romania and Brazil.

“As the competition for skilled workers heats up, many countries will have to move from grudging acceptance of economic migration to active efforts to recruit, causing more concerns about social and cultural change. How rich states manage this tension will be a key political dynamic in the coming decades”, wrote Sam Freedman in last weekend’s Observer.²

These people are the ‘new Irish’. We need them in our economy. Do we ‘old Irish’ welcome, respect and include them as equal and cherished fellow members of our society or do we marginalise, demonise and drive them out? That is the stark choice we face in the coming years.

PS David Atherton is the ‘journalist’ who claimed falsely that “a migrant was caught exposing himself to children. He is covered in blood after being taught some manners.” He writes for the right-wing website Muck Rack. Avoid anything written by this man. He is a liar and a hatemonger. He besmirches the usually honourable profession of journalism of which I was a member for many years.

¹ ‘He kept saying: What wrong have I done? Why me? An Indian man is left stripped and bloodied on an Irish street’, Irish Times, 26 July

² ‘The Truth about migrant workers: demonised but in demand, and few of us can live without them’, The Observer, 3 August