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“Of course there’s white privilege… white privilege is a reality,” Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne has said, backing comments by his party colleague Sinead Gibney that Ireland is a “racist society”.
Speaking on the Plinth outside Government Buildings this week in an exchange with Gript, the Social Democrats housing spokesman was responding to remarks made by Dublin Rathdown TD Sinead Gibney on RTÉ’s The Week in Politics on Sunday, where she said: “We live in a racist society.”
Asked whether he agreed with Gibney’s assessment, Hearne said he did, and that racism remained a significant issue in Ireland and pointed to discrimination experienced by minority groups.
“I think that she is right,” Hearne said.
“I think that there are huge problems of racism within Ireland. We know that. We know historically that there have been huge issues with racism towards travelers, for example, discrimination.
“And we know that, you know, down the years, there are year after year reports done by various human rights organisations, which show discrimination and racism happening.”
He specifically cited recent violent unrest in Belfast as an example.
“And it is a collective societal problem that we have to address to education, to integration, to work on social cohesion,” he added.
Gript also asked Hearne about previous comments made by former Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy regarding white privilege.
In 2020, following the death of George Floyd in the United States, Murphy said: “While it is true that the Irish have known our fair share of oppression, the reality is that during that oppression we still maintained our invisibility cloak of white privilege.”
When asked whether he agreed that white privilege was a component of the issues under discussion, Hearne said that while “there’s an element of culture wars to that language,” he did agree it was a factor.
“Well, of course, there’s white privilege,” he said.
“There’s middle-class privilege, there’s upper-class privilege, there’s various privileges in society.
“But there’s no doubt that again the, the studies show, the research shows, the reality shows that if you’re of color, if you’re of migrant background in Ireland, you do face discrimination, particularly in the areas of housing, access to housing.
“So you know, white privilege is a reality.”
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