I did not write, yesterday, about the horror story that emerged from the Citywest Asylum Centre late on Monday evening. In part because I felt there was not much to say that has not already been said, and in part because I knew full well that there would be a riot on foot of what had happened and I did not want to write something that would be seen to incite it or approve of it.
But have the rioters not got a point? An incident of the kind that appears to have occurred on Monday was inevitable. They knew it. The Government, it seems, did not.
All policy decisions that Government make come with downsides. One foreseeable downside of importing large numbers of young men from cultures with entirely different moral values around sex and relationships is that some of them will continue to act in accordance with the moral values of their homeland rather than their host country.
Sexual assaults of women are foreseeable when you bring in large numbers of people from nations where sexual assaults of women are seen as primarily the fault of the woman for inspiring lust in her assailant.
Nor is it particularly shocking that children might be targeted. In Sudan, for example, one of the most conflict ridden societies in Africa, the age of sexual consent is 12. In Nigeria, a reputable study of that country’s women found that 31% of them had their first sexual experience as teenagers through rape or coercion. Even in African societies where rape and sexual assault are formally criminalised, many cultures within those countries still practice tribal law whereby a man can escape punishment by marrying his victim, in effect “claiming” his future wife via rape or a sexual crime.
Irish policy has been particularly insidious because of how it accommodates these men: It piles large numbers of them together in accommodation facilities, away from normal society. Then it mocks the instinctive and entirely sensible concern of locals and sensible people who worry that large groups of young men from such cultures, deprived of normal opportunities to socialise and meet with potential mates, might weaponise their sexual frustration against the nearest available female. As a general rule, I always believe that a concern which is instinctive is a concern based on something valid, and evolutionary. Perhaps it is an instinctive understanding of the darkest parts of the male soul.
The alleged crime in Citywest is horrific because it combines two enormous catastrophes of Irish public policy: Immigration, and children’s rights. Can there ever have been a more insidious statement made by an Irish public body than the one made by Tusla on Monday evening, which essentially blamed the victim – a ten year old child – for “absconding” from their care? “Don’t blame us” was the message – blame the feckless kid for running away and getting herself in trouble.
I do understand the human concern of those who wish to play down and seek calm in incidents like this. They do not wish for all migrants to be scapegoated for a crime allegedly committed by just one migrant. That many of these same people have been more than content, over the years, to see Priests and Religious scapegoated widely for the crimes committed by a fraction of the clergy is neither here nor there. The overwhelming majority of people – migrant or native, priest or rabbi or layman – do not sexually assault children.
But that does not mean that we should not be angry. The Irish public have a right to be livid. Fucking livid.
We should be livid because innocent though most migrants are, the Irish state does not exist to serve their needs. This country established its own government – hopelessly imperfect though it may be – to serve and vindicate the needs of Irish people, first and foremost. For most of my adult life, twenty years or more, the Irish Government has persistently subordinated that duty in the name of defending and vindicating the needs of others. Put simply, it has repeatedly asserted that the right of foreign migrants to live in Irish communities is more important than the right of Irish communities to feel safe and coherent. Or to put it in a phrase Leo Varadkar used: Nobody has a veto over who lives beside them.
Except we do have a limited veto. That is why countries exist. That is why international borders exist.
In Ireland, a generation of our political leaders have decided that the importation of thousands of men – and the overwhelming majority are men – from the third world is more important to them than the opposition of those who object. In fact, doing so has been proof positive of the Irish Government’s moral superiority over its own people. By importing thousands of people from the rest of the planet and shoving them into your local hotel, they have demonstrated that they are kind and decent and compassionate, and you are a racist yokel.
I do not know whether the accused person in this case is guilty of the crime with which he has been charged. I do however know a few other things.
I know that the Irish state will expend resources to help him mount a legal defence. I know that it has already expended thousands on his accommodation. And on his legal cases, where the Irish Government funds his applications to stay in the country. I know that he was issued a deportation order over a year ago, but remained here, in state provided accommodation, presumably awaiting the outcome of his state-funded appeal against that deportation order.
As for the victim? I know a few things about her, too. I know that she is a troubled child in the care of the state. I know that Tusla has failed her. I know that hundreds of children have gone missing from Tusla facilities over the years with almost no political accountability. I know that concerns have been raised about organised grooming of children in Tusla care for the purposes of sexual exploitation.
The Irish Government are responsible for both Tusla and the migration policy. Our politicians did not commit this crime. But they might as well have done so.
And I know one last thing: That people who are angry about this have nobody to vote for on Friday. That politicians, fearing that given the chance, Irish voters might elect an anti-immigration President, made sure to stop one getting on the ballot. Denied the opportunity to express themselves democratically, some people have once again expressed themselves violently.
And that, just like the crime that sparked the riots, is the Government’s fault as well.
Divisive? Nobody is dividing Irish society against itself more than those who purport to lead us. Shame on them. Shame, Shame, Shame.