By Louie Lyons.

Let’s call her Aisling, as that’s as good a name as any and better than some. Aisling, a mother of two, is standing in the doorway of her 2-bedroom pebbledash house. As she looks out she knows that all around her bustles a vibrant Limerick. A new Limerick. A Limerick that’s won 3 of the last 4 hurling All-Ireland Championships. A Limerick that’s created 18,000 new jobs in the past decade. A Limerick that was a potential cultural capital of Europe in 2020, a far cry from her previous reputation as the picaresque “Stab City” and “murder capital” of Europe as it was labelled in 2008. Limerick has gone through a major transformation in the recent years. For this young mother, however, the effects of this change are only visible from her confinement behind a 10-foot high grey wall.

An imprisoning wall, plastered with fading but still garish Danger signs, encircles her estate. A relic of an outdated form of social policy that sought to ghettoise an entire community for the behaviour of the few, the wall perpetuates stigma and has led to a housing estate being neglected and left behind in this regeneration of Limerick. For standing, like some discarded Soviet architectural statement about the limits of freedom, between the Aisling and the fruits of this new Limerick is the “Great Wall of Moyross.”

Residents in Moyross have called for the removal of the wall which they say has for years confined and stigmatised their community. Residents of the Delmege park housing estate argue that the wall has a humiliating and dehumanising effect on them and their community. The wall separates the housing estate of about 120 homes from the student accommodation at the University of Limerick and in a mapping survey by the University of Limerick, they admit that “to this day Moyross has a wall segregating it from more affluent regions of Limerick City”. A petition aimed to force Limerick County Council to take action and remove the wall received more than 150 signatures.

The case being made by residents is that the wall perpetuates the image of Moyross as a dangerous area and then that image is used to justify the existence of the wall. In particular, resident activists point to the impact of the wall’s danger signs on the psychology of the children living within its confines, highlighting that behind the “Great Wall of Moyross” children are being born guilty. The Irish government has a controversial history of coercive confinement where those deemed undesirable are removed from plain sight, regardless of their rights as citizens, and the situation in Moyross is a poignant attestation to this.

This campaign comes after the success of a similar one in the same area. The #BUILDOURROAD campaign, seen by many as a start to opening up Moyross. The road in question was the Coonagh-Knockalisheen road. The Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan, denied the funding required to complete the road which was met with critical backlash from those in the area with the Moyross parish priest calling for the Minister to resign over the affair. The road had been an integral part of a planned regeneration project for the area since 2007. In February of 2021, however, residents in Moyross successfully demonstrated the power of their desire for more inclusivity for their area as they managed to reverse the ministerial decision and work on the road resumed. The building of the Coonagh-Knockalisheen road proved a beneficial step in opening up a community long isolated from the world around it.

As well as sociological and psychological impacts, further complaints about the wall call attention to its major physical issues. Videos circulating online show the ease with which you can crumble the wall’s rotting wooden supports in your hand. Some fear that the precarious structure of the wall may cause serious physical harm to those who must pass by it on a regular basis or to children who play near it. The wall also proves an obstacle for travel causing the length of common journeys to balloon. The wall provides few gaps and none with a size capable of catering to someone in a wheelchair, someone with a bike, someone with a pram, etc.

The wall is a symbol of the greater failings of the people of Limerick by successive Irish governments but could be used as a means by which the floundering regeneration project in the area could be saved.

For some context, Moyross in the mid-2000s was insulated from the surrounding area which provided criminal empires the perfect environment to thrive. The area became known for debilitating anti-social behaviour, unemployment five times the national average, and gang feuds. Gardaí cars petrol bombed, houses burnt out, and in particular, one high profile arson attack that left two children badly burnt in a car, grabbing the attention of the national media. Moyross, home to Noel Hogan of The Cranberries and rugby player Keith Earls, but long abandoned and forsaken by the services charged with its protection, was thrust into the media spotlight.

To combat the situation in Moyross, a two-pronged approach was instituted. Operation Anvil saw Gardaí flood the area, including a new Moyross-specific task force, patrolling armed Gardaí on horseback and on foot, undercover Gardaí, and even air support. In a potential plot twist, this Reagan-esque, war-on-drugs approach worked. By all measures, crime in Moyross is down. Murders, theft, arson have all fallen drastically since their peak years prior. However, despite this, residents continued to report worsening conditions and feelings of stigmatisation which speaks to the second prong of the government’s plan which Limerick’s Mayor, Daniel Butler, said had “failed”.

A regeneration project of the area was promised, which was originally envisioned as a 3 billion euro plan but was downscaled to roughly 400 million due to the financial crash in 2007. The project was intended to tackle issues in housing, crime, antisocial behaviour, social exclusion, and unemployment but has failed to follow through on many of its promises.

The failures of the regeneration project can be elucidated in a number of ways but one need only compare the number of houses demolished, nearly 1200, with the number of houses built, approximately 300, for the clearest example. Furthermore, the finances of regeneration have been subject to scandal. When asked for details on the finances of the project by Sarah Kiely, Fine Gael councillor, Regeneration officers were unable to provide the answers to questions such as where money had been spent and how much. In an April 2021 interview with NewsTalk, family support worker, Jason Craig, said “at the moment [people] just don’t trust a lot of these services”. This is where to Moyross wall comes back into play.

The wall acts as a physical barrier and yet simultaneously the wall is the symbolic barrier holding back regeneration. The will to buy-in to regeneration is high in Moyross. Those engaging in criminal acts in Moyross are a clear minority and the majority wish to follow the renewal that the rest of Limerick is experiencing evidenced by the road they got built through determination and activism. However, so long as the wall stands, regeneration will only be based on bad-faith promises and we will be left with a typical government ‘hamesing’ of the situation. Changing Moyross requires the population to trust the government’s plan for the area but what trust is being shown the other way when the people of Moyross plead to be released from this harmful confinement and the government chooses not to listen.

The impact of immigration and multiculturalism on Irish society has brought about some unforeseen challenges that need to be addressed, writes Méadbh Ní Dhuinn.

The OECD Reviews of Migrant Education Ireland (2009, p. 9) describes how “Immigration is a relatively new phenomenon in Ireland. Between 8 and 10% of students in Irish schools have an immigrant background representing many countries, cultures and languages”.

Towards 2016: Ten-Year Framework Social Partnership Agreement, 2006-2015 advocates the need for a more inclusive, integrated education system. Within the framework it addresses the need for “increased provision for migrants at both primary and second-level” without reference to increased provision for non EU migrants accessing third level education.  In addition the 2005 report ‘Planning for Diversity– The National Plan Against Racism 2005-2008’ “mandates development of a national intercultural education strategy, and advocates for an intercultural school environment”. However, the policy stipulates that frameworks and provisions for equal access to education can only be guaranteed up until the age of 18 with little or no policy frameworks highlighting or adhering to the provisions of providing non- EU migrant’s opportunities of obtaining equal access to higher education.

The Office of the Minister for Integration (2008, p.31) mandates that “efforts in education are critical to preparing immigrants, and particularly their descendants, to be more successful and more active participants in society”. For example, there is an “estimated 22,681 children born outside the EU registered in Irish secondary schools”. However, due to a lack of clear and comprehensive legislation many children of non EU migrants face barriers in the form of excessive student fees in accessing third level education.  This remains an equality of access issue for migrant families who have made Ireland their home, have paid taxes and put down roots”. Equal access to education, at all levels, remains a key point of importance insofar as it “lies at the heart of the integration process.” (Migrant Education Access, 2012, p.1)

The barriers facing non-European migrant’s access to higher education is further impeded upon by the citizenship process. The implications of the residency stamp process is that many young, non-European migrants are unable to apply for financial assistance and third level funding putting them at a disadvantage and unequal footing to their Irish counterparts. Migrant Education Access Ireland (2012, p.2) states that “in essence we have an immigration system that never considered their (i.e. non-EU migrants) arrival in Ireland and a third level education system that is virtually inaccessible to them”.

Consequently, how can an inclusive, intercultural society be created in Ireland if we avoid the issue of non- EU migrant access and marginalization from third level institutes? Invalidating the right to educational access at the age of eighteen clearly distinguishes, excludes and restricts a non-European migrant’s ability to engage in public life on an equal footing. Indeed, there is a clear dichotomy between policy and practice insofar as the ‘Planning for Diversity– The National Plan Against Racism 2005-2008’ cites racism as

Any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life’. (Department of the Taoiseach, 2005, p.38)

The Migrants Rights Centre Ireland (2011, p7) cites two significant EU directives. Directive 2003/86/EC states that there is an entitlement to ‘access to education and vocational training’. Furthermore, directive 2003/109/EC mandates that when resident in an EU state, migrants should ‘enjoy equal treatment with nationals as regards to education and vocational training, recognition of qualifications and study grants.’ However, as of yet, Ireland has not adopted these directives which may suggest why there is such a gap in providing policy for non-EU migrants struggling to gain equal access to Ireland’s higher education system.

This issue is further perpetuated by the economic recession in Ireland whereby the dispersal of public services, including access to educational funding “will intensify pressures on service providers trying to protect services for less advantaged social groups in the face of increasing competition for ever scarcer resources”. (Archer, 2010, p.4) However, if the issues of first generation, non- EU migrants access to education is not dealt with swiftly and in an adequate manner we will have a situation where second, third and fourth generations will be dealing with the same issues of educational attainment being implemented in an exclusionary, unequal, two- tier system.

The issue of first generation non-EU migrants struggling to access higher education comes at a pivotal time in Irish history. There are a number of complex issues that interrelate including modern day class structures in Ireland, globalization, the status of Ireland as an EU state, increased immigration and multiculturalism within Ireland and the consequences of economic prosperity rapidly diving into economic depression and austerity. Therefore, we witness policy and public sectors struggling to adapt to new and emerging concerns and demands from society. In terms of education, the government and the educational institutes themselves are struggling to define their role in light of the challenges that they now face.

Bryan (2008, p47) outlines the struggles that Ireland has undergone in adapting to a multicultural society. Her argument reiterates with the obstacles facing first generation non–EU migrants whereby “intercultural discourse in the Irish context marginalises and constructs racialized minorities in deficit terms, positioning them as ‘other’ than Irish, as less Irish, or less than Irish”.

Ireland, as a post-colonial, peripheral European country has struggled to adapt to the demands of multiculturalism and this is very much evident within the Irish political and educational agenda. There is a constant tension between an Ireland which “rhetorically and symbolically ‘welcomes’ and celebrates cultural diversity” and an Ireland that inadequately address intercultural education in terms of implementing “policies and practices reinforcing the ‘otherness’ of minority students” (Bryan, 2008, p.54)  which we have witnessed in the handling of first generation non-EU citizens trying to access higher education.

Never before in Irish history has it been so necessary to “place historically marginalized groups at the centre, rather than at the periphery of the intercultural debate” (Byran, 2008, p.56)           Inquiry into the way in which non –EU migrants struggle to gain equal footing to higher education provides us with a key opportunity to assess the ways in which we can adapt to the challenges Ireland faces as a modernized and multicultural European state.

A decade later the objectives of the Zappone, 2003 report, issued on behalf of the Joint Equality and Human Rights Forum, have yet to be sufficiently implemented as a way in which to curtail inaccessibly and marginalization through the advocation and promotion of “strategies that are relevant to the situation, experience and identity of multiple identity groups. Such strategies include a focus on institutional policy and practice. They also include a focus on the wider equality framework, including the development and implementation of equality legislation, the collection and analysis of equality data and approaches to mainstreaming equality”.

For more information on this topic and for opportunities to get involved with the “Mind the Gap” campaign please visit the Migrant rights Centre Ireland website at http://www.mrci.ie

References

Archer, L. (2010) ‘’We raised it with the Head’: The educational practises of minority ethnic, middle class families’. [Online] Available at http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/ [Accessed 30^th April 2013]

Bryan, A. (2008) ‘The co-articulation of national identity and interculturalism in the Irish curriculum: educating for democratic citizenship?’ London Review of Education, 6(1), 47-58.

Department of the Taoiseach (2005) Planning for Diversity– The National Plan Against        Racism 2005-2008 [Online] Available at http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/ [Accessed 25^th April 2013]

Department of Taoiseach (2006), Towards 2016: Ten-Year Framework Social Partnership Agreement 2006-2015. [Online] Available at http://www.nccri.ie/ [Accessed 25^th April 2013]

Migrant Education Access (2012) Children of non EU migrants deserve equality of access to third level education [Online] Available at http://mrci.ie [Accessed 25^th April 2013]

Migrant Education Access (2012) Submission to the Joint Committee on Education and Social Protection Reform of Third Level Education: an opportunity to address access issues facing young migrants [Online] Available at http://mrci.ie [Accessed 25^th April 2013]

Migrants Rights Centre Ireland (2011) Overcoming barriers to equality for the children of non- EU migrants [Online] Available at http://mrci.ie [Accessed 25^th April 2013]

OECD (2009) OECD Reviews of Migrant Education: Ireland [Online] Available at http://www.education.ie/ [Accessed 25^th April 2013]

Office of the Minister for Integration (2008) Migration Nation: Statement on Integration Strategy and Diversity Management [Online] Available at http://www.integration.ie/ [Accessed 25^th April 2013]

Zappone, K. (ed) (2003) Re-thinking identity: the challenge of diversity, Dublin: The Joint Equality and Human Rights Forum