Finding a voice for Britain’s Irish
The recent Labour Pary Conference saw Tony Blair fighting for his political life. But one Labour MP is fighting another battle — for the rights and welfare of the Irish in Britain. MICHAEL HALL talks to John McDonnell PM.
The Labour Party Constituency Office in Pump Lane resembles a quaintly renovated side garage, complete with a sunny flower garden and bright green door.
But a poster in the window proclaiming the need to maintain public utilities coupled with the frenetic activity inside betrays its true nature.
John McDonnell — local Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington — is on the phone. Talk is of internal party matters and the need to arrest the prospect of electoral defeat.
He is busy helping to shape the new, left wing coalition of MPs, Trade Union General Secretaries and rank and file activists of Britain’s Labour movement now squaring up to what he calls the rightist clique dominating the party.
The first thing that strikes you about John McDonnell is not his outspokenness however, but his conventional, business-like appearance.
“Now,” he says, legs crossed in his chair, notebook and pen at hand, owl-like eyes peering studiously across the room, “what are we talking about today?”
John McDonnell joined the Labour Party during the late 1970s, as the best way to forward the objectives of his local community, which he defines as the Irish community and wider community around Hayes.
Elected in 1981 to the Greater London Council, he describes a process of being sucked into party politics, as opposed to it being a premeditated career move. Since then the MP has used his influence of office to campaign relentlessly for the rights of Irish people in Britain. And this fight is far from over, he says.
He made the same point at a London gathering of the Wolfe Tone Society back in May this year, a point overshadowed by his remarks on the North of Ireland and subsequent calls for expulsion from his party.
“What I was trying to get across is this: We’ve been successful in attaining minority rights status, being included as a distinct ethnic group in the last national census and we’ve had a large number of statements by Government Ministers and local authority leaders, about the importance of the Irish community in Britain in the 21st Century. That recognition hasn’t been translated into policy implementation and distribution of resources. To date, I haven’t seen any effects the recognition of minority status has had.”
His message is clear. There has been an over-optimism that change would automatically flow from achieving minority status and complacency has set in. It needs to be shaken off so that we can capitalise on this victory. Minority status was just a small step in the right direction.
But hasn’t the situation of Irish people in England, particularly young people, improved over the past decade, regardless? Mr McDonnell urges caution when making such generalisations.
“It’s fairly clear that the up-turn in the Irish economy has provided more opportunities for young Irish people to travel through choice than through economic pressure.
“Large numbers are coming here, settling and are being tremendously successful, but there is also a continuous influx of traditional migrants coming over acting as a reserve army of labour, being squeezed into insecure, low-paid jobs and the worst housing conditions.
“They come over without sufficient support and training and what we need to do is continue the process of monitoring this situation so that those services established in the ‘80s and’ 90s can cater for those who still find themselves desperately seeking work.”
One pressing issue affecting the Irish community in Britain remains the alarming statistics relating to mental health. It is one of the issues the Labour MP and his colleagues in the All-Party Irish Group in Parliament (APIGP) have identified as a problem to be addressed.
Recent research by the Commission for Racial Equality has identified Irish People as being more than twice as likely as English-born citizens to be admitted to hospital with schizophrenia and other forms of serious mental illness.
“The whole issue around mental health and schizophrenia has only recently being acknowledged, partly because of the refusal to recognise our status as an ethnic minority and undertake research, and partly because of the fear factor in the Irish community because of the stigma attached to these issues.”
Research, he says, is being undertaken and Irish health workers are coming forward with much more evidence and more in the way of policy solutions. The APIGP are currently lobbying central government to fund public health authorities to commission a further, ongoing programme of research and treatment.
“It is a problem specific to migrant experience; it relates to disorientation, estrangement from family and community and, importantly, the demeaning impact of discrimination. Now that we’ve acknowledged it we can go forward.”
Discrimination, he says, remains a factor effecting Irish lives in Britain. Although today many people feel supremely confident about their Irish identity, Mr McDonnell believes ant-Irish racism is still prevalent in British society.
People, he says, still sense its underlying presence. This racism is different from that suffered by Afro-Caribbean and Asian people in its nature.
“The discrimination is much more subtle so it hasn’t been as forcefully challenged as it has been with other groups. We no longer have the blatant racism of No Blacks, No dogs, No Irish. This has evolved into more oblique forms of racism, including institutional neglect and cultural denigration. Remember, it only takes one incident for The Sun to run a front-page article denigrating the Irish.
“Every now and then the British media or a politician betrays their anti-Irish prejudice and this demonstrates how much things haven’t changed. Many of these problems are least acknowledged, even by ourselves, and that’s the reason they remain.”
What about the judicial and legal system in Britain? I ask him. Haven’t the lessons of the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four been learnt, by and large? Mr McDonnell smiles.
“After Birmingham and Guildford, racism within the criminal justice system was pushed underground. But there wasn’t the radical culture change we’d been hoping for. That old climate of racism began to re-assert itself, reflected in the fact that no one from the state was ever prosecuted for these cases. Today, the tide of reform has reversed. We’ve even had instances like in the Hyland Case, where a judge cracks an anti-Irish joke in court and the Lord Chancellor does nothing about it other than express regret.
“We’ve had the deaths of Irish prisoners in Brixton Prison and we are now witnessing the case of Christie McGrath. The system has demonstrated time and again that it hasn’t changed so that Irish people must look to their organisations to defend their rights.”
If this is the case, how strong are our organisations and what are the prospects for real advancement with regard to cultural recognition, equality and respect in this country?
“Our strength is our determination, which has seen us through some incredibly difficult times in the past, particularly during the Government’s introduction of the Prevention of Terrorism Act. This determination is found within our organisations today.
“However, lack of constant, core funding is a major problem. Secondly, we still haven’t developed a co-ordinated approach and consistent national voice to speak for the Irish community here. Although the Federation of Irish Societies, Action Group for Irish Youth and Irish Representation Group in Britain work well together, large numbers of Irish groups are not affiliated with them. So hearing one clear voice within the community is difficult.”
He believes tackling these two issues is crucial. The national network of community organisations needs to work tightly together, liaise more extensively, resulting in the Irish lobby becoming more authoritative and effective in achieving results.
But this still comes down to money.
“If we could break through the barriers in central government and the national funding bodies to financing this network, it would consolidate our voice and help effect greater change.
“We need to look at what resources local government is now spending on support of Irish culture within their area; that includes local Irish centres, pensioners groups and sporting organisations. In central government, we must look at every department to see what status is given us and what policies are being developed in terms of recruitment of Irish people to central government bureaucracies and we need to look at the distribution of contracts.”
When it comes to the Irish Government, Mr McDonnell is diplomatic.
“There’s no doubt that the Irish Government has shown an increasing understanding and awareness of the migration experience in Britain. What we have to do now is produce a more definitive programme of what we expect from them.”
Mr McDonnell says it is a mistake to rely on goodwill alone, a pertinent comment in light of the Irish Government’s reduction of funding for community groups in Britain recently.
“I think what we need to do as an Irish community is to produce our own programme, with very simple demands, and campaign for them. That would put pressure on the Irish Government.
“There certainly needs to be a more specific direction taken by them and the Taoiseach needs to give a clear lead on it. The All-Party Irish Group will be making direct representations to the Taoiseach on this matter.”
Britain’s Irish community — about 4.6million of the population — remains the largest migrant minority in Western Europe. It is also the only migrant group whose life expectancy worsens on emigration to England.
It is John McDonnell’s vision that this must be changed by the Irish community coming together and working for its rights.
The Labour MP’s suggestion, of sitting down and working out a common vision of where we want to go, along with a co-ordinated strategy on how to get there, is a vital one.
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