Thursday, 23 September 2010

Toyosi Shittabey - Paul and Michael Barry charged with murder

On April 4th, this blog featured a post about an alleged racist attack on a young lad in nearby Tyrrelstown. Toyosi Shittabey was just 15 when he was stabbed to death on his way back from the nearby Blanchardstown Aquatic Centre. Paul Barry and Michael Barry were originally charged with manslaughter, but the charge was increased to one of murder at Blanchardstown District Court last Tuesday.

In the comments section of the original post Racist killing of Toyosi Shittabey in Tyrrelstown two people pointed out that one of the brothers,  Paul, had previous form as part of a group involved in a racist attack on Pearse Street, when a black Englishman was lucky to escape with his life having been racially taunted prior to being set upon. See Independent article

The comments were two of 149 published. Many others were not, and were instructive to me insofar as they indicated a disturbing undercurrent of xenophobia and racism in “modern” Ireland, and pointed to a subclass who believe that people of different colours or backgrounds can never be considered truly “Irish”, no matter how much they might attempt to assimilate.

All of this demonstrated that assimilation is a two-way street, and confirmed the crucial role of education in areas such as Tyrellstown and other parts of west and northwest Dublin, which have seen massive recent population growth including many migrants from beyond our narrow shores.

In short, education is the future, and such education must be inclusive and utilitarian. The authorities must see that in order to assimilate our new populations, we must educate and integrate not just them, but our own indigenous population.

To my mind, the best way of doing this is through the Educate Together schools, which are the nearest thing to inclusive, multicultural, multi-denominational (or secular) education we have at the moment.

Incredibly, despite the fact that these schools - driven by very real demographic factors - have had a considerable take-up at primary level there is still not one secondary Educate Together school in the country at the present time.

The authorities must appreciate the vital, socially cohesive, importance of this mode of education.

Or must we spell it out?

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16 comments:

delacaravanio said...

We are walking into a segregated primary schools system with our eyes open.

Anonymous said...

As a conservative thinker I do find many valid points on this site about the corruption and incompetence of this country. But all this race card bullshit pises me off, as soon as someone says or does anything to a dark skin person the race cards is up everywhere, just like it do in the US and the UK est. its not like non white people are getting attacked in Ireland in record numbers here or anything.

I wonder if a gang of non whites attack a white person would it be classed as a racist attack or a hate crime? Absolutely not! as in this new aged leftwing PC society we live in the 21st century its only white people that are racist. In the UK white people are attacked at a almost constant bases and it don’t get any media attention and it’s certainly not seen as a hate crime.

Out of all European countries this paddy factor nation cant afford to be a multicultural nation, this nation cant even look after its own not alone 10s of 1000s of other immigrants from other cultures and nations that will multiply here in the future.


They are the paddy factor in all this, you should know that yourself.

Kevin Myers on Ireland and immigration covers this, saves me the efen writing!

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/kevin-myers/the-problem-isnt-racism-its-the-tidal-wave-of-immigrants-1071385.html

The Gombeen Man said...

It's nothing to do with the "race card". I have an interest in seeing that the area in which I live is not destroyed by ignorant racist bigots who think it is OK to (at best) verbally abuse a kid because of his skin colour, or (at worst) kill him.

My area of Dublin contains many migrants, and as far as I can tell, most of them work hard and contribute to the tax take. The same cannot be said of many of our professional indigenous unemployed in Dublin 15, who are the source of all of the area's anti-social behaviour.

On a general level, if a gang of black people attacked a white person, prefacing it with "you white bastard", of course I would call it racist.

BlackbeautyBoy said...

Listen to yourself Anonymous - "dark skin person" "non whites". Why don't you just go to the back of your wardrobe and break out your "I Hate Niggers" Tee shirt and then pop down to the garage and paint up a "Go Home to Africa" placard before heading out to Tyrellstown to stage your one man crusade. Kevin Myers is talking about policy you twit and how the Irish Govt doesn't have an effective one with respect to the influx of "foreigners". No more than yourself I suspect that the Barry brothers wouldn't know or care much about policy. They didn't give much of a shit about their jobs being taken or their access to housing being compromised or any of the other problems associatable with unchecked immigration. I don't need to spell it for you do I? Wake the feck up to yourself and while it's great that you've managed to learn to read, how about taking a bit of time to comprehend exactly what it is you've read in the Myers column. Other than that - loved your posting and the fact that you like GM's blog.
Smooches PB

Panu said...

You seem to have failed to tell how exactly the Irish-speakers have contributed to this racist crime.

If you knew some Irish-speakers, you would know that when you are heard speaking Irish openly, racists, being so stupid that they don't even know their ancestral language, can call you a foreigner and tell you to go to your own country. Native and fluent Irish speakers are very much in the receiving end of Irish racism. Besides, real Neo-Nazis in Ireland are basically adherents of an international ideology and don't even speak the Irish language - as the celebrated example of Kevin Myers shows, racism and anti-Gaeilgeoirism go hand in hand in Ireland.

But obviously, you can't publish this, because it would destroy your nice house of cards.

The Gombeen Man said...

What in God's name are you on about, you nutter?

This is about an alleged racist murder in my locality. You might not have much of a view of it from your ivory tower in Turku, Finland, as you issue forth - with a distinctly tired, cultural nationalist emphasis - on language matters.

I did not mention "Irish speakers" in this post.

Maybe you should just stick to your elitist linguistics and give the real world a wide berth? Or stay off the hard stuff.

Just this one last time, I will allow you to temporarily hijack a post with your nonsense in order to answer your "Irish speakers being at the receiving end of racism" codswallop.

I refer to last January's report published by the University of Limerick which found that “Irish was the language of the elite in Ireland… with speakers enjoying higher income than the rest of the population” (Irish Times, Jan 9th, 2010).

Key findings were:

Non-speakers of Irish are twice as likely to be unemployed as their Irish-speaking counterparts.

42 per cent of Irish speakers worked in senior professional, managerial or technical jobs, compared to 27 per cent of non-speakers.

Just 12 per cent of Irish speakers are in semi or unskilled jobs, compared to 20 per cent of non-speakers.

Irish speakers were also seen to enjoy the advantage of a network of social contacts and all of the perks that go with such a network.
22 per cent of Gaelscoileanna sent all their Leaving Cert students to third level, compared to a progression average of 7 per cent (2009 Irish Times Feeder Schools List).


This gives expression to what has been common knowledge to many of us here for decades. Non-Gaelic speakers (who aren't, as you maintain, necessarily stupid because they don't share your narrow vision of what constitutes Irishness) were - and are - discriminated against in employment and education.

The State promotion of Gaelic (a failure by the way) has only succeeded in creating a cultural hegemony based around a State-funded Gaelic bureaucracy. But that's good enough for you, I suppose.

And now, back to the matter of a racist killing in my area...

The Gombeen Man said...

Sorry Ponyboy - got distracted there. Yes, I'd say bros Barry spend precious little time agonising over our columnists' utterances.

anna said...

Did the Barry Bros ever work in their lives? Educate Together schools are very laudable BUT the real problem this country has is that it has a created a Violent Unskilled class at the bottom who dont work / or are very casually ever in work. Most people acquire self esteem, money,friends, means to move up the ladder, look after their family , acquire more skills etc through Work. It also helps when growing up to have sports facilities community centres etc, to provide more of the same benefits as above. So all irish schools need to see that young boys get an educaion that Really suits their Real dreams in life; while we're on the subject of Irish
i said before this should be optional after junior cert- to give disaffected young boys a chance to concenrate on a trade- after all many in disaffected areas leave hardly able to read or write English, never mind irish- and with little marketable skills; just think how much remedial maths & english classes, Fas training places could be had for all the millions wasted teaching irish? and don't forget that money saved would also pay for badly needed psychologcial services for disturbed youths etc, For a boy in a bad area leaving school knowing you have a good chance of becomimg a plumber/ tiler etc sound sinfinitely better than life of drinking and crime: How often are there headlines ' John a plumber of 10 years standing and his qualified brickie brother James had terrorised their neighbourhood for years...'

The Gombeen Man said...

Good points, Anna. Education should have a more practical and civic emphasis. I've always found that the professional unemployed who complain bitterly about their jobs being taken. It was the same when I lived in London.

Unknown said...

Here i no paul and michael and its not all as 1 sided as use think, the blacks started it and it was the blacks knife, 9 blacks jumping 2 irish men

The Gombeen Man said...

Is that right? Maybe you should inform the coppers and show up in court so. And is that what happened in Pearse Street too?

Your "blacks" attacking "irish men" bit says it all. It's possible to be black and Irish - Paul McGrath being the most obvious example.

Unknown said...

GM you are in wicked form today and I agree with the points you have made. Unfortunately we have got to accept that we Irish are very racist, and I am speaking in general terms. We seem to fear and regard outsiders as a threat. I for one am delighted that other Europeans deemed it appropriate to visit our shores – I love the Polish women. ( Hitherto we were like an inbred family - we needed change for our well being ) Yes we should allow other Europeans to come and work here but not without reasonable and sensible restrictions. The morons in FF and in particular bagman Bertie had not the brains to think beyond tomorrow, which seems, in my view, to be the time limit of Irish planning. Now that our fellow Europeans are here the word has gone out, even beyond the EU, that Paddyland is a soft touch and there are great pickings here especially in social welfare. Now the country is bankrupt and going further down the tubes due to every Tom Dick and Harry sucking from the social welfare tits of the now sick Irish cow. I must be going demented but I form the view that we seem to be incapable of rational thinking. What ever happened to our reputation as so called saints and scholars? It must be the points system because we seem to be getting worse the more we are educated.

Not to stray too much off the point remember what bagman Bertie did when it was discovered that the port tunnel was too small (due to typical Irish planning) – he banned the super cube trucks which are used everywhere else in Europe. Typical moron thinking, but that is for another topic and another day.

The Gombeen Man said...

Yes, indeed. What genius. It was akin to building an airport runway too short, then going on to ban Boeing 737s and Airbuses rather than address the real problem. Priceless.

Ponyboy said...

Hey JASONSRFC - Let me guess. The "Jason S" is obviously your name but the RFC has got to stand for "Right Fuckin' Clown". In all my life I swear I have never seen such an ignorant and ill informed defence of two such cowardly thugs. Oh and by the way (on account of it taking me so long to decipher your post) - a couple of points - "youse" not "use" and "know" not "no". It's difficult enough to palate your drivel without having to translate it into English as well. Nice to hear from you though and just fab that youse enjoy GM's blog and if yous're around on Fri night i'll hook up with youse for a pint down at the palace (my shout) I'll be the one in the snug with a brand new copy of the Chamber's Dictionary. For youse of course

The Gombeen Man said...

Sounds like a plan, PB.

Anonymous said...

I notice that this is your last article on the whole Toyosi Shitta-bey case.

You were very quick to jump to conclusions regarding the motive behind the killing. Now that the whole picture has emerged you've seemed to distance yourself from the case.

What happened to that Boy was absolutely disgraceful. A life taken so quickly. But it's not the only life that has been ruined after this.

Do you ever think that Michael Barry can live a normal life now?
Absolutely not.

Where is his justice in all of this?