Tomás Ó Flatharta

A highly-respected human rights campaigner Wendy Lyon draws our attention to a public statement issued by the Sinn Féin spokesperson on Integration Claire Kerrane TD (Ropscommon-Galway). Kerrane’s home town is Ballaghaderreen, which has recently been the target of sinister anti-immigrant racist mobilisations.

Sinn Féin's integration spokesperson has stood over a deleted Facebook post saying deportation should be considered for any immigrant who commits a crime.

But Claire Kerrane said it's a personal view and she's "not pushing for it" to become party policy.https://t.co/AxfyiNbcZq

— TheJournal.ie (@thejournal_ie) November 8, 2024

Wendy Lyon posted this comment on the X/Twitter platform :

“A party representative who doesn’t think immigrants accused of crime should be entitled to legal aid is not fit to be integration spokesperson.”

Sinn Féin party leader Mary Lou McDonald TD led a pile-on against critics, featuring a legion of self-declared SF supporters [note of caution : many of them may not be real individuals]

She said nothing of the sort. Irish law provides that in cases of convictions for serious violent crime a person can be returned to their home state/ country of origin. This is not a controversial position. Please don't misrepresnt her.

— Mary Lou McDonald (@MaryLouMcDonald) November 9, 2024

Wendy Lyon has a much better policy :

Anyway, “criminals should be deported instead of imprisoned” is Little Irelander nationalism. If someone is really a danger to others then (until there’s a better alternative) prison is exactly where they should be, not free to be a danger to people in their country of origin.

Claire Kerrane TD, in her own words :

“Sinn Féin’s integration spokesperson has stood over a deleted Facebook post saying deportation should be considered for any immigrant who commits a crime.

But Claire Kerrane said it’s a personal view and she’s “not pushing for it” to become party policy.”

An anti-racist correspondent, EamonVIDF has done an excellent job providing context for this dispute :

This kind of lets the ‘optics’ cat out of the bag

@ClaireKerrane

@AlanWhelanSF

The full information thread is here :

https://x.com/EamonnVIDF/status/1853423563346153484

Who is Wendy Lyon?

Wendy Lyon holds an LLM in International Human Rights Law (Griffith College Dublin), for which she wrote her dissertation on sex workers’ right to health. She has been involved in feminist activism on both sides of the Atlantic for longer than she cares to admit. By day, she works as a solicitor, practising mainly in the areas of immigration and sexual/reproductive/maternity rights. She tweets about human rights law, politics, and her cats at @wendylyon. Wendy contributes to the Feminist Ire blog :

Feminist Ire :

Who we are

John Meehan November 10 2024