Wexford councillor hits out at Aontú colleague’s IPAS centre speech – ‘We have to be careful not to fan the flames of fascism’
Wexford PeopleA Wexford member of Aontú has condemned comments made by party colleague, Meath county councillor David Boyne, claiming they could have led to the “further inflaming of an already difficult situation”.
On May 30, Cllr Boyne, who represents Aontú in the Trim constituency in Co Meath, addressed a Trim Says No Rally where he spoke about applications to establish International Protection Accommodation Scheme (IPAS) centres in the area.
During his speech Cllr Boyne said that people power came in two forms, violence or voting.
“I won’t mention those words but you know what to do. You know how to stop this,” he said at the rally. “It’s people power and people power translates into two things, violence or votes. And if you’re not going to do one, do the other.”
In the wake of the recent riots in Ballymena, Wexford county councillor for Aontú, Jim Codd, has chosen to speak out about his party colleague’s words.
“I am saddened and deeply embarrassed that an Aontú colleague of mine would express those views,” said Cllr Codd. “This does not fit with our republican and pro-life values. I have communicated my feelings to the Aontú leadership and raised the question as to how a pro-life republican party could stand over such rhetoric.
“It was explained to me that Cllr Boyne was clumsy in his language and that he meant to say that people should use their vote rather than violence when opposing governments migration policy.”
Following his speech, the Co Meath councillor moved to clarify his position on the issue of immigration, stressing that his words had simply been misinterpreted.
“I wasn’t advocating for violence. The point I was trying to make was people power translates to votes,” Mr Boyne said. “So, when I said violence or votes, I was referring to the 1916 Rising, which was a violent event, that was people power. That’s one way to do it, which nobody wants. Or the other way is votes.
“The thrust of what I was saying was, violence is bad. Don’t do that. Voting is good. Do that.”
Stressing the importance of choosing one’s words wisely, Cllr Codd said that, given the number of violent protests which have taken place in Ireland in recent years, “lives are at stake” when a political representative publicly discusses immigration.
“We have a massive responsibility to be very sensitive in the language we use when dealing with emotive issues such as migration. Sadly we all familiar with the racist violence carried out by some loyalists in Ballymena. These people were attacked with petrol bombs by loyalist bigots.
“Racism, hatred and misinformation thrive in a vacuum. I grew up in a country where gay people, Travellers, and unmarried mothers were the scapegoats of society, now it seems to be immigrants. Xenophobia, and particularly Islamophobia, are rampant today, if you scroll through social media you’ll see Muslims portrayed as less than us. We should know better, you don't have to go back too far in history to see signs proclaiming ‘no blacks, no dogs, no Irish’; we have to be very careful not to fan the flames of fascism.”
Criticising “so-called Republicans” waving tricolours outside IPAS centres and “howling at women and children as they get off buses”, Cllr Codd said he has seen first-hand the impact of racism on young families in his day-job as a secondary school teacher in Bridgetown College.
“I see the faces of those children in my classes in Bridgetown, and I’m horrified by the online hatred I see when I go home from the school in the evening. After seeing the riots and thuggery in Ballymena and what I see nightly online I am very concerned and certainly would call on my colleagues in Aontú to be most definite in their position, the defence of the rights of those vulnerable people must be to the fore in our minds.
“I’ll be pushing for our party to withhold a humane, republican, pro-life position, around these matters.”