A campaign sponsored by the Department of Justice to combat racism is being officially launched in Limerick today. The three-year campaign began work last October and has a fund of over €5m.
It will grant aid local community organisations that take on initiatives to combat racism in their localities and work towards including the 160 different nationalities working and living here.
The former GAA president Joe McDonagh is chairing the campaign. He said that local communities could play a very positive role in guarding against an escalation of racism and racist behaviour in Ireland.
He said that there was a perception abroad that racism and racist attacks were confined to large urban areas. A report on racist attacks during May and October of last year disclosed that 34% of these incidents took place outside Dublin and 10% occurred in rural areas, he added.
