“Bricklayer needed ASAP. $250 a day, no part-time workers and NO IRISH”Classified ad, Gumtree, Perth, Australia. 2012. (Irish Independent, March 12th)
"Diversity is another euphemism for submission to an occupying force."(Hippocampus, Irish Taxi Drivers' Forum, 2012.)
You can’t have it every way can you? Some can’t have it any way at all, especially where brain cells are in question.
There was some – rightful - consternation here in Ireland about an ad that appeared in the Australian version of Gumtree, specifying that no Irish need apply for a bricklaying job.
Here at home, it was soon superseded by claims that Irish taxi drivers are using green lights to advertise their Irishness, and hopefully gain an advantage over their foreign competitors.
This is a trend that has been growing over the past few years. First we had “Tacsai” signs. A cod-Gaelic bastardisation of the international word “TAXI” to denote real Irishness.
Then we had taxis infected by green-white-and-orange stickers as though by a rash; well in advance of the 2012 European Football Championship – claimed as a defence by one taxi driver in the video above. I recall this started long before the qualifying games even began.
Pause for reflection
Now. Many people go off the deep end when taxi drivers are mentioned. The soundings: “they are all ignorant bigots”.
Can I suggest that is an ignorant assertion in itself?
My own oul’fella was a taximan way back when a plate cost a few bob-and-a-bit. I have been seated in many taxis where the driver – doing a bloody difficult and sometimes dangerous job – has been a perfectly sane, balanced individual, devoid of any racist ramblings.
I’ve been captive once, however, to an ignorant individual who did not grasp that the best way to promote his xenophobic views was to keep his mouth shut.
But you get them in all walks of life. And from all nationalities.
But as far as the professed innocence of this green light thing goes, let’s concentrate on the quote from one particular taxi driver on the newsreel above.
“I’ve only heard about this thing about racism, that a green light is racism. Guaranteed Irish on a package of sausages. Is that racist?”
If I ever see his green light, I will wait for the next taxi that does not have one.
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