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By Yasmina Rahmoune,This week has seen many new and exciting happenings for “Show Racism the Red Card”. We launched our brand new website, which features our brand new mascot Jeff the Reff. Jeff is just one of our many new features. But it was the launch of our new season that has got us all going.
We were very lucky to welcome some much esteemed guest speakers on the day. Mary White TD (The Minister For Integration), The US chargé d’affaires John Hennessey Niland, and Councillor Eamonn Maloney, Mayor of South Dublin County Council, to name a few. We were also delighted to join in the event with local schools St Aidans Community School, Old Bawn Community School, St Dominics Secondary School and Castaheany Educate Together National School; as well as many prominent sports personalities today.Garret Mullan kicked off the event by welcoming us all into the new Tallaght Stadium,( the home of Shamrock Rovers). He informed us of all the upcoming events SRTRC intend on carrying out for the new 2010-2011 year.Mayor Eamon Maloney was next up to speak. He delivered a very promising litany of aspirations for the year, and clearly stated that there’s no room for racism in our communities saying “Children are not born racists”, a quote that really stood out for many people present.Next up the US chargé d’affaires John Hennessey Niland from the US Embassy (who sponsored the whole day) gave a very enlightening speech about what his job entails in the embassy, and how through sport he hopes to help in combat racism. He even told us of how the American embassy has a football team.A panel of speakers (including myself) was invited to answer questions that some of the children had put together with the help of their teachers. The panel consisted of Ryan Guy from St. Pat’s Athletic, Jolie Niland from Basketball Ireland, Aidan Price of Shamrock Rovers, Ollie Cahill of Sporting Fingal, and little auld me. Some brave students stood up and asked some very tough but great questions to the various panel members.Following, Mary White TD (The Minister for Integration) answered some more difficult questions for the students, and she gave a very detailed speech about how she intends to fulfill her new role as Minister for Integration. She even let it slip about an exciting new project she has in the making for primary and secondary school students. “We have to make sure that there is no place in Ireland for racism whether it’s covert or overt. We want to make sure that this Ireland is an Ireland of equals”, said White.Garret then showed us part of the official SRTRC DVD, and then invited 2 young boys who took part in SRTRC’s Creative Competition earlier this year. They showed us their project of multi cultural bottle people, (which is available to watch on www.theredcard.ie).As if all of that was not exciting enough, Fran Gavin (Director Airtricity League) and Des Tomlinson (Intercultural Co-ordinator of the FAI) then gave their take on the event, and explained what they hope to do to help for the upcoming year. Fran then gave us all a massive shock by pulling a Gay Byrne, and gave tickets for the Ireland v Norway game to everyone in the audience.Lastly and importantly Glen, Martin and Louise from the University of Ulster Interactive Multimedia and Design course came up to present this new website, which we are delighted with and hope you enjoy.Overall the day was a complete success, and we were very pleased to see so many happy faces there. We hope that the forthcoming year will bring us just as much success in our aim to SHOW RACISM THE RED CARD!
Show Racism the Red Card launches its new season, and scores…
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By Yasmina Rahmoune,This week has seen many new and exciting happenings for “Show Racism the Red Card”. We launched our brand new website, which features our brand new mascot Jeff the Reff. Jeff is just one of our many new features. But it was the launch of our new season that has got us all going.
We were very lucky to welcome some much esteemed guest speakers on the day. Mary White TD (The Minister For Integration), The US chargé d’affaires John Hennessey Niland, and Councillor Eamonn Maloney, Mayor of South Dublin County Council, to name a few. We were also delighted to join in the event with local schools St Aidans Community School, Old Bawn Community School, St Dominics Secondary School and Castaheany Educate Together National School; as well as many prominent sports personalities today.Garret Mullan kicked off the event by welcoming us all into the new Tallaght Stadium,( the home of Shamrock Rovers). He informed us of all the upcoming events SRTRC intend on carrying out for the new 2010-2011 year.Mayor Eamon Maloney was next up to speak. He delivered a very promising litany of aspirations for the year, and clearly stated that there’s no room for racism in our communities saying “Children are not born racists”, a quote that really stood out for many people present.Next up the US chargé d’affaires John Hennessey Niland from the US Embassy (who sponsored the whole day) gave a very enlightening speech about what his job entails in the embassy, and how through sport he hopes to help in combat racism. He even told us of how the American embassy has a football team.A panel of speakers (including myself) was invited to answer questions that some of the children had put together with the help of their teachers. The panel consisted of Ryan Guy from St. Pat’s Athletic, Jolie Niland from Basketball Ireland, Aidan Price of Shamrock Rovers, Ollie Cahill of Sporting Fingal, and little auld me. Some brave students stood up and asked some very tough but great questions to the various panel members.Following, Mary White TD (The Minister for Integration) answered some more difficult questions for the students, and she gave a very detailed speech about how she intends to fulfill her new role as Minister for Integration. She even let it slip about an exciting new project she has in the making for primary and secondary school students. “We have to make sure that there is no place in Ireland for racism whether it’s covert or overt. We want to make sure that this Ireland is an Ireland of equals”, said White.Garret then showed us part of the official SRTRC DVD, and then invited 2 young boys who took part in SRTRC’s Creative Competition earlier this year. They showed us their project of multi cultural bottle people, (which is available to watch on www.theredcard.ie).As if all of that was not exciting enough, Fran Gavin (Director Airtricity League) and Des Tomlinson (Intercultural Co-ordinator of the FAI) then gave their take on the event, and explained what they hope to do to help for the upcoming year. Fran then gave us all a massive shock by pulling a Gay Byrne, and gave tickets for the Ireland v Norway game to everyone in the audience.Lastly and importantly Glen, Martin and Louise from the University of Ulster Interactive Multimedia and Design course came up to present this new website, which we are delighted with and hope you enjoy.Overall the day was a complete success, and we were very pleased to see so many happy faces there. We hope that the forthcoming year will bring us just as much success in our aim to SHOW RACISM THE RED CARD!