It is difficult to address what might be described as low-level racism in the form of jokes. Stating that one finds it offensive can bring accusations of not having a sense of humour or being too serious. It remains however that jokes, in an attempt to be funny, do send a message about Irish people being stupid and this can have a negative effect on Irish people applying for jobs etc.
Whilst we therefore applaud BT for taking this as seriously as they do and not institutionalizing acceptable racism against the Irish, we would not support people being sacked. Such an action risks losing an opportunity for learning and improving diversity awareness with those staff involved. Those sacked are less likely to have time to reflect on the effect of such jokes and why Irish people would be offended and will instead be focused on dealing with having lost their jobs.
It is also disappointing that BT's efforts to promote diversity and implement anti-discriminatory practice has become blurred with any difficult decisions they may need to take around redundancy'. Accusations by the media and employees seek to distract attention from the real issue about low level racist behaviour.
Jennie
McShannon
Chief
Executive, Federation of Irish Societies