INDEPENDENT I.E
An African embassy contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs in the 1970s to raise concerns over racially- motivated attacks on its citizens in Dublin and to ask why gardaí were called to the home of one Nigerian man for allegedly bringing Irish girls back there.
Papers released as part of the State Archives indicated the Nigerian embassy was so concerned at attacks and harassment of its citizens that its diplomats formally wrote to the Department of Foreign Affairs to voice their worries.
In one case, a Nigerian official warned that one of their citizens had been subjected to so many attacks he might require police protection.
The embassy called on the department to investigate the matter in order to get redress for the man.
One Nigerian official expressed surprise that the garda who responded to the incident did not consider an admission of assault by the neighbour as being sufficient for any police action.
State papers show a Nigerian national, A O Lawal, was attacked by one of his neighbours on Pearse Square in Dublin on March 8, 1971 after he had called to the man’s house to complain about offensive and derogatory names he had been called by the man’s son.
Mr Lawal claimed that hardly a day had gone by since he moved into the area without some children calling him offensive names in the presence of their parents.
The embassy official also pointed out that such racist behaviour had been “a source of strain” on many Nigerians who were living in Ireland at the time.
The Department of Foreign Affairs was informed that Mr Lawal’s neighbour became so enraged that he pushed his victim back out on to the street where he hit him in the face and body “with a barrage of blows”.
Neighbours who witnessed the assault refused to call gardaí when Mr Lawal pleaded for help.
Gardaí told the Department of Foreign Affairs they were satisfied there was no personal animosity towards Mr Lawal or Nigerians in general in the area.
Separately, the Nigerian embassy contacted Irish officials about a different incident involving another Nigerian national living on Pearse Square earlier in 1971.
They complained that the man’s landlady had been harassing him and calling gardaí when he would allegedly bring white girls to his flat. The man vehemently denied ever doing so.
