We're delighted to have been awarded funding from RethinkIreland Impact Fund for Munster to support the Look@Me youth film making project in partnership with Cork Migrant Centre at Nano Nagle Place. The Rethink Ireland Impact Fund for Munster award will enable CIFF to deliver Look@Me in collaboration with Cork Migrant Centre over the course of the summer. Film has the power to amplify marginalised voices in our communities, and this support enables us to empower Cork’s young migrants to tell their own stories on screen and share that with the wider public. We look forward to showcasing their creative work at our landmark 70th Festival edition this November! 🎬🍿🎥
Will those born in Cork but who look different ever be in a position to equivocally state ‘We are Cork’ without having to add ‘too’, asks Naomi Masheti
"We are Cork too", said Cecilia, a good friend of mine from the Mexican community at the launch of the first ever youth-led Anti-Racist Summit in Cork, held at City Hall on April 12 this year.
As a new citizen living in ‘Cork like’, I feel, think and act like a Corkonian even though I may not speak or look like one.
Having lived here for the last 20 years, studied here, worked here, and raised a family here, I have put my roots down. There are so many factors and processes that nurture the growth of my roots but at the same time, there are just as many that deprive them of growth or threaten to uproot them.
This is my story, and the story of many other migrants like me. This is what puts us in a defensive position, where we have to say: "We are Cork too", because our very sense of belonging is constantly being put on trial. What will it take for us to drop the ‘too’ and just be — We are Cork. Is it time? Is it numbers?
The latest CSO data indicate that about one in eight people in Ireland — 645,500, or 12.9%, of the population — are non-Irish nationals (CSO, 2021). It also tells us the fastest growing ethnic group since 2011 was “Other incl mixed background”, with an annualised growth of 14.7%.
Like me, this group may look different than the native population, but nevertheless share the same sense of patriotism towards their adapted country or country of birth as the girl or boy next door.
Will those born here in Cork but who look different ever be in a position to unequivocally state: "We are Cork" without having to add "too"?
I feel, think and act like a Corkonian, why can't I be treated like one?
Lorraine O'Donovan, Nadia Moussed, and Andrea Williams at the Anti Racism Summit at Cork City Hall in April. Picture: Gerard McCarthy
WED, 24 MAY, 2023 - 19:00
NAOMI MASHETI
I would like to say yes but as it happens, I was reading a paper on the social inclusion and anti-immigrant attitudes in Europe (Valerio and colleagues, 2021) where they outline anti-immigrant trends. Ireland is no exception.
The paper brilliantly tracks this trend to economic factors (perceived competition for jobs), increased pressure for resources including welfare, housing, schools, health etc, and the symbolic threat to ethnic or cultural homogeneity.
While I could see how this explanation can easily gain currency among those looking for somewhere to hang their purpose, I could not help thinking that this kind of thinking is a zero-sum game. No group needs to gain or lose.
Immigrants having houses, or a job or a school for their child does not equal other groups not having them.
However, reality is one thing and perception is another, which brings to mind the saying, 'A lie can travel half-way around the world while truth is putting on its shoes’.
Looking for an explanation (not a reason or rationale) I couldn’t help framing this in the context of in-group/out-group, as social psychology has taugh.
white women, emphasising the need for a continued focus on action to address these disparities.
Feeling manipulated into having medical procedures, dismissed by professionals, and labelled with racial stereotypes were among the complaints by black, Asian, and ethnic minority women in responding to a panel established by the UK-based charity Birthrights, investigating the reported mortality disparity.
One of the parents, speaking about her experience, said she had raised concerns that her baby might be jaundiced when she was leaving the hospital, but the midwives failed to take her seriously. Eventually her baby had to return to hospital. She reported that the professionals really struggled to recognise the jaundice because her son is dark-skinned.
Another patient, of Asian origin, recounted her experience of being overlooked by maternity professionals.
Following the review, NHS England is working on a new strategy to tackle inequality in maternity and neonatal care and fast-tracking a continuity-of-care programme for women from ethnic-minority backgrounds, which is proven to significantly improve their overall experience of care.
Naomi Masheti: Race and ethnicity shouldn’t matter in maternity care. But they do
A HSE internal review on the death of Nayyab Tariq found there were systems of care/service issues which may have contributed to her death, that 'skin pallor was initially less obvious due to ethnicity'
Nayyab Tariq: A loving, fun-loving, and accomplished academic and gifted biopharmacist.
SUN, 03 OCT, 2021 - 20:30 DR NAOMI MASHETI
Race and ethnicity should not matter in maternity care. However, findings of a systematic review of migrant women experiences of pregnancy and childbirth across Europe indicate that they are at risk of poorer pregnancy outcomes (Fair et al. 2020).
A confidential inquiry into maternal deaths, published in 2020 in the UK, found that while the maternal mortality rate is quite low in general, there remains a more than fourfold difference in maternal mortality rates among women from black ethnic backgrounds and an almost twofold difference among women from Asian ethnic backgrounds compared to
Irish trend
This trend is, unfortunately, reflected in Irish settings. At a glance, the maternal death rate in Ireland is very low, at about three per 100,000 births, according to the CSO.
However, A confidential maternal death inquiry carried out in 2017 indicated that women born outside Ireland were over-represented in reported deaths, pointing to an increased risk for migrant ethnic minorities. Almost 39% of deaths were among women born outside Ireland, while this group represented just 24% of all women giving birth.
The Young Print Collective Cork Migrant Centre x Cork Printmakers
Artists: Amal Hope, Elton Sibanda, Fionnuala O’Connell, Reem, Viktoria Kondratieva, Yeaneah O’Connell
12.10.2022 , Image by Clare Keogh
During the month of May 2022, artist Joe Caslin worked alongside Cork Migrant Centre and families who are seeking asylum in Ireland to create new outdoor artworks as part of Cork Midsummer Festival.
A group of 35 women of diverse backgrounds and experiences participated in exploring the meaning of home.
The creative sessions resulted in two large-scale murals installed in locations in Cork City and Mallow. The Project The sessions supported by the Glucksman and Cork Migrant Centre, encouraged the group to look at the power of portraiture to communicate ideas and reveal insights into the sitter. Together participants discussed posture, gesture, and symbolism, before putting all their learning intopractice and sitting for a portrait with the artist.
Cork Migrant Centre x Glucksman x Joe Caslin
A Story of Home
Working in screen-print, etching and relief processes the artists’ use themes of identity, culture, perception and belonging. The artists developed their work for the exhibition with the support of Cork Printmakers staff and tutors through ongoing training and independent practice.
The exhibition gives voice to the artists and their unique perspectives, expressing feelings of duality and otherness, and their experience of connectedness through their artwork.
Some of the artists are inspired by ideas around family, womanhood, empowerment, and the body. Utilising photographic and hand drawn self-portraits in the development of their prints to express these ideas.
The exhibition places the artists experiences and work within the context of Nano Nagle Place, a site of ongoing creative collaboration between Cork Printmakers, Cork Migrant Centre and Nano Nagle Place and where the artists first worked with Cork Printmakers in 2019 and 2020 before theestablishment of the Young Print Collective.
white women, emphasising the need for a continued focus on action to address these disparities.
Feeling manipulated into having medical procedures, dismissed by professionals, and labelled with racial stereotypes were among the complaints by black, Asian, and ethnic minority women in responding to a panel established by the UK-based charity Birthrights, investigating the reported mortality disparity.
One of the parents, speaking about her experience, said she had raised concerns that her baby might be jaundiced when she was leaving the hospital, but the midwives failed to take her seriously. Eventually her baby had to return to hospital. She reported that the professionals really struggled to recognise the jaundice because her son is dark-skinned.
Another patient, of Asian origin, recounted her experience of being overlooked by maternity professionals.
Following the review, NHS England is working on a new strategy to tackle inequality in maternity and neonatal care and fast-tracking a continuity-of-care programme for women from ethnic-minority backgrounds, which is proven to significantly improve their overall experience of care.
International Garden Project Launch
The project is premised on creating a ‘safe space’ at Ardefoyle Convent where families living in Direct Provision centres can create an International Garden to grow food from their own countries in solidarity with local community groups.
The aim is to provide asylum seekers/refugees/migrants in general an opportunity to be involved in gardening work in cooperation with local members of the community towards supporting their wellbeing and integration into society. The objective is to work towards creating a network of gardens in close proximity to the DPs in Cork, that are independently run but in consultancy with a committee from this group. The model becomes the connecting tool within this network of communities and across other ethnic minority groups involved in community gardens.
6th of September 2022 , Ardfoyle Convent, Ballintemple
Saoirse EHD Douglas Street Mural Launch
Mother's Tongue Project
1July 1st 2022 , Picture: Darragh Kane
Saoirse Ethnic Hands on Deck was formed in 2020, born from the weekly Coffee Mornings for migrant mothers at the Cork Migrant Centre.
The Mother's Tongue project started back in September 2021 when the members of Saoirse EHD embarked on a collaborative project bringing together mothers from over 20 countries to highlight the shared wisdom of motherhood. It included psychology focus groups on motherhood and the creation of the first Mother's Tongue design collection of hand-crafted tote bags using sustainable materials featuring motherly sayings in Arabic, Swahili, Albanian, Nigerian Pidgin, and English.
Rayaa Onog Ponnie is representing Ireland in the current Eurochild Children's Council for a 2 year mandate
starting May 2022.
EUROCHILD CHILDREN'S COUNCIL
