Scotland: Call to involve Irish community in defining sectarianism

Scotland’s Community Safety and Legal Affairs Minister Annabelle Ewing has been challenged to invite representatives of the Irish community to help draw up a legal definition of sectarianism.

Ms Ewing has appointed Professor Duncan Morrow to lead an independent working group which will look at defining the term “sectarianism”.

The make-up of the working group has not yet been announced.

In a letter to Ms Ewing, Dan McGinty of The Irish Voice said it was important the group “does not simply repeat the work of the past”.

He pointed out Dr Morrow had been appointed to lead a similar working group in 2013, which produced “a broad definition of sectarianism”, but that members of the Irish community still had concerns about “the inclusion of specifically Irish issues” in the sectarianism framework.

He also noted that the Scottish Government recently suffered a “significant defeat” to a major part of its anti-sectarianism strategy with the repeal of the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act.

Mr McGinty added: “Having formed a considerable portion of the public campaign against the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications Act, the Irish community is now more aware than ever of the dangers it faces from attempts to criminalise legitimate Irish political and cultural expressions, either within certain contexts - such as football matches - or by placing such expressions into an sectarianism framework where they do not belong.

“Given such concerns and willingness for engagement we expect to hear confirmation of Irish community involvement in this working group, and if such involvement cannot be confirmed we call on you to remedy this situation as a matter of urgency.

“We also thank you for your continued public commitment to tackling the evil of hate crime in our society, and will continue to use our publication to support any efforts in Scottish society to do so effectively.”

Mr McGinty belongs to the editorial board of The Irish Voice, a free monthly newspaper for the Irish diaspora community in Scotland which was launched in late 2013 by Scottish Catholic Observer staff.