What Did They Do To You?

*Note* This one is just about racism. Yesterday I was in Shankill for my Nanny's 80th birthday party, as we were walking back from the shops with my cousin and my brother & sister, there was a car with a family of middle Eastern origin. they were dressed just like you and me, just living in a foreign country, try to raise a family. And without even the family even looking towards her (they were busy looking for directions from a local) first thing she said was "Fucking foreigners". This annoyed me because we were like them during the Famine. We left a country that was poor and ravished in the disease to live a country that had jobs and a chance to make a living. That's why I wrote this poem.

What have they done to receive this abuse?
We oppress these “scum” as much as they have done nothing.
How are these people scum?
They left a life or poverty so that they could provide for their families and for themselves.
They are just doing what we did during the famine, emigrating for the chance of opportunity.
We’re the scum, we’re the hypocrites for degrading these people for doing exactly what our ancestors have done.
So next time you see a group of immigrants, don’t automatically say “Fucking foreigners”, think back to the famine and think exactly what us Irish did back then.
We “took” other people’s jobs, we worked more for less, we filled up neighbourhoods, we were the ones causing trouble.
So when you see an immigrant with a fancy Mercedes or wearing a fancy suit, just think to back to what we did back during the famine.
Maybe you’ll realise YOU’RE the scum, not them.
By Seán Kelly