Report Paul Murphy
A racial attack on a Navan town councillor who was left shocked and visibly shaken has been condemned by one of her fellow councillors on Navan Municipal District. Councillor Yemi Adenuga was walking back to her car in the centre of Navan on Friday night when she was accosted by a man who asked if she was “Yemi”. She said it was not unusual to be stopped in the street by constituents looking for assistance or to have a chat and she thought this was going to be one of those conversations. She said he said to her “Shame on you. Shame on you for trying to teach us Irish people how to live our lives in our own country”.
She said she was taken aback and asked him what he meant and he said that he had heard her on the radio making comments about how people should live. “He then said ‘you’re not welcome here. You’re not my councillor, I don’t recognise you and if you’re not happy with how things are you can go to f*** back to where you come from’. “That wasn’t the worst part”, she said, “He spat on me”.
“I’m still trying to gather myself because too many things went through my head”. The councillor, who sits as a Fine Gael councillor on the county council, said she would like to thank two passersbys who intervened to make sure she was ok. The man then left, shouting repeatedly that she was not welcome here and should “get the hell out of our country”.
Cllr Adenuga said “This happened in my town in a place where I have served as a re-elected public representative for seven years. I have given and continue to give my service to the people of this town. I’ve experienced all matters and all forms of discrimination and attack, online and offline. People are saying derogatory things to me. I’m so used to it now, I brush it off like water but to get spat at?” She said “Ireland is my home. This is my home and by God I’m not going to let anyone tell me otherwise or drive me out of here because this is my home”.
The Mayor of Navan Cllr Padraig Fitzsimons said the condemned the attack on Cllr Adenuga. “It is shameful that such an attack would come from anyone who calls themselves Irish. It is shameful and a poor reflection on anyone who would utter such words and carry out such a spiteful act.”
Sinn Fein Cllr Eddie Fennessy who sits on Navan MD with Cllr Adenuga said that being a councillor was difficult for councillors these days but it must be a particularly difficult situation for a person of colour. “I have worked with Yemi at local and county level for almost seven years and I have always found her to be a person of the highest integrity”.
“Like myself, her only concern is the community and the people she represents. Racism has no place in our society and whoever carried out this disgraceful act deserve to have the full rigours of the law applied to them.”
