A family who have been living in Dublin for 20 years have been terrorised by xenophobic activity came home recently to find their car vandalised.
They were away on holiday recently and returned to find their car was spray painted with signs using during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The family, who live in the Seabury area of Malahide, are now afraid to go outside.
In a message to a local community group, the family say that the children were born in Ireland and also attend school in their local area. They said: "Hello, I have been living in this town for 20 years, my children were born here and attend school here. We moved to seabury gardens in November and since then my family have been regularly targeted because we are foreigners.
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"The latest incident happened when we were on vacation, we came back to find the car painted with Russian invasion of Ukraine signs (Z RUS 22). We are not Russians. Now my children are afraid to go out which is very hard to see. We are the SAME people as you, and we want to live peacefully—work and raise our children.
"Parents can you talk to your children about this so they understand. Also, maybe regards the car maybe someone has seen or heard something about whoever did this and can help us. The police were notified. Our family is terrified."
One local who knew the family showed their support. They said: "This family are my friends and are the kindest nicest family you could meet. It’s horrible that this happened. This should never happen to anyone."
Another said that this is not the first time it has happened in Malahide. They said: "I’ve seen a lot of racist graffiti in Malahide. It’s actually shocking the mindset of some of the young people living here. Some of them may go travelling and experience racism in other countries. Then they would know how it felt. Very small/simple minded trait."
While many others echoed that support. Another said: "Even more worrying is that they state they've been regularly targeted because they are foreigners. I, like many Irish people, lived abroad and was a foreigner there and was treated well. I'm appalled at what this family have had to go through."
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