Irish national arrested for not producing ID (in Ireland)
Created Monday, 28th March 2011, 10:29 by Whykay
I was shocked to read about this in the Irish Time's article (via a friend's re-tweet). A Chinese man got arrested for failure to produce his passport even though he said he was an Irish national as the Garda didn't believe him.
Being Irish-Chinese myself, I was never got stopped here in Ireland (or in any other country -- touch wood) and asked to produce ID (ok, I was asked, in then US 'cause I was ordering a beer in a restaurant). I would get the odd look from immigration in Shannon Airport but having a neutral accent seems to stop them bugging me, I've no hassle from Dublin Airport. I presume immigration in Dublin are use to seeing more Chinese passing through and pick out the illegal entrants a mile away (that's my opinion).
Back to the article, discrimination because of different race to produce ID is disgraceful. Plus we only know about it because this man brought it to the Garda Ombudsman complaining that the Gardaí at Kevin's Street told him not to waste their time and carry a passport with him at all times. Unbelievable. One can only guess how many other Irish nationals who don't look "native" gets arrested for failing to produce their Irish passport.