IRISH communities in Scotland have moved on from the days of discrimination, prejudice and disadvantage with hate crime offences at an 11-year low, according to a parliamentary report.
It suggests that anti-Catholic sentiment and historical problems, including limited job opportunities, are now a rarer problem for Irish people in Scotland.
The report on Irish Communities in Scotland published by the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly stated that Irish culture is having an increasingly positive impact on Scottish life.
It credits sports, dancing, language and music groups as promoting cross-cultural exchange.
The Scottish Government confirmed to The Irish Post that religiously and racially aggravated hate crimes have reached its lowest levels since 2004, whilst recorded crime as a whole is at its lowest level since 1974.
Racial offences are the most commonly reported hate crime, with 3,785 charges reported in 2014-15, a decrease of nine per cent from the previous year.
The figures are the lowest since 2004-05.
The latest figures from Police Scotland detailing the breakdown of the ethnicity of those reporting racist crimes show that in 2012-13, 75 incidents of anti-Irish racism were recorded.
This formed one per cent of all incidents, compared to 23 per cent reported by White British victims and 23 per cent by Pakistani victims.
Empowering Scotland’s Ethnic and Cultural Minority Communities (BEMIS), Parliamentary and Policy Officer, Danny Boyle, welcomed Police Scotland’s zero tolerance approach to tackling racism.
“There has been over the years examples of transparent hostility towards visual expressions of Irish identity,” he said.
“Hopefully this is beginning to decrease as the attainment of the community enables it to challenge discrimination independently, a role it routinely did over generations.
“In the Irish case, anti-Irish racism, unfortunately has went underreported and acknowledged for years, as it has been traditionally consumed or conflated as ‘sectarianism’, much to the frustration of the community,” he said.
“Any prejudice base crime is socially illiterate. The Irish are part of the fabric of Scotland and their shared heritage with Scotland should be championed as opposed to being perceived as a threat.”
The number of religiously aggravated charges reported in Scotland, at 569, is four per cent fewer than the previous year and is at its lowest level since 2004-05, when 479 charges were reported.
But in the last year the majority of racial attacks were still targeted at Roman Catholics with 328 incidents reported, which formed 58 per cent of all offences.
Twenty five per cent of offences were against Protestants, whilst 12 per cent were against Muslims.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “This Government is clear that any form of hate crime is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated in 21st century Scotland.
“We have already invested more than £80million since 2012 to advance equality and tackle discrimination and the overall number of hate crimes reported in Scotland have fallen compared to last year.
“However, we remain absolutely committed to doing all we can as a Government to tackle inequality and create and support safer and stronger communities for all.”
The issue of hate crime remains a serious problem for Police Scotland, however, following the recent terrorist attacks in Paris.
A total of 129 people were killed and hundreds wounded when suicide bombers and gunmen targeted several bars and restaurants, a concert hall and a football stadium, in the French capital.
Police Scotland recorded a surge in hate crime since the attacks.
Deputy Chief Constable Iain Livingstone said: “I am disappointed to say that since the tragic incidents in France last Friday, there have been 64 hate crimes reported to Police Scotland which were racially or religiously motivated.
“While we cannot say how many of these were motivated by last week’s events, these are 64 crimes too many and are not in keeping with our traditions of a multicultural Scotland. People of all the faiths, and of none, should live in a Scotland that is free from hate crime and discrimination.”
