My diversity role is to change mindsets

“The Diversity Champion’s role is about changing attitudes and mindsets,” Councillor Coyle, who works as an auxiliary in the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH), tells The Impartial Reporter.

Her main aim is to create a diversity group on the new Council which would allow each party to find common ground before bringing issues before the full Council meeting.

The Diversity Champion also hopes to highlight the role of women in the past, particularly within shared history programmes. The Enniskillen Councillor also wants to “train and advise the Council to be pro-active in making people feel welcome and not excluded from the community.” Comprehensive training was essential in preparing her for the new role. It was an enlightening experience for Councillor Coyle, who has seven mixed race children and has been subject to racism in the past.

Councillor Coyle had to ask herself: “What are my attitudes towards various groups of people?” She realised: “It’s no good telling other people what they should be doing when you can’t look at yourself and your own prejudices.” First elected to Fermanagh District Council (FDC) in 2011, Councillor Coyle became Diversity Champion for FDC.

Asked to list her achievements since 2011, she points to “learning about what diversity really means” and “bringing a diversity motion to Fermanagh District Council.” She was disappointed when unionist councillors walked out during that August 2014 motion. They accused Sinn Fein of hypocrisy for bringing the motion the day after a hunger-strike commemoration in Derrylin, attended by thousands of republicans.

Asked if contention over Northern Ireland’s troubled past will dominate policy decisions in the new Council, she replies: “I can only answer that from my own personal opinion.

“If there was a particular event going on from a particular group of people that I, personally, didn’t agree with, I would not let that block me or stop me from voting for something that I think is right.

“That personal opinion should not be coming into the chamber.” She agrees that politicians have to vote along party lines, “otherwise you wouldn’t be in it,” adding: “That diversity motion was the right thing to do.” She states: “I want myself, my sons and daughters and my neighbours to feel welcome regardless of what they go off to celebrate. Whether I agree with that celebration has nothing to do with it. The point is, I want them to feel welcome within Fermanagh.” Language has been another thorny subject within FDC over the years. The new FODC must implement a Linguistic Diversity Plan. At last Wednesday’s meeting, a majority of nationalist councillors voted in favour of Council branding on stationery, vehicles and external signage being applied in English and Irish, with the signage at the Ardhowen and Strule Arts Centres in English, Irish and Ulster Scots.

Asked how important language is to local diversity, she replies: “The new Council will develop an Irish language policy and an Ulster Scots policy. If it turns out that the people of Fermanagh and Omagh want more, that will come back to the Council in the implementation plan, and we will take it from there.” The Sinn Féin Councillor reveals that she “can’t speak Irish” but “likes the sound of it”. She listens to the BBC Irish and Ulster Scots programmes occasionally, commenting: “I can pick out a few Irish words and I can more or less make out the Ulster Scots.” In relation to other minority languages spoken in County Fermanagh, she says: “The Council has its linguistic policy which obliges the Council to provide for people whose first language isn’t English e.g. by providing a translator.” Continuing, she commented: “I do not understand why somebody feels afraid when they listen to two or three people speaking their own language. I would presume that they are speaking about their families, their day-to-day life, what they had for dinner last night. I doubt very much if they are speaking about me.

“You can’t have respect for people if they can’t speak in their own language. I certainly wouldn’t expect them to speak English just for me.” The reality for foreign nationals living in Fermanagh is mixed, according to Councillor Coyle. She has worked alongside and met people from India, the Philippines, South Africa, Sudan, Turkey, South America, Poland, Lithuania and China, who are living locally.

“Most people who come to Fermanagh do enjoy it. However, “employers need to be aware that there’s a lot of subtle racism going on at work,” she warned.

“A lot of people are taken advantage of at work. They are being given hours that aren’t suitable or long hours but they don’t challenge that because they are scared of losing their jobs. Locally, I think that builds up resentment among local workers who think that these people are taking away hours from them. It’s really not good for staff morale.” As Diversity Officer, Councillor Coyle wants to “challenge” anyone who accuses foreign nationals of “doing all that work and sending the money home.” She states: “They pay rent, they buy food, clothes, electric and pay taxes. They do contribute to the local economy as much as anyone local.

“I don’t see the difference between ethnic minority people who live in Fermanagh and travel home once a year to visit their families and a local who pops over to Spain or Turkey for a two week, all-inclusive holiday once a year.” The Council “has a leading role” in ensuring that employers “encouraging diversity and acceptance of diversity in the workplace,” Councillor Coyle stated.

Asked what she has learned about herself since becoming Diversity Champion, Councillor Coyle explains that she has a deeper understanding of the vulnerability felt by people with disabilities.

“While I was helping with a play written by Eileen Drumm (Co-ordinator of Women Making Waves), I was given the role of a wheelchair user. When they wheeled me onto the stage I felt very vulnerable. I could just see myself tipping over the edge of the stage and I jumped out of the wheelchair! I thought: ‘If I was a real wheelchair user, I couldn’t have jumped out.’ And the fear and vulnerability made me absolutely petrified.” On the future outlook for cultural and racial diversity in Fermanagh and Omagh, Councillor Coyle believes: “I always think there’s lots of glimmers of hope. I don’t think it will always be like this, but there’s a lot of work to do.” For more updates, photographs and debate follow The Impartial Reporter on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/impartialreporter And on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/impartialrep