Rose of Tralee judge and 2010 winner Dr Clare Kambamettu says she cannot see “rhyme or reason” for why hatred is targeted towards people because of their ethnicity, background of culture.
She is thinking of the recent alleged vicious assault of Sonali Flynn, an Irish-Indian woman who was celebrating on the streets of Tralee after Kerry’s All-Ireland win.
Dr Kambamettu, a clinical psychologist, is “extremely proud” of her Irish-Indian heritage.
“It was something during my year as Rose of Tralee that was hugely important and probably shaped the whole year,” she says.
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Her late father, Dr Ravi Kambamettu, moved to the State from India in the 1970s even though he had “barely heard of Ireland”, she says.
“He always spoke about how welcoming he found it.”
However, she says, he experienced increased racism here towards the end of his life, “which was something he hadn’t experienced that much before”.
The 2010 London Rose said: “As Irish people we have our own story of having to leave or choosing to leave in search of a better life or sometimes even just to survive.
“We have had our own struggles in terms of how we have been welcomed in other parts of the world. We have experienced racism ourselves and so I think that makes me feel all the more sad and hurt by it. We should know better.”
However, she believes it is a “very tiny but obviously very loud and dangerous” minority who perpetrate these narratives.
“I also think that we do know better ... I think that the majority of Irish people still remain welcoming of diversity and people from different walks of life but often their voices are drowned out because they are not the loudest.”
Dr Kambamettu believes the online sphere has facilitated a rise in hateful rhetoric.
“I do think that there’s a lawlessness to the online world and social media” she says.
She says her fiancé Ryan Tubridy received “horrible” abuse in the week of controversy over RTÉ payments two summers ago.
Dr Kambamettu says she “feels a great deal of empathy” for people who are experiencing abuse or vitriol targeted towards them.
“Nobody wants someone they love and care about to experience that.”
She is condemns recent high-profile attacks on people of Indian heritage in Ireland, saying: “There is no excuse for racism or bigotry. Ignorance is not an excuse.”
[ Ryan Tubridy announces engagement to Dr Clare KambamettuOpens in new window ]
“It’s obvious that some healing needs to happen. I don’t know exactly how that can happen,” she says, adding that the solution requires short-term and long-term thinking.
“I think that Irish and Indian communities need to come together, and probably the emphasis is on the Irish community reaching out to their Indian communities,” she says.
