BY MICHAEL BRESLIN
A 30-year old Czech national, Dita Cermanova, who is a receptionist in the Killyhevlin Hotel, Enniskillen has been appointed coordinator of an interesting project which aims at bringing together the various ethnic groups in Fermanagh by enabling them to share the 'migrant' experience, through historic tours and talks.
And, speaking from personal experience, the part-time teacher of English based at the Fermanagh Trades Union offices at Queen Street, Enniskillen, knows only too well how some people regard our newly arrived Central Europeans as a threat.
"I was taking a booking and I didn't catch a name, so I asked the caller to repeat it. He asked me where I was from and when I said the Czech Republic, he immediately told me to go home and not to be taking work off Irish people. I was so shaken I couldn't answer".
But, she stressed that the man was in a minority and that her position at the front desk, given her foreign accent, placed her in the public eye.
"When they hear my accent, you get people turning their heads to look at me. So, what I try to do is to speak to people in a less formal way and I find they ask me where I am from and when I tell them, they start talking about Prague, even though they may not know that it's the capital of the Czech Republic".
It's that kind of breaking down of barriers that's behind the Enniskillen Trade Union 'Diversity Project' which has been working with local groups, such as the Migrant Information Education Unit to help the migrant community locally by providing practical help, such as English classes.
However, the Diversity Project goes one step further in that its 'doors' `are open to locals as well as migrants. And, as noted earlier, 'migration' is the shared theme of a five 'migration' trails, five talks (activity days), the first of which got off the ground last week-end.
The programme is being run hand in hand with the Fermanagh County Museum which, over the past 10 years, has developed a variety of highly successful cultural events, education programmes and outreach projects.
"The programme", Dita explained, "will be 'sold' by the Trade Union Diversity Project to both the minority ethnic community and, also, the traditional Catholic and Protestant communities within Fermanagh.
"The intention is that, as well as being a worthwhile educational and cultural experience, the trails and talks will offer an opportunity for all the various communities to mix and share their common and diverse experiences".
To that end, Dita will be going into the factories and, with the help of shop stewards, she will organise mixed groups of workers, and their families, to take part.
Ironically, modern Ireland has experienced little emigration/immigration until recent years and, Dita has a theory that, like Czechoslovakia (the country split after the fall of Communism into the Czech Republic and Slovakia), because both countries' isolation from contact with other cultures made some people feel threatened when the recent sudden influx of foreigners occurred.
"In our case, it was the Ukrainians that some people were afraid of", she recalled. Likewise here, although Dita stressed that it was a perception that only a few people had, and she also waved away any grounds that people might have that people like her were guilty of job displacement.
"There is no doubt that Fermanagh is becoming a global village. It is slowly coming to terms with it. It seems to have all happened in the last two or three years with EU enlargement. It will take time. As for migrants taking the jobs from local people: what I would say is there are just a few migrants in highly qualified jobs, most take jobs far below what they are qualified for".
In her own case, full-time teaching wasn't a problem as she only wanted to do it part-time. She was previously based in the Slieve Russell Hotel in Ballyconnell, and came to Enniskillen because it had more going for it.
"It has more culture and more possibilities. It's a nice town. I would reckon there are 15-18 Czech people live around here and a few more in Ballyconnell and if you add in the Slovak people, 'they're like our brothers', you're talking about 25".
For the benefit of readers, the five migration trails and the five 'activity days' are on the sub-themes of prehistory, early Christianity, the Vikings, the Plantation and World War 2.The remaining events are all on a Saturday, based or starting from the Fermanagh County Museum. They are as follows:
12th May (2pm-5pm) 'Wartime fermanagh Culture Zone'; 19th May (11am-3pm) Prehistory Tour Trail; 26th May (2pm-5pm) Prehistory Culture Zone; 2nd June (11am-3pm) Viking Tour Trail; 9th June (2pm-5pm) Viking Culture Zone; 16th June (11am-3pm) Plantation Tour Trail; 23rd June (2pm-5pm) Plantation Culture Zone; 30th June (11am-3pm) Early Christin Tour Trail; 7th July (2pm-5pm) Early Christian Culture Zone.
The trails and talks will be taken in turn by two members of the Museum staff, Bronagh and Catherine.
