Election candidate never received any negative vibes on the doors

Jose Cyriac has lived in Ireland since 2001 and the retail store owner shares Meghana’s sentiment in that his experience of Ireland has always been “overwhelmingly positive” where he has “never encountered anything or anyone that hurt me.”

And the Kerala region born, married father of two would have plenty of opportunities for such brushes with negative interactions considering he ran in the 2024 Local Elections as a candidate in the Navan area for Aontú.

“I went door to door to canvass. There was not one house where the door was shut on me, so that’s a great thing.

“People asked me nice questions, I wasn’t ignored or anything like that...If I got anything bad I would have stepped down or I wouldn’t have had the same energy.”

Athlumney resident Jose, married to wife Rekha, runs a Centra store in Celbridge but hopes to get something set up a bit closer to home in the near future and also hasn’t ruled out running again in 2029 if he gets the chance.

Jose led the Indian community in this year’s St Patrick’s Day parade - one of the most colourful and vibrant groups to take part. The beautiful photos taken by Meath Chronicle’s Gerry Shanahan from that day and the warm welcome they received from the thousands who lined the streets of Navan jar with what has happened to many Indians in our cities since.

“We planned to do a parade last year but it didn’t happen and this year was all a bit last minute as well and I rang (Cllr) Padraig Fitzsimons who said we’d be most welcome but that then left us with just five or six days to pull it off.”

Even on the day, the reason they were the last group in the parade was because Jose and team were waiting for more Indian community members from further afield to join them.

Over thirty participants in full traditional costume put on a wonderful display of well choreographed music and dance.

The group have taken part in many such cultural events and festivals but have also seen other events cancelled out of fear and caution. In the few months since St Patrick’s Day, there’s been a number of unfortunate incidents and attacks, and a reaction against the community, but Jose sees it a little differently.

“I think these incidents have been happening for years but not targeted at the Indian community, or any community, but just randomly.”

Jose believes that his generation came to work and are seen in the hospitals, hospitality in retail sectors but the recent influx of more people from abroad in recent years, has become more visible, with people just “hanging around streets and sitting in parks”.

“I think as well, there’s an awful culture of people wanting somebody to blame. It has to be somebody’s fault. Yeah, and it has to be the people who don’t look like us and have come in from the country and they’re taking these things. They think ‘there’s another immigrant. Yeah, he’s not one of us’. They can’t differentiate. That’s the saddest part for me.

“I think it’s just been a case of maybe, just too many, too soon, very quick and not enough resources to deal with it all.”