Blog Update - Refused entry and deported from Ireland

So I'm going to tell the tale of my latest deportation! This time from the good loving Ireland!

I was let in to Ireland to stay with the Whiskey Mystic in Letterkenny in October 2019. But this time in January 2020, border control had other plans.

It all started with flying with Ryanair from Copenhagen to Dublin. Which in itself is a small model of the class system in action. You pay a small amount for the flight (I had to pay double that for my guitar to have a seat too), you walk a mile to get to your gate away from all the other normal gates, you wait like cattle herded into two lines (priority and non-priority) and all delays are placed on the people.

I flew, I arrived, that part was fine. Then I was questioned the most I've ever been, coming to the border of Ireland. My friend was called to confirm details of what I was doing there, the officer left me standing next to the box then returned twenty minutes later and a new law was recited to me which said that my phone will be seized and searched due to my history with the UK I was given no choice but to give the code for its entry and I was put in a waiting box with two others for about two hours.

While waiting for all my personal communications to be perused at the government's leisure, I got the opportunity to sit next to an entry box, where a customs officer was stamping people in. There was no pleasantrys with him and often there was yelling. If you didn't speak good english the generic response was to be yelled at. Everyone that he questioned was let through and I sat there for about fifty or so of them. Not one of them got a response from him to suggest they were getting in.

Coming off the cheap flight in the far end of the airport might be the trigger for such a barrage of questioning, that and things are getting stricter, with the UK on Ireland's back for greater immigration control. Once again, it is considered that having a lot of money means having a lot of value. Entering Ireland from Australia on an expensive international flight in October 2019 was no problem.

The original customs officer that questioned me returned with her supervisor and he gave me the drill. He told me about my history with the UK, which of course I knew, told me they were afraid that I was going to go to Northern Ireland while there and that my purposes of travel were not what I was stating. I stated to him clearly so there was no confusion, I am street musician and I travel and do this, I am not a violent person, I am not a criminal. He was not confident I would leave the country as I had not booked my flight out yet. His exact words, were, 'its all very vague' said in a rather demeaning and contriving way, as if I was some kind of evil scientist trying to take over the world. I had planned to leave in February to Barcelona and that's a plan I needed to stick by to meet a friend coming from Australia and America. His word against mine and speaking down to me like a criminal, thinking he's got the low down on me and that he's pinned me as a 'threat'. He even recited that I 'checked in' on facebook in Belfast after I was meant to have left the country, saying that I had re-entered illegally, I replied, that I don't use facebook like other people, I post a photo or something later and post it at that location, is that a crime? I said, 'what do you propose you do with me? I hear what you are saying but you can do it without the guilt trip.' He thought this was cheek, but as a human, the way these people speak to you is as if you don't have a choice or a voice. I told him, what do you expect me to think? You stand above me and speak to me as if I've done something wrong and now you're pointing your finger at me. He was not impressed by this response. I said, ok, I won't say a word - What are you going to do with me?

So after all the paper work went through and I had to sign something saying I understood the reasons why I was not let in the country, I was taken to the Garda station in Dublin city centre (Garda is police in Ireland) locked in the back of a paddy wagon and put in a cell for a night like a criminal. At the questioning before entering the cell at the police station I asked if I was receiving any charge, and they said there was no criminal charge, this was standard procedure for people waiting their flight to be sent back to where they came from.

So a night in a cell with some graffiti, a hole to piss and shit in and a bed. The walls of the system come crumbling down for the individual when the free-will belief system that we were raised with is shown to be an illusion. Yes, you have free-will, yes, you have equality. Keep telling yourself that as the officer treats you like shit giving no choice for any response besides submission. Your opinion does not matter, your words, your voice, does not matter. This is the law and it protects people with money and you don't have any money so get used to having no freedom.

I ask Ireland one question, it's great you're going to all this trouble to protect the UK's borders by not letting people that don't cut the buck into your country but when did Ireland stop being Ireland? The beautiful friendly and welcoming country I've always known, which is why I keep coming back. It seems Ireland is now off my list of places I can travel unless I travel like a normal person, with bucketloads of money, pre-booked hotels and tickets complete with a fake cashmere touristic experience.

The next day I was taken to the airport locked in a paddy wagon via two other police stations to pick up others that were being deported that day. I was put in another cell with the two others who were waiting with me in the waiting box at dublin airport the night before. There was a boy and an older man who did not speak much english. The boy was from America, a student from Maryland. He said he travels regularly to see his girlfriend who lives in London, she was born in Romania and he was born in Albania. On his passport it says he was born in Albania. This he told me, has caused him so much trouble wherever he goes, the customs officers don't look at the passport they look directly at 'Albania' as the place of birth on the passport and often assume that it is fake. The discrimination against eastern europeans by the UK and surrounds goes so deep that even an American boy of 23 with an American accent with an American passport is treated like a criminal on entry. That's just it, you are treated like a criminal, to put it another way, you're treated like an animal. A thing that just needs to be moved places and told what to do. His phone was also seized but not in a lawful way. In my case the law was stated to me which dictated the relinquishment of my phone, in his case, the third thing he was told by the officer before anything else was 'give me your phone'. No law stated, no reason. He said there are very personal things on here, I would prefer not to. The officer replied, are you refusing a request of a law enforcement agency? When first walking up to the box with the officer, he handed the passport to the officer - the officer took one look at the passport and the very first thing he said to him was 'wipe that smirk off your face'.

After a conversation about 'gated communities' in America (rich people zoos), he was taken away for his flight. I however had another three hours in this room to wait so I lay down on the chairs for a bit. We are stripped of all of our belongings including pockets from the night before. So you sit, you sit and you dream, you think, you meditate, you sleep.

After finally getting put on the plane, the last one on, driven straight over the tarmac, this time not locked up in the back of the paddy wagon but in a cabin seat (it's a big van), I could breathe a sigh of relief but still stressed because I wasn't sure if I was now going to go through the same ordeal in Copenhagen after all the questions I'd receive for being sent back.

I internally thank my friend in Copenhagen for giving me a handful of rusty pounds which I could use on the plane to make myself a whiskey coffee.

I arrived in Copes and having been given my phone back, I could finally let the Whiskey Mystic know that I was ok. All this time I was not given an opportunity to contact. There was over ten missed calls from her on my phone after I started it up. With all my belongings stripped from me and then searched I did not have her phone number in my head to call for my free phone call at the cell in Dublin city. Whiskey Mystic had made many calls to places for me and had even called the Australian Embassy, which didn't help one iota. She even contacted a friend of mine in the Netherlands. I have good friends in Ireland to have this much concern for my wellbeing after disappearing for only one day.

Before all the passengers were about to get off the plane, everyone was asked to stop and I was pulled off the plane first with my guitar in front of everyone, 'I didn't pay for this privelege' I uttered out the door as I was ushered into the arms of two police officers.

They had a few questions but realised quickly that my being sent back there was not urgent like told to them by the Irish customs but just a simple removal. After a few more questions I was given a stamp and let back in to Denmark. As the lucky Australian I am, I was even told I could stay three months longer in the north than on my schengen visa. Other people not so lucky, get put on an island detention centre like in Australia.

This story reiterates for me that the walls of the system are felt when you push against them. The illusions of freedom, free-will and equality are seen for what they are when we are in situations where our class and status in society are questioned. Well done Ireland, you've kept this dangerous troubadour off your shores!

This is not my first experience like this but it is my roughest. And in comparison to the experience of many others not born in a rich country, this was light.

It also illustrates that we cannot trust technology. Everything we write and share, can and will be used against you when you find yourself on the wrong side of the law. This does not mean you being a criminal, this means you finding yourself on the wrong side of money. In the future, we must throw the phone.

I was backed into a cell in the system but I refuse to be backed into a cell in my mind.

Photo: My first trip to Ireland at the Cork Jazz Festival in 2016.

Edit: Shout out to amazing grassroots organisation - End Deportation Belfast for getting straight onto my case after being contacted by Whiskey Mystic and stayed online until I was found - https://www.facebook.com/enddeportationsbelfast/

Here's a funny addition:

The mugshot taken by the Irish Garda

Their red tape to shovel me on: