good points Fenway but I believe the Irish government do care about the travelling community- our approach is to try and achieve social inclusion through integration and empowerment. Our British neighbors have gone down the route of making them a separate race in law. therefore if they are discriminated against the offender could be facing race hate crimes. Puke points out that he thinks our travelling community has it better in England so maybe that’s a better route to take?
would you not think a lot of that is due to the traditional role of the man in the travelling community? …its a totally macho image where you’re expected to be married by a very young age, become a father very young,then be the sole bread winner for your family,…you’re an outcast if your gay…that’s serious pressure on men so young… I don’t think its fair to say the way somebody looking at them in the cinema or in the shops is the main reason in fairness…
id imagine there is trends throughout the world where the most distant from the labour market,the most disadvantaged, the most discriminated against have higher suicide rates than the better off. I think the traditional role thing is a way of shifting blame
maybe but i would find things like going out and fighting other travellers for your family name quite macho (and barbaric) and not to every man’s liking…soemtime the sums of money involved are huge…not every man would be made for that…
Well obviously I’m going to concentrate on the problems in Ireland. The fact that there is starvation in sub-Saharan Africa doesn’t mean that travellers have it any better off here.
I think the second paragraph you’ve written above is outrageous to be honest. Sean Quinn is a topical issue to throw in there but to try and draw any sort of comparison between how he has tried to manipulate the story into portraying himself as an outsider, versus the very real discrimination that travellers face is ridiculous. I’m genuinely surprised that people are suggesting that the only way to overcome discrimination is for the victims to force their way out of it.
Fair enough,Our boxing club in leitrim took in a large traveller family from sligo in the early 90s while i was there as none of the local clubs in sligo would take them in,we put two of them through as referees and judges {there were no traveller referees at the time} we lost a lot of locals out of the club at the time cause they didnt want their kid associated with travellers but we felt it was the right thing to do, we got them served in local bars who wouldnt usually serve them or let the young fellas play pool,a few years after they got their coaching badges and refereeing they wrecked one of the bars and the last straw was when we heard they were going round sligo selling tickets in the clubs name for tournaments that werent taking place and keeping the cash,it was areal kick in the nuts after all we did for them cunts
my point is anyone can make themselves a victim…sometimes ( not always) you need to look at your own behaviour as a starting point as to why you are perceived a certain way…like some one else pointed out, travellers have plenty of rights in this country so why you persist with dramatic sentences like ‘force their way out’ i don’t know…i know plenty of people like Puke’s father who would give a traveller work not because he’s a traveller but because he’s a good worker…
But have travelers not brought on a lot of the discrimination themselves by the behavior of some (not all) of the traveling community?If you are going to go around fighting in pubs, robbing and carry out anti social activities then you are not going to be greeted in the community with open arms and that goes not just for travelers but also for people in the settled community. We all know of folks in our locality who are barred from every pub or shop because of their behavior who are not travelers.
So if travelers don’t want to be discriminated against then honest decent travelers need to take a stand within their communities against those travelers that are dragging the reputation of the travelers down and condemn and their actions and shun those troublesome families from their communities. There is no point in them playing the victims or whatever, when they themselves wont take any action, it needs to be a two way street here.
infant mortality,unemployment, alcoholism etc are higher among travelling people- in many ways they are treated like aboriginals in oz and have the same problems
But is this not because it is the way they want it?
They are not being force fed the drink, they have the same access to it everyone else has. They are not being denied an education they have the same access everyone else has, its just they choose not to put a high importance on education and until this is broken the cycle will never be broken. Infant mortality, do they not have the same access to the shit health service the rest of us have access too?
