Well... with your particular handle, I would include songs about Irish Travellers, and would suggest the CD Songs of the Travelling People, Irish music BY Travellers, or Paddy Keenan's new CD. I suggest this as Irish Travellers in Ireland AND in the US are labled under the racist term Gypsy. Tens of thousands of Irish Travellers in the US are openly oppressed and I present the following as an example...
I have redacted Bud's prisoner number and the parole board address as I have found a huge amount of racism against Travellers on this board, but it friends wish to write on Bud's behalf, email me at InOBU@aol.com. But, again, don't forget, in Irish Studies, Travellers are a huge part of Ireland's history and tradition.

Dear Friends:
       My friend Jim Costello has asked me to help him put this on line. He is a nomadic Irish Traveller. What follows is self explanatory, but if you have questions, Jim and I are in touch and I can pass on questions to Jim and the Costello family.

Yours,
Larry Otway

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       When will it be our constitution as well? My son was stopped in Honesdale PA, because he fit the profile of a "Gypsy." We are Irish Travellers. Our people have been nomadic longer than there has been a United States or an Irish nation. We are nomadic because we are born to a nomadic culture and tradition which is a part of us every bit as much as being settled is part of the tradition and culture of the dominant majority of people in the world. My son was stopped and searched because of who he is, a nomadic person and an Irish Traveller, not for anything he did. There was and is no complainant coming forward to say he did anyone any harm.
They searched him, in spite of his objections and charged him with soliciting without a license, possessing an altered insurance document, and a single piece of paper that contained traces of cocaine. All these things are minor misdemeanors. I do not condone that my son possessed this trace amount of cocaine, this is not tolerated in his family or among his people. However, if he were not a Traveller, he would have paid a fine and may have been ordered to drug treatment, even though in his sentencing report there is no history of addiction. If he were not a Traveller, on the sum total of these charges he would have paid a small fine and gone on his way. If he was not a Traveller, he would not have been stopped in the first place.

       Most Travellers are fully licensed small contractors doing those jobs which fit out nomadic traditions. My son is a painter. The laws of the United States do not take into account how we live and make our living. As a result, some Travellers cannot get permits and licenses in every place they work. Like the new "Trespass" laws in Ireland, which criminalize Traveller tradition and life in Ireland, these license laws do not name Travellers and Romany people. However, they are designed to favor the settled community, and criminalize our very existence. My son grew up in a family of fine painters. There were no complaints stemming from his work in Honesdale, just recognition that he was a "Gypsy" and I use that word here to describe the prejudice country people (settled people) have towards the nomadic people of the world.

       The proof of this prejudicial view of our culture is found in the probation report submitted in my son's case by James Brewington the senior probation officer in Honesdale, PA. It reads, "The PA State police report that 'Costello' is a name commonly used by Gypsy organizations. These organizations are known to use deceptive tactics and materials to perform substandard work for unsuspecting citizens."

       Costello is our name and has always been our name. Travellers in the United States are the largest users of Sherman Williams paint in the nation. If there was suspicion that my son was using substandard materials, they could have tested any paint he may have possessed. They did not. Instead, in this report they say, "Gypsies" use substandard materials -- my son has a "Gypsy" name, therefore he must use substandard materials. Apply this twisted logic to any other ethnic community and there would be a line of civil rights lawyers waiting to take my son's case. Instead, there is the virtual abandonment of us by those who make their living defending the rights of others. There is no place for Travellers and Romany people to go to have their rights defended. After we are victimized by the police, we are victimized by the defense lawyers and finally by the courts.

       It goes without saying, that there is no such thing as a "Gypsy organization" in regard to the working life of American Irish Travellers. This is a myth which is designed to criminalize the very existence of our people. How can we gain the equal respect for our culture which is the birthright of all the people of the world in light of this kind of blatant prejudice?

       Some of you have heard of Honesdale lately. Honesdale and Judge Conway, who sentenced my son, and the prosecutor who brought these charges against my son, tried three of a number of high school students who committed an unspeakable crime. Let me apologize to Romany people who read this, as the crime they committed is unclean to even speak about among Romany people. They were charged with the rape of younger students at a football camp. Though 16 - 17 years old, they were charged as juveniles and so the harshest sentence was four months in "bootcamp" and one of those sentenced was given probation. Several others of the victimizers where not tried at all. Their victims were so injured that they needed to be hospitalized and their lives will never be the same. The Costello family's heart goes out to these young people who were savaged by this incident. But, we also ask, where is American justice when the same judge locks our young son away for five years for victimless allegations, for the crime of being a "Gypsy"?

       After almost a year in jail, he has been denied parol, though he is a model prisoner. When I say he has been a model prisoner, he is respectful and polite to everyone he meets in prison. He has taken advantage of this time to go to school. He has completed one drug course, and has five more classes to go to finish a second course. He goes to Mass every Sunday, like most Irish Travellers we are devoted to our Catholic faith. He is told he will not have another hearing before October. Please write to the Parole board and demand an expedited hearing, a fair hearing based on his record not on the lie that we are criminals because we are nomadic people.