Subject: RE: Irish Travellers in London on Lyric FM -Saturd
From: Jim Carroll - PM
Date: 19 Aug 08 - 11:54 AM

No; but the point you made applies to society in general. I lived in London during 'the recent 'Troubles' and I know that the Irish community as a whole bore the brunt of what was happening.
There are angels and devils in all communities, and while I wouldn't want to excuse a Traveller's bad behaviour, nor would I want to draw conclusions about the community as a whole by the acts of a few individuals.
I may have misconstrued your statement; if I have I apologise; put it down to over-sensitivity on my part.
At the present time here in Ireland there is a campaign against Travellers which verges on ethnic cleansing. There are around 30,000 Travellers on the road; around three quarters of them have no legal stopping place. If they camp illegally they can, and are imprisoned and their caravans are confiscated. Many of them who have attempted to settle into houses have been prevented from doing so by irate neighbours. In this town two winters ago a family of 8 who had been made homeless by a caravan fire were prevented from accepting temporary accommodation (uncharacteristically) provided by the council by demonstrating residents who managed to terrorise them back onto the road ("If you hang around here you'll be needing the fire depatment again") in a borrowed holiday caravan (mid-December).
The official halting sites that are provided have only a stand-pipe, one toilet for the whole site and (if they are lucky) one electricity supply. Those with no site have no legal (or otherwise) access to sanitation, clean water, education, and no easy access to health care..... or any of the facilities we take for granted. As a result the average life expectancy of a Traveller is considerably less than that of a settled person.
As has been shown by earlier postings, they have no access to a legal process through which they can attempt to improve the conditions they endure and they are regular victims of racist bigotry.
In short, the conditions that are imposed on them are third-world, justified by pointing out the behaviour of the few to condemn them all.
Pat and I were recipients of Traveller hospitality for over 30 years; we counted many of them as dear friends - please excuse me if I knee-jerk occasionally.
Jim Carroll
PS Cap'n,
Nobody (in these islands anyway) has the right to take a life - that's the law.
so here we have Jim Carroll,making statements about travellers enduring racial bigotry,and campaigns verging on ethnic cleansing,since this is happening in Ireland,is it racist to conclude that it is Irish people who are responsible.,or are English/japanese/chinese, people responsible
I certainly have heard Irish people make derogatory /racist statements about travellers.