Dear Blues=Life,

You said in your post above, "The ONLY mention I've seen so far about Irish Travellers has been here." Here is a small sample of what I am seeing in my local paper, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, which is one of the 32 Knight-Ridder News Syndicate newspapers.

Posted on Sun, Sep. 29, 2002
Inquiring local minds want to know
David House
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

Notes from the pile of readers' questions here lately:

Why did you smear all Irish people in that case involving an Irish Traveller mother and her child?

Readers were referring to the "More on IRISH" jumpline that accompanied a Sunday Page One story about a mother accused of physically abusing her 4-year-old daughter.

Some of the nomadic Irish Travellers are known as con artists, and although the group claims Irish heritage, some Irish-blooded people don't want to be associated with them even in a jumpline.

The idea behind jumplines is to use logical keywords to help readers find the continued copy on an inside page. In this case, the keyword struck some readers as an insensitive indictment. Inoffensive keywords were available, including that dear Irish title -- "Mother."

-- Áine