Dialogue is key to reconciling Travellers and settled people
OUTRAGEOUS behaviour, by some young members of the Travelling community, including grabbing girls, can only be addressed in Irishtown through dialogue, councillors were told at the New Ross Municipal District council meeting on Wednesday.
Addressing the meeting, Martin Collins of Pavee Point said it is important not to allow stereotypes to inform public debate about Travellers, adding that politicians in Ireland and the UK have breached Covid-19 regulations.
Emily Murtagh of the Irish Traveller Movement said many Travellers are not able to protect themselves from Covid-19 due to inadequate accommodation. She said of the €335,000 allocated for Traveller housing and accommodation in 2019, only €52,000 was spent.
‘Travellers in Co Wexford are not able to protect themselves at a time of unprecedented fear and uncertainty,’ she said.
Ms Murtagh said the Irish Traveller Movement is working with local authorities and other agencies to ensure safeguards are in place for Travellers in the event of a second wave of Covid-19 striking.
Cllr Anthony Connick said it was his idea to have the two Traveller body representatives visit New Ross but, due to Covid-19, a Microsoft Teams meeting had to suffice.
Cllr Connick said: ‘ We have issues on an ongoing basis, major issues. We have groups of youths gathering in the Irishtown and we need help to try and solve it. The gardaí and different organisations have come in. It’s a serious issue, elderly residents are living in fear. It seems to be unique to Wexford, this grabbing. Education for youngsters is needed.’
Cllr Connick said a mix of settled and mobile Travellers are responsible for the actions, usually on Sunday nights.
‘It has calmed down now but will get a lot worse from September on. We need everyone to come to the table. Businesses can’t get staff to work Sunday nights as they are intimidated. They’re banging on doors. These are teenagers but they’re getting younger, as young as eight or nine. Grabbing is not a nice thing to be seen in a graveyard.’
Cllr Connick said he supports all people, including Travellers, Syrians and Romanian members of the community. ‘The last number of months have been incredibly bad. We had two Traveller funerals. It was unbelievable to see nine different patrol cars and a garda helicopter over the town in the sky.
‘They didn’t stick to the guidelines. There were more than 200 people there. We have businesses in the area who are struggling, especially after Covid.’
Cllr Michael Sheehan said Travellers are coming from across the south east to go grabbing and congregate in Irishtown. ‘We have always had a fairly good relationship between the settled and Traveller communities but over the last few years that relationship has deteriorated.’
He said: ‘Residents are terrorised and terrified about coming out. If they do come out on the street, packs of young people are going up and down and are very intimidating. A lot of elderly residents were victimised during Covid. The graveyard is a source of all sorts of activities: some of it is social, some very social. They’re having football matches on people’s graves, walking around the graveyard intimidating people. This must be difficult for members of the Travelling community to hear but at some point people might take the law into their own hands. The funerals were an absolute disgrace. Someone in the Traveller community is going to have to take a stand on this.’
Cllr Sheehan said the youths involved have no respect for themselves, for the community or for the law. He said urine and faeces have been thrown at residents.
‘I fear this will do irreparable damage to the relationship between the Traveller and settled communities,’ he said.
Cllr John Fleming said Wexford County Council is spending thousands upon thousands cleaning up the Traveller halting site in Marshmeadows every year.
‘They even interfered with the ESB box. They are not treating the place with respect and we have to pick up the cost every time. I think education is freedom. It’s the only way to get on in life. They don’t turn up in primary and in secondary school. We were all dragged up and bet to school.’
Cllr Fleming called for a council
Traveller liaison role to be established in order to address problems whenever they arise.
Cllr Bridín Murphy expressed disappointment that education is not at the forefront of the agenda of Traveller representative organisations, citing a high dropout rate among Travellers from schools in Co Wexford.
‘I am disappointed there is no Traveller group set up in Co Wexford as the county has a higher than average number of Travellers,’ Cllr Murphy said.
Cathaoirleach Cllr Michael Whelan said he has spoken to gardaí about Irishtown, adding that anti social activity has quietened down lately.
Mr Collins said: ‘Dialogue is the only way to get reconciliation. People need to be realistic about the role of Traveller organisations. They don’t need to be involved in the policing of their own community.’
Calling for a multi-disciplinary approach to address the problems in Irishtown, Mr Collins said: ‘I just hope what you said won’t be used as a stick to beat Travellers with and for stereotypes to be reinforced.’
He said there is a Traveller primary healthcare project in Enniscorthy that has great potential for engagement.
Disproportionate funding cuts to Traveller education (86 per cent) is a contributing factor to deprivation among Travellers, he said. ‘We no longer have an education programme following significant cuts from the Department of Education.’
Describing the behaviour of Travellers
at funerals as ‘ just unacceptable’, Mr Collins said it is important not to stereotype all Travellers because of the actions of some.
Ms Murtagh said the language used about young Travellers needs to be chosen carefully.
‘People aren’t problems to be solved. They are also young people who are full of potential if that can be harnessed in the right way.
‘Why is the graveyard the centre of their social world? Having the right people on the ground, whether that is a social worker or a local Traveller group, is vital.’
She said the aforementioned funeral was a young woman who died in tragic circumstances. ‘That perspective should not be lost in terms of talking about armed guards.’
On the issue of Traveller accommodation, she said 28 per cent of the county’s Traveller community did not have sufficient accommodation, adding that five young couples were evicted from Marshmeadows halting site on the weekend Covid-19 struck.
‘They were evicted into homelessness the week coronavirus was beginning. There are huge structural issues that need to be dealt with.’
Mr Collins expressed deep concern that less than a quarter of the Traveller Accommodation programme budget for 2019 was spent.
‘I think it’s absolutely ridiculous. We have an accommodation crisis and local authorities are not spending the full budget. There is something inherently sick and reprehensible about that. They have no electricity or water!’
Ms Murtagh asked where Traveller children are supposed to do their homework when many are inadequately housed.
Housing officer Niall McDonnell said the families were asked to leave in March as they were unlawful residents.
‘There is a new system of management on the halting site. The county council are spending a lot of money every year removing rubbish from the halting site; it’s not sustainable,’ he said.
Mr McDonnell said the Traveller Accommodation Programme is for halting sites and housing. ‘We have not drawn down what we are entitled to draw down, however we continue to house Travellers in standard accommodation. The vast majority are housed there and that cannot be taken from the programmes. The figure doesn’t give an accurate refection of the money spent on Travellers.’
He said there are plans being devised to improve the maintenance and operation of halting sites. ‘We are trying to bring forward planning for more Traveller specific accommodation throughout the county,’ he added.
Cllr Sheehan said: ‘I find it difficult for anyone to criticise Wexford County Council. These officers have to go in on weekends and go to estates and deal with incidents that are going on. The people who were served notices were given notices to quit an area where they shouldn’t have been accessing services.’
He said everyone deserves respect and equality. ‘Pensioners should be able to go out onto their street without having faeces or urine thrown at them. This year we had no pattern. The weekend after the pattern an illegal pattern was held in the same graveyard with their own priest.’
Mr Collins said: ‘It’s alarming to hear about all of the intimidation and about people’s quality of life being impacted. This behaviour is not acceptable.’
He called for more support for Traveller action groups and agreed to a request from Cllr Connick to visit Irishtown one Sunday evening to see the goings on for himself.
‘Sunday is the night I usually go for my pints but I’ll sacrifice my pints and come down,’ he said.