Survey finds negative Irish attitudes towards travellers

"I don't think shooting people is just classed as racist!"....Then let the cull begin, Sparklet!

I don't think shooting people is just classed as racist!

knackers here in this country, are just like the blacks of america! they are only 12% of the population, yet 99.5% of the crime! and in both countries your not aloud to shoot them, as it would be racist!

Travellers are honest, conservative and hard working, industrious people. Travellers kids score high in Irish schools because of their parents disipline in making sure that they study hard after school. They are role models for a perfect society with their strong work ethic and honesty

Hey Naill where is your hate speech article. 40 percent of the Irish would not be willing to hire a Traveller? Wow. Sounds like Arizona "discrimination". Wait these people are not ILLEGAL, they just travel about the country? Yet Irish do not like them? Come on Naill where is the Hate?

Many of the New Age Travellers, those who travel around the country in luxurious caravans living as carpet or furniture door-to-door salesmen etc. also have luxurious fixed homes – in Limerick and Kerry for example. I’ve met them enjoying weekend breaks in hotels in Galway. So they are not short of money – even Travellers are entitled to Irish Govt Social Welfare payments. However, these New Age Travellers always leave their illegal temporary ‘halting sites’ – a mid-week empty church car park or an open ‘green’ area by the sea, in total shambles with discarded human waste, junk and litter when they move on. Tax-payers’ money is used to clean up after them. It does not surprise me that local mainstream communities have little sympathy for them and, as Fr. Mac Greil found, that there’s a pronounced polarisation. Their lifestyle and culture is too different from mainstream that integration is going to take more effort, education and a lot more of fresh ideas. Let's hope that happens.

On other aspects of Travellers, they tend to be very religious Catholics (witness the thousands who turned up at the promised Visions of Our Lady at Knock Shrine recently). They always have ‘Holy Pictures’ of the Sacred Heart, Our Lady, the Statue of Prague or Padre Pio in their caravans and homes. I have met many on aircraft bound for pilgrimages to Medjugorje or Fatima for example. When Travellers ‘stop over’ in a parish, the Sunday Mass collection plates are hugely fuller than normal, proving they can be generous despite a history of being known for begging door-to-door and on the streets. They are also excellent musicians and songsters (eg The Furey Brothers), artists, tradesmen and crafts people. They do have a unique culture in Ireland.

I have worked directly and indirectly with people of the Irish Travelling Community in many different ways, mostly as part of projects to improve their ‘lot’. Sadly, I found that no matter what efforts are made to do this, they are wasted for the most part. There are two groups of Travellers today – the old ‘gypsy’ kind and the New Age Travellers. Most Travellers, but not all, imho, are beyond redemption of being integrated into mainstream Irish society. The old travelling-the-roads lifestyle is too far ingrained in the families. Unfortunately, alcohol and drug abuse, family feuds, violence, a seemingly innate inability to adopt or adapt to basic hygiene standards or use of fixed houses, facilities and utilities are all parts of the problem. We offer the best to them but they can’t deliver even when they receive it for free. That is heart-breaking from my perspective and probably a lot of other Irish people.

The comments below re ‘NINA’ etc have nothing to do with the article above and I suggest that discussing it further should be left to another article to be written on ICentral. I’ll post a few realistic comments on the topic which hopefully will make it on screen – so many have not that I’ve refrained for a long while!

fargobarbi, do a google search and you will find many good site's that explain the origins of' no irish need apply 'and you will see that it was a myth..

It's no myth. Not only did it appear in Windows but the Newspapers. It became so widespread that they simply put"NINA".

I teach a Contemporary Issues class with three weeks of study of the Irish Travellers. There is much work to be done on both sides. I agree with the respect issue in re: to cleaning up. One other point; my great grand da has several old, photos with signs of No Irish Need Apply in shop windows in NYC. So not a myth as many photos also appear in U.S. History books.

siobhain. the ' no irish need apply' never appeared in store windows in the usa.it's just a myth...

siobhan39, 'irish need not apply ' never appeared in store windows in the us ..it's just a myth...

Hummm . . . perhaps the Irish should be aware that when their ancestors came to this country (USA) they were met with "Irish Need Not Apply" signs in store windows.