Anti-Traveller vitriol is socially acceptable in Ireland but let's call it what it is - racism

My article in today's Irish Independent 👇

https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/anti-traveller-vitriol-is-socially-acceptable-here-but-lets-call-it-what-it-is-racism-39502475.html

When I was 15, I volunteered to teach literacy to Traveller children after school. That’s where I met Josephine, whose ensuing friendship gave me the gift, privileged and painful though it was, to walk in another girl’s shoes.

Strictly speaking, they were slippers, which I wore inside the caravan Josephine shared with her parents and four siblings. Her grandmother was often there too, imparting knowledge and love of her Traveller heritage through story telling. I sat for hours listening to her tales, hanging on every word.

I lost contact with Josephine, but every-time I hear racist anti-Traveller rhetoric and reports of attacks on the community, I think of her. So when a house in Galway, earmarked for a Traveller family was set alight this week, I thought, what if that’s Josephine’s family?

What if the children who were counting the sleeps before moving to their new home were hers? How would she explain, for example, that local councillor, Noel Larkin, went on radio, not to sympathise with the Traveller family, but to demand consultation for residents who “have genuine fears for their own property”? Adding, “Ramming a family into an area will cause upset to the people there”.

Thugs intimidating builders, blockading homes with silage bales in the dead of night and arson resulting in actual destruction of property, is not upsetting? But a young family with children seeking a safe, secure home pose “genuine fears for property”?  

Prejudice is underpinned by fear and ignorance. It’s not the responsibility of the marginalised to educate their oppressors. The only thing that Mr Larkin and the people on whose behalf he purports to speak, knows about their new neighbours is their ethnicity. Therefore, the fear he speaks of is predicated on hackneyed stereotypes and poisonous prejudice.

As an elected representative, Mr Larkin knows that to consult with residents before allocating housing to Travellers would be discriminatory. Galway City Council made that clear to fellow anti-Traveller agitator, Noel [Golfgate] Grealish, when he also demanded community consultation regarding the same burnt out property. If these men were demanding consultation before allocating social housing to Jews or Black people, it would be called out for what it is: Racist. It’s beyond time this country spoke anti-Traveller racism by its name and strengthened the law against hate crime to combat it.

Burning houses allocated to Travellers is not new in Ireland. Last year, an elderly Traveller couple in Cork had their caravan burnt out, destroying all their possessions, including their pets. In Tipperary, vandals targeted a house assigned to Travellers and in February 2013, a house earmarked for Travellers in Donegal, was wrecked in an arson attack.

What’s particularly disturbing to me is the perception that vitriol against Travellers is socially acceptable. Comments such as, “The people who did that deserve a medal”, “The travellers would’ve burned down the house if they didn’t do it.” and "Pity the Travellers weren't in there," are alarmingly commonplace online.

Scanning Travellers’ social media accounts, the mental health impact of the constant deluge of tacitly accepted racism is palpable, as captured in this comment: “I honestly can't take anymore. My mental health is suffering from all the racism I am seeing against my community”. It’s little wonder that suicide in Travellers is 6 times that of the general population and accounts for 11% of all deaths. Such relentless hatred would not be tolerated if targeted at any other ethnic group in the country.

On Tuesday, a 9 year old boy, who happens to be a Traveller, returned to school for the first time in six months to be greeted with this from another child:  “No-one likes k******s, that’s why that house was burnt down”.

Shielding our children against the emotional impact of coronavirus is hard enough without burdening them with the additional psychological trauma of racism. That any child is subjected to this hate, in Ireland, in 2020, is a national disgrace. Ireland’s Human Rights and Equality Commission reported in October that, “Persistence of systemic institutional racism against Travellers and the continued and widespread existence within Irish society of discriminatory attitudes towards Travellers remain among the most significant areas where the State is failing to meet its [UN] obligations” to eliminate racial discrimination.

Dehumanising Travellers and portraying them as “other” and evil, desensitises us to their distress and makes the conditions for discrimination and oppression possible. When we have limited contact with people who are different to us, we become susceptible to the shorthand of stereotypes which is mitigated by seeking out friendships beyond our comfort zones.

When you walk a mile in someone else’s shoes/slippers, their pain becomes your pain, their joy becomes your joy. When I stood up for Josephine in school, she said it was the nicest thing anyone had ever done for her. If you’re reading this Josie, know that your fight is still my fight and that I stand with you, your family and your kind, compassionate community.