'We are not prepared to live in bricks and mortar. We are Travellers'

A High Court judge says Irish Travellers living illegally on a site in Essex have reached the end of the road

KATHLEEN McCARTHY stood confidently on the steps of the Royal Courts of Justice yesterday afternoon, in front of dozens of journalists, just minutes after

Mr Justice Kenneth Parker in the British High Court had ruled that an end must finally come to Dale Farm’s battle to survive.

Up to 400 Travellers live on the site at times, after the first ones arrived over a decade ago when they bought an old scrapyard and put down gravel for roads, paths and hard stands for caravans.

The original homes – most of which are brick-built, despite the Travellers’ declared aversion to the material – have received planning permission, often retrospectively, but the pitches created on land at the back of the site have broken Essex’s green-belt rules.

Everyone, including the Travellers, accept this, but they insist that while they are happy to leave Dale Farm behind they will do so only for pitches elsewhere – not for flats or houses in or around Basildon, which already has thousands on its housing waiting list.

“We are not prepared to live in bricks and mortar. We are Travellers, with homes. It would be unfair to take such homes when others need them and when we don’t want them,” she told The Irish Times in one of her countless interviews.

Dale Farm has, it is clear, become a major British news story. In the minutes after his ruling, it was clear Mr Justice Parker had not granted the Travellers’ request for a 28-day delay in the evictions, but it was not immediately clear – even to lawyers present – what he had allowed.

Actor Vanessa Redgrave, who has been a long-time supporter of the Dale Farm residents, along with her late brother, Corin – who suffered a heart attack as he spoke at a public meeting in favour of them – was in tears: “It is a disaster, a disaster,” she lamented.

Others had to search for guidance. Grandmother Mary Flynn could not be evicted for a week, that much was clear, but the others could, though electricity and water supplies to the site – the first things to be cut by incoming bailiffs – could not be severed for fear of endangering Flynn’s health.

However, the Travellers’ fears of immediate raids appear premature, since Candy Sheridan of the Gypsy Council says Basildon Borough Council has privately made it clear notice will be given of when evictions will start. In addition, they would take place in stages “over three to five weeks”, while council officials have still to complete homelessness reports on most of the residents, having offered, according to Kathleen McCarthy, “just 10 flats so far”.