Mediator to intervene in Travellers dispute

ANNE LUCEY

AN INDEPENDENT mediator is expected to be invited to intervene in an escalating feud in Co Kerry which it is feared could draw in many of the county’s 391 Traveller families.

In the latest flare-up, fights broke out at the funeral of a settled Traveller, a relative of both factions, at Rath cemetery at the edge of Tralee.

The scuffles spilled on to the main Tralee to Killarney road on Monday. Gardaí arrived in vans and squad cars to restore order. A number of people were arrested at the scene and weapons including knives, ornamental swords and slash-hooks were seized. Up to 30 people were involved in the outbreak.

On Wednesday, scuffles broke out in Tralee on the steps of the courthouse where a number of men were before the court.

Last May, the armed Garda regional emergency response unit was deployed on the streets of Tralee to prevent an escalation of violence.

Yesterday a series of meetings took place between the Kerry Traveller Development Project based in Tralee, the HSE, gardaí and Kerry County Council.

An inter-agency approach is needed to solve a dispute that is affecting most Traveller families in the county, according to Owen McCarthy, project manager of the development project.