Traveller feuds feed society's stereotypes

In June last year a man carrying three wooden bats was intercepted by gardai on his way to "mediate" in a feud between two Traveller families. Defending him, his solicitor said that the man was "more or less acting like George Mitchell".

More or less. Had Senator Mitchell used pick axes, or iron bars, or hammers or slash-hooks or pitchforks or spanners or swords or rock-filled supermarket trolleys or even wooden bats in his mediation activities the comparison might have been applicable. In reality the assertion is as bizarre as the incidents of violence involving a small minority of the State's 30,000 Travellers.

The latest of these this week left one Traveller dead and another injured after a shooting at a funeral. In a separate incident another was wounded in the chest by a dart from a crossbow. In recent years the weapons described above have all been used in Traveller clashes at weddings, funerals or organised fights at various locations.

Why these things happen and how they can be avoided in the future are two issues not often examined when the latest Traveller feud hits the headlines. Perhaps it is because some of the answers might prove unpalatable for those in the settled community who look on in voyeuristic fascination as each new bloody mini-war unfolds.

According to Father Dan O'Connell of the Parish of the Travelling People the fact that the exclusion of Travellers has been maintained over generations has dulled society's response to such incidents.

"Travellers will tell you that rows have gone on and the Garda has driven up and down past the spot. There has been an attitude of `let them at it to kill each other' but you can be sure there would be much more intervention if the people involved in the row lived in nice houses in Foxrock, Co Dublin," he said.

Other commentators said the violence was something of a self-fulfilling prophecy. If society expects this kind of behaviour in Travellers, they argue, some of them will eventually deliver. Like the faction fighters in the settled community in the last century, one suggested "the horror of being downtrodden for generations has, in some cases, eaten away at their ability to deal with each other".

The reason for the inter-Traveller disputes is not easily found. Those who have researched the area say the feuds revolve around "little things or bigger issues that have sometimes festered for years".

The way in which these arguments were resolved has changed, according to Dr Alice Binchy, who spent time with Travellers studying their language, Shelta. "In the past when there were disagreements a family could move on but now they are less mobile and there are less places for them to go," she said.

Thomas McCann of the Irish Traveller Movement remarked on another way that most disputes were and still are resolved; "Some of them talk, believe it or not," he said.

But there are groups within some families, said Fr O'Connell, who love a row and will often drag others into the feuding. Often violence flares up at funerals because this is where the large extended families who may avoid each other normally meet up.

Father Micheal MacGreil, a former sociology lecturer in Maynooth University, spent time living with the members of the Travelling community and is the author of a number of studies including Prejudice in Ireland Revisited.

He described incidents such as the ones this week as "outrageous" and said those responsible were letting Travellers down. "It is pathetic and tragic and wrong and Travellers will be the very first to say that."

Fr MacGreil was unwilling to comment on this week's events, saying "these incidents are just used to justify negative stereotypes". He said the media were engaging in "voyeurism and victimology" and the Travelling community generally behaved "extraordinarily well" in the face of regular abuse from society.

"They are insulted every minute of every day and I am amazed that they have taken it lying down," he said.