Living by the Roma code

The case of a 12-year-old Roma bride highlights a cultural clash, writes Nuala Haughey , Social and Racial Affairs Correspondent…

The case of a 12-year-old Roma bride highlights a cultural clash, writes Nuala Haughey, Social and Racial Affairs Correspondent

Just over a fortnight ago, a young girl was removed from a house in west Dublin by immigration gardaí who suspected she had been smuggled to Ireland following an arranged marriage in her native Romania. Within days, the 12-year-old had run away with her 18-year-old husband, and both are still missing. The Garda search for the couple is focusing on the State's 2,000-strong Roma ethnic minority community.

While confusion about her identity remains, gardaí say the girl is known as Violeta and has a poor command of English.

The marital union of a minor with an adult male is as disturbing as it is illegal in this country. But for the four million Romanies of central and eastern Europe, it is an intrinsic part of their patriarchal and family-centred culture. This case highlights a cultural clash between the majority community in the Republic with the norms of its tight-knit Roma community, which lives largely by its own social code.

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Most of Ireland's estimated 2,000 Roma have come here as asylum-seekers. While few have achieved recognition as refugees, many have been granted residency on the basis of having citizen children born in Ireland.

From Monaghan to Cork, they have cornered the market in selling the Big Issues magazine, the Roma women highly visible as street beggars in their distinctive traditional skirts and headscarves. Most Roma in Ireland come from Romania, but they identify primarily with their ethnic group rather than their fellow-nationals.

The tensions between non-Roma and Roma back home in Romania have been replicated here. With high illiteracy levels and poor English skills, Ireland's Roma seem destined to replicate their traditionally marginalised and outsider status in their adopted home.

Ireland's Roma Support Group points out that marriage at a young age is not unusual for Roma in Romania, just as it was the norm for Travellers a generation ago. Prior to her recent disappearance, Violeta had been living in a house in Tallaght with her extended family of in-laws, headed by her father-in-law. It was this man who travelled to Romania last year to secure a bride for his teenage son.

In keeping with the Roma tradition of bride price, a payment was made by the family of the groom to the family of the bride. This dowry is aimed at compensating the bride's family for the loss of a daughter and guaranteeing that she will be treated well. A source close to the family said they were upset at media reports that Violeta had been "bought".

Video footage of the couple's traditional Roma wedding in Romania show Violeta dressed in a white dress with an elaborate headdress. Gardaí suspect that the girl was smuggled into Ireland shortly after the wedding. A man believed to be her uncle was arrested and questioned in relation to this and a file is being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.