Travellers remember community’s role in the Rising

A group of Travellers gathered outside the GPO on Wednesday to remember the role their community played in the 1916 Easter Rising.

Love/Hate actor John Connors read a “re-Proclamation” at the event, which highlighted the lack of rights for Irish Travellers.

“Until we have brought about an end to inequality, oppression and poverty, and the establishment of a Republic which is representative of the whole people of Ireland, including the Traveller community, the struggle for freedom from oppression continues,” it said.

Speaking earlier, Martin Collins of Pavee Point said Travellers and the rest of the populace enjoy a “shared history” in relation to the Rising.

“Irish Travellers are invisible in and excluded from Irish history and events that shaped the modern Ireland, such as the War of Independence and the Civil War,” he said.

“It is the powerful and the privileged who get to write history.

“Irish Travellers and the majority population have a shared history of which Travellers are an integral part, but Travellers also have a distinct experience and this needs to be acknowledged, which is why we are here today.”

‘Regressive step’

Mr Collins said that the intention of the new Minister of State for Equality, Dave Stanton, to put the question of Traveller ethnicity to the people would be a “regressive step and totally unacceptable”.

“We would never suggest that we have to ask men, ‘Do women have the right to vote?’” he said.

“Nor would we suggest we have to ask people in the US whether slavery should be abolished - particularly the south.

“Slavery was abolished by the leadership of one man - Abraham Lincoln - and that’s the type of leadership we need from the Government to recognise Traveller ethnicity. They need to stop making excuses, kicking for touch.”

The event was organised by Mincéirs Whiden, a Traveller-only forum.