I am a member of the Travelling community and I am employed as a chaplain to the Travelling people. My life experience as a Traveller and my study of theology and philosophy compel me to reflect on and challenge the experience of prejudice and discrimination that is so pervasive in Travellers' life experience.
A report published this week stated that 42 per cent of settled Irish people admit to being unfavourably disposed towards Travellers, while 45 per cent were favourably disposed. I read these facts with mixed feelings.
My experience of the impact of prejudice on my life seems to contradict the findings in this report. I find it hard to believe that there are so many people who claim they are not prejudiced towards Travellers.
I ask the question, where are the 45 per cent who claim to be favourably disposed in my life experience? The people who make the most impact in my life are the 42 per cent who admit they are unfavourably disposed. It is their prejudice that I hear and experience. It seems to me that the negative few hold so much power.
I believe society has unconsciously allowed these people too much space to hold these views. I acknowledge their freedom to hold their views. However, I challenge their perceived right to impose these views on my community.
To me, they seem to have the permission of the rest of society and the freedom to act out their prejudices in regard to Travellers.
As a Traveller I would like to bring you into the reality of what it is like to be on the receiving end of the unfavourably disposed. This experience affects all aspects of our lives, from the basic human needs such as accommodation, education and health.
We have to live with fear, uncertainty and confusion and with the sense of disempowerment in regard to our way of life. We are perceived as outcasts.
At times I am tempted to let go and retreat into a safe world that I can create for myself, but I believe people were not created to withdraw from the world but to engage in it.
My responsibility as a Christian and a Traveller is to challenge all those who would deny any person their right to be and exist as they are.
If I don't challenge, then I have become a part of the silent masses. That would be in contradiction to the Christian faith, a faith that calls us all to "act justly, to love tenderly, and to walk humbly, with our God" (Micah 6:8). These words sum up the core of what it means to belong to the Christian community.
The situation of Travellers in Ireland today is not an easy one. I wish a future that is liberated from prejudice and discrimination, where all can be free to develop into all that they are called to be.
To create this future, it will take more than a wish; it will take active participation from all, particularly those who claim to be favourably disposed towards Travellers.