Traveller dispute settled for now on Dublin's 'Garvaghy Road'

Burnt-out cars, charred pallets of wood, shattered glass - all the detritus of a full-blown riot were on ample display along Dunsink Lane yesterday.

Traveller protesters have managed to gouge away half the hated concrete barricade at the centre of this dispute. But for now, the rest remains staunchly in place, blocking car access to the shops and schools across the road in Finglas.

Fired up by Sunday evening's disturbances, when two people were arrested and various missiles were thrown at the gardaí, local Traveller youths passed the time yesterday discussing ways of constructing better petrol bombs.

"Get the vodka bottles," said one; "What about sticking a few bangers on," said another. A third man talked about getting guns "just like in Belfast" but hushed on noticing that I was listening.

Their elders, meanwhile, complained bitterly of provocation by gardaí and by local youths from across the Ratoath Road in Finglas. Gangs from the settled community began by pelting the Travellers with stones on Sunday night, but later both groups turned their attentions on the 150-strong force from the Garda Public Order Unit.

Traveller activist Mr Martin Collins, who doesn't live in the area, condemned the action by "hotheads" in his community, and pointed out that it was Traveller cars and property that had suffered.

Dublin City and Fingal councils, which erected the barricade, say they are trying to stop illegal dumping and other criminal activities in the area. But locals say the authorities should target those responsible for any problems, rather than penalising the community generally.

"This is our Garvaghy Road," one man told me.

"We want to pass down this road, where we live, shop in our normal shops and bring our children to school every morning.

"Instead, we're penned in like animals. It's an eight-mile trip out the other end of the road and around to Finglas. We have to go through checkpoints from the guards each time, give our name and address and say what we're doing. It's like we're living in another country."

In fact, Dunsink is like another country, and the erection of the barricade and the Garda checkpoints have only reinforced this fact.

Aside from the oddity of Dunsink Observatory, the only residents of this two-mile stretch of Dunsink Lane are Travellers. There is a legal halting site and a neat, well-maintained estate of small houses, but most of the caravans and mobile homes and even some of the houses here have no legal existence.

The hum of generators is heard all along the road and most of the temporary dwellings rely on outside taps.

The roadside is strewn with intermittent heaps of dumped rubble as well as general rubbish, and the fields are filled with cars, most of which will never move again.

Mr Davy Joyce runs a garage on the lane, within a stone's throw (literally) of the barricade. He didn't bother opening yesterday; what was the point, he said, when the only route in was an eight-mile diversion over glass-strewn roads.

"I've always worked for a living, never believed in claiming the dole. But what can I do now, when my livelihood has been taken away from me?" Mr Joyce's wife is suffering from cancer and he says the barricade will mean her twice-weekly trips to hospital for chemotherapy will take much longer.

His sister was one of those arrested during Sunday's disturbance. "She'd just come home from England for a family visit and had nothing to do with the trouble. But they took her in all the same."

While most of the local people I spoke to were friendly or at least indifferent, some remained hostile even when it was clear that I wasn't from the authorities. About a mile up the lane, a man in his 20s blocked my path and demanded my mobile phone. When I refused to give it to him, I received a blow in the face. Bloodied and shaken, I managed to run away.

Back at the barricade, I explained what had happened to some young Travellers to whom I had spoken earlier. They were sympathetic, but their proposed solution was as violent as that meted out by my attacker.

One said: "They're gypsies up there, from England. Show him to us and we'll beat the crap out of him."