The Irish Times view on suicide in the Traveller community

The finding that persistent racism against Travellers is the “primary cause” of their alarmingly high suicide rates should not surprise us.

A report published this week, Suicide Among the Traveller Community in South County Dublin and Ballyfermot, finds Travellers have a suicide rate six times that of the general population, more than two-thirds have lost a loved one to suicide and almost 90 per cent are worried about suicide in their community. It sets out the relentless impact of daily exclusions, humiliations and cruel assumptions endured by Travellers navigating lives as a minority in a majority-settled society.

“It’s not what people say at times, they are very careful,” said one participant. “It’s a feeling that you get when you walk into a shop or a GP. It’s that look that you get that only Travellers would know. The conversation stops. The side looks at each other. Unless you have experienced it you wouldn’t know, but it happens everywhere I go.”

These assaults on the spirits of our fellow citizens are perpetrated, notes the report, by retail workers, hospitality staff, gardaí, healthcare workers, teachers, local authority staff – effectively by us all. This prejudice is structural too, underpinning Travellers’ negative experiences accessing housing, employment, education, healthcare and justice.

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The community has pleaded for action on its mental health crisis for decades. Among the report’s nine recommendations are that a Traveller mental health coordinator be appointed by the local Health Service Executive; that stigma about mental health among Travellers be addressed; and that suicide prevention outreach work be done within the community.

Such measures are important and the very least national and local bodies must deliver. They will not, however, address endemic racism against Travellers. That is a far greater task and one that falls to us all – in communities, workplaces, hospitality venues and public services. A national campaign, led by Government, to tackle racism against Travellers is long overdue.