A question of ethnic identity

Irish Times

March 31

A CAMPAIGN TO have ethnic minority group status granted to the Traveller community in Ireland is gathering momentum, writes FIONA GARTLAND

Launched by the Irish Traveller Movement (ITM) late last year, the campaign is supported by the Equality Authority, Amnesty International and the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism.

Up to now no group in Ireland has been afforded ethnic minority status, something which the ITM argues would provide greater protection and recognition for Travellers’ culture. They say it would also have implications in terms of ensuring Traveller representation in the political system.

A petition is currently being collected, to be sent to the Department of Justice, calling on the Government to grant the community ethnic status. This involves just a simple declaration by the government.

Ethnic status has already been granted to Irish Travellers in England after the courts ruled that they fell within the definition of an ethnic group.

The Government is resisting the pressure, however. In answer to a recent parliamentary question, Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said the Government accepts the right of Travellers to their cultural identity and is committed to applying all the protections afforded to national minorities under relevant international conventions. But he added: “The Government does not hold that Travellers are ethnically different from the majority of Irish people.”

And, in a recent report to the National Traveller Monitoring and Advisory Committee, the Department of Justice says the recognition of Travellers as an ethnic minority was “of no domestic legal significance”. The report says as it stands travellers in Ireland have the same civil and political rights as other citizens. There is no restriction on them enjoying their own culture, religion or language.

But according to the ITM, giving Travellers ethnic status would send a strong message that their cultural heritage and place in Irish society has recognition and worth. It would provide greater protection of Travellers’ cultural independence under European and International conventions already ratified by the Irish Government, such as the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.

IF ETHNIC STATUS was given there would have to be official recognition of Traveller culture in the provision of education, health services and housing, and nomadism would have to be properly catered for in housing provision.

The ITM says it would also have implications in terms of ensuring Traveller representation within the Irish political system. If status was granted they would test this under the convention.

But among Travellers, the matter is not settled either, with some seeing the search for ethnic status as a step away from the settled community that might lead to further discrimination instead of equality.

There are an estimated 25,000 Travellers in Ireland, making up more than 4,485 Traveller families. They are an indigenous minority who have been part of Irish society for centuries. They share distinct cultural values and language known as Gammon or Cant, as well as customs and traditions such as nomadism, which distinguish them from the settled community.

Damien Peelo, director of ITM, believes Traveller’s fulfil the criteria of what we now call an ethnic minority group, by European standards and everything else.

“They have the shared common history, they have the shared language, they have shared customs and traditions . . . the Equality Authority found that too.”

Policy has changed but discrimination still exists, he says.“An awful lot of good policies were created at State level in relation to health, accommodation, education, service provision, employment and recognition of Travellers’ cultural differences,” he says. “But where it falls short is in implementation.”
He says one of the barriers to delivery is that people who are charged with the implementation of those policies don’t believe in what they are being asked to do. Local authorities charged with providing Traveller-specific accommodation sometimes don’t believe it is the right way to go.

“They think living in a caravan is somehow alien and shouldn’t be supported, they think that Travellers should be assimilated into wider society,” he says.

“They have quite a lot of power in that regard and they have no accountability if they don’t do what they are being asked to do.”

If ethnic minority status is granted it can help address these issues, he says.

The ITM will be organising debates on ethnicity around the country in the coming weeks.

Traveller Irish or Irish Traveller? The arguments for . . . and against

Hughie Friel

Hughie Friel is an anti-racism and accommodation worker with the Donegal Travellers Project. He says Travellers identify themselves as an ethnic minority, but society and the Government do not. He believes recognition could bring a change within society and within the Traveller community.

Although officially assimilation of Travellers into the settled community is not Government policy, in practice it is, he says.

“In Donegal, if they offer you a house and you look for Traveller specific accommodation they deem you to be awkward. You wait a long time, then you have children so you take the house they are offering. But you are not allowed have your dogs, your horses or your traditions; that’s how the culture disappears. If it keeps proceeding in this way there will be no Travellers left in 20 years.”

He says you have to be 18 months parked on the road in a caravan to get on the housing list, but if you are in private rented accommodation they put you on the list straight away. “If we had ethnic status maybe we could challenge that,” he says.

Friel has four children and would like to see Traveller culture taught in schools, just as Chinese or Indian culture is taught when a Chinese or Indian pupil joins. “We’re still not recognised in the school curriculum. Having ethnic status might help to encourage that,” he says.

Rose Marie Maughan

Rose Marie Maughan from Mayo works in the Irish Traveller Movement as a membership development officer for the northwest. She feels strongly that ethnic minority status would be good for her community.

“It would be telling me the people of Ireland put a value on my culture and my way of life,” she says. She has a better chance of reaching her true potential, she says, if her culture is respected, valued and recognised in an equal manner to the identity of the majority culture in Ireland.

In the past, Ms Maughan has hidden her identity in order to obtain employment. If ethnic group status was recognised, she says, there would no longer be a need to hide. She works with the Traveller movement because it is the only place at present that will allow her to reach her potential.

“My true identity is valued and recognised here,” she says. “I believe if our ethnic status was recognised by the State and society it would place a value on our culture.”

She says the EU Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities would also afford additional rights to Travellers and would put more of an onus on the Irish State to address the community’s needs.“Sometime down the line, sometime in the future we could replicate what happened in America with Obama,” she says.

Cllr Martin Ward

Cllr Martin Ward, a member of Tuam Town Council and the Traveller Education Development Group, is firmly against ethnic status for the Traveller community.

“My loyalty is to Ireland first and the Traveller community second, we’re Irish Travellers not Traveller Irish,” he says. “I believe we are part of a social group within Irish society. There are an awful lot of similarities between the Traveller community and the settled community.” He believes there are more important issues to focus on within the community, such as education, employment and accommodation. Ethnic status would just give Travellers another label, he says. “What does ethnicity mean? It means you are totally different. In looking for ethnic status we are just pushing ourselves away from the settled community,” he says. He queries the motivation behind the campaign.

“Travellers on the ground are not worried about ethnic status. Let us not have settled people pushing an agenda on the Traveller community.” Discrimination will not be cured by introducing a new label, he says.

“Ethnic status is not a magic wand. I don’t see how it would change people’s attitudes. We can enact all the laws we want, but until people change their attitude to the Traveller community nothing is going to happen.”

Winnie McDonagh

Winnie McDonagh works in Traveller education with a children’s charity in Dublin.

She is cautious about the ethnic status issue and describes herself as “sitting on the fence”. There has been a severe shortage of consultation, she says.

“I can see the advantages and the disadvantages, but I want to hear the representative groups putting forward their arguments. I would like to see wider consultation with Travellers before ethnic status is sought.” The debate brings back her memories of a plan some years ago to develop a flag for Travellers. At the time, the issue was controversial and was being pushed by a small number of people. It caused a lot of uncertainty; people were not aware what it was leading to and they feared it meant they would lose their citizenship, she says. They weren’t told what implications it would have.

“Most Travellers see themselves as citizens of Ireland, though separate from the settled community and with their particular lifestyle, customs and traditions,” she says.

She says the term “ethnic status” has negative connotations for some people and could be associated with ethnic cleansing in such places as Bosnia.“If people think it will make them be treated more negatively and more separately, they might think it would be better to stay where they are,” she says.