The Travellers: Ireland’s Ethnic Minority :: Essays Papers

The Travellers: Ireland’s Ethnic Minority Who are the Travellers? The Travellers, a minority community indigenous to Ireland, have existed on the margins of Irish society for centuries. They share common descent, and have distinct cultural practices - early marriage, desire to be mobile, a tradition of self-employment, and so on. They have distinct rituals of death and cleansing, and a language they only speak among their own. Travellers are not overtly conscious of a sense of group history. Concern with ancestry is an obsession of those who value permanence of place. Rather, the individual is defined by his/her place within the relationship network. They live in extended patriarchal families, prefer trailers, tend to nomadism interspersed with occasional house dwelling, and maintain a nomadic mindset even when settled; a house is considered only a stopping place between journeys, whether the stop lasts 20 days or 20 years! There are an estimated 21,000 Travellers currently living in the Republic of Ireland, over half of whom have no access to toil et facilities, electricity, refuse collection or piped water. In the past they invariably travelled, but misguided government policy from the 1960s onward ensured that many were persuaded to settle in houses – a policy that, in undermining traditional values and lifestyle, is increasingly questioned, if not actively altered. Traditionally, they were metal workers, hawkers, traders in horses and used goods of all description, and provided services where and when there were gaps in the market. This resistance to wage labour and alternative cultural definition of work led to charges of idleness by the uncomprehending. The necessity of living on their wits led to a stereotype of Travellers as shrewd, even cunning, dealers. Having been persuaded to settle in houses, and consequently, having lost the mobility necessary to their traditional trades, many Travellers today rely on state welfare assistance. This could be construed as a sinister government plot, but for the fact that government policy on Travellers has never been well planned enough to effect any successful strategy! Ironically, Traveller representative Michael McDonagh believes that â€Å"Travellers that are the most nomadic are also the most economically successful, and also have far less difficulty with their identity than people forced into settlement† (quoted in â€Å"Nomadism in Irish Travellers’ Identity†. From Irish Travellers: Culture and Ethnicity.Eds. McCann et al. Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1994, 95-109). Their position is akin to that of the gypsy of Europe in some respects.