It's not just about civil rights, there are some Travellers intent on protecting their black market trade, writes Paul Cullen.
Gaza, the Bogside, the Garvaghy Road - heroic parallels were flying around the scene of this week's Battle of Dunsink like bottles at a riot. But for all the talk of resistance, anti-racism or rites of passage, it was the tang of petrol bombs and the threat of even greater trouble that decided the issue.
It was violence - threatened and all-too-real - that ensured the controversial concrete barrier at the end of Dunsink Lane was removed, in accordance with the demands of the Traveller families who live on the road.
With some justification, the 80 families on the lane may feel they won the battle, but in the ongoing war for the hearts and minds of the general population, the Travelling community is a big-time loser once more.
Peaceful protests on the roads of middle-class Castleknock were overshadowed by the guerilla campaign being fought nightly by the barrier at the other end of Dunsink Lane, where the road meets the working-class estates of Finglas.
No target was spared in the campaign against the barrier: not the police, at whom petrol bombs were thrown; not the burned-out gate-lodge of Dunsink Observatory, which has the misfortune of being in the wrong place in the wrong century; not the defaced greens of Elmgreen golf course, a pay-as-you-play facility used by local working-class people who cannot afford the fees charged by exclusive clubs elsewhere in the city.
Next week, with the 20-ton barricade now removed, Travellers will once again be able to drive their children to school in south Finglas by the direct route across the Tolka River. They can shop in the local shops and drink in the local pubs instead of having to make a six-mile detour via Castleknock. So it should be.
But more to the point, some in this community will also be able to resume their commercial activities, which include the facilitation of illegal dumping, the sale of clapped-out cars to so-called joyriders, the laundering of illegal diesel, the sale of counterfeit DVDs, drug smuggling and dealing, and the handling of firearms for criminal gangs.
For while Pavee Point and other activists sold this dispute effectively and coherently as a battle against racism, the violence was driven largely by those in the Travelling community whose commercial interests were directly threatened by outside intervention.
As the dispute intensified, why did the authorities not go on the offensive? Having dumped the barrier in place, it seemed that the authorities largely ceded the airwaves and print columns to the objectors.
Gardaí arrived in huge numbers for no clear reason, spreading fear and loathing in south Finglas and acting as a magnet for every stone-throwing youth looking for an early bout of Hallowe'en rioting.
"It hasn't been well handled," admits one local public representative who wishes not to be named for fear of intimidation. "The gardaí were an absolute disaster; they were terrified of Pavee Point and any negative publicity so they took a back seat and left it to council officials to implement the change." This politician, not normally known for gung-ho interventions, believes it is time for the Criminal Assets Bureau and the Army to intervene, because the gardaí are "not up to it. It's about going in and seizing all the stuff, and putting these guys out of business."
The Garda rejects these criticisms. Supt Mick Roche, who handled the Dunsink Lane protests, says he is happy with the Garda operation: "It hasn't been an easy week. My people were under a great deal of pressure, particularly when darkness set in." And he defends the decision to protect the concrete barrier with a large number of gardaí, even though this became the focus for attacks from both the Travelling and settled communities.
"We can't leave an area simply because our presence might lead to further engagements. And ultimately, once we were there, the barrier was protected," he adds.
The climbdown that ensued later in the week was inevitable, with further violence a certainty if the barrier were not removed. In any case, the Travellers were well on the way to removing it by their own force.
The rest of Finglas has taken this week's conflagration with mixed emotions. Residents of the housing estates closest to Dunsink Lane say the dumping and other activities have made their lives a misery. Local youths and children from the settled community joined in the nightly violence, directing their stones at both the Travellers and the gardaí.
However, local Travellers have firm links with Finglas, reaching back through more than 40 years of co-existence, shared primary schooling and intermarriage. Finglas residents know just as much about the problems of deprivation, vandalism and violence as does anyone on Dunsink Lane.
Indeed, people shopping in the local Dunnes Stores on Thursday were more preoccupied with problems in their own estates than with the Traveller issue. One woman criticised the gardaí as "useless", saying her estate was living in fear of local gangs. "Look at them the wrong way and they'll break your window."
Father Seamus Ahearne, a parish priest in the area for the past seven years, says: "The problems across the road here in the settled community are much worse. I would never associate the problems in Finglas with Travellers. I've never heard a negative comment about the Travellers here, except about selling old cars to youngsters for joyriding."
Father Ahearne, while not approving of illegal activities, says he greatly admires the Travellers. "They add a huge amount to our community. They are resilient, they support each other and many of them work very hard. I admire the way that Travellers who can't even read or write have this ability to turn a penny, as if their genes had been sharpened to do this over the centuries.
"This is a time of great upheaval for them and they recognise that times are changing," he continues. "But they've adapted many times before, whether it was selling carpets or antiques or tarmac. Just because it's a dirty economy doesn't mean it's a black one."
Yet Dunsink Lane remains a textbook example of a problem escalating when left untreated. It is true that illegal dumping wasn't always treated with the seriousness it attracts today, and Travellers living near the local dump were quick to spot a business opportunity as the facility closed. But what started as a small-scale activity some years ago has escalated into a huge business, and some in the community have since diversified into other illegal activities.
"People talk about the dumping problem as though it's a few black sacks on the side of the road," the politician says. "But what we have here is a huge commercial operation, an unofficial landfill. Dumpers pay a fee, much lower than they would pay in an official dump. The people here then have the machinery to sort and bury the stuff, and when a field is full, they just set fire to it."
"We're suffocated here from the continuous burning," one of the few residents of the estates nearest to Dunsink Lane who is prepared to talk about the issue tells me. "You can't leave your clothes out on the line to dry, and you have to keep your doors closed for fear the rats will come in."
Travellers are by no means the only people involved in dumping waste; assistant Dublin city manager Matt Twomey blames about half of the problem on the settled community. Indeed, any one of us who has paid €100 to a man with a truck to clear some bulky rubbish without finding out where it is going bears some responsibility for the problem.
While the installation of the barrier at the junction of Dunsink Lane and Ratoath Road came as a surprise to many, it was actually planned over a year ago after all other measures failed. Lorry checkpoints were withdrawn when the officials were threatened. CCTV cameras were destroyed within a day of their installation. Revenue found that up to 35 people an hour were buying diesel on the road; while these wereprosecuted, it wasn't possible to stop supplies coming in.
There was no consultation about the installation of the barrier because that would remove the surprise element needed to catch the culprits.
One of the main problems is that responsibility for the area is shared between two local authorities. Whereas Dunsink Lane is situated in the Castleknock area of Fingal County Council, its natural hinterland and connections are with Finglas, which is in the Dublin City Council area. Finglas residents and local representatives believe Fingal dragged its heels for many years on the issue, preferring a policy of containment of the Travellers in Dunsink to their dispersal around the county.
Meanwhile, attempts by the council to compulsorily purchase the land illegally occupied by caravan and mobile homes has been dogged by legal complications. There are neat houses on Dunsink Lane and the halting site is one of the better ones in the Dublin area.
Yet many of the people elsewhere along the lane are living in squalor; they rely on outside taps and electricity generators and their sewage flows directly into the river.
So whose fault is this? Given the failure of all local authorities to provide sufficient halting sites for Travellers, it's probable that these families would find it difficult to obtain accommodation elsewhere. However, elements within the community are resistant to any involvement by outside agencies.
Two years ago, for example, a pre-school facility in the area was forced to close because of intimidation. A digger was driven into the front door of the school, and rats were introduced into the classroom. After the staff left, the building was vandalised.
About 170 Traveller children attend primary schools in the Finglas area, but the numbers drop off significantly at second-level. In 2002, just 27 Traveller children out of a possible 123 were studying at second-level.
Under the agreement worked out between the local authorities and the Travellers, a new barrier will be installed further up Dunsink Lane. Travellers will have easy access to Finglas while, in theory at least, through traffic will be blocked. Under this formula, illegal activities may be curtailed for a while, but they will hardly be eliminated.
More radical solutions look farther away than ever. Moving the illegal Travellers on would only highlight the failure of local authorities to provide adequate numbers of halting sites.
According to Fr Ahearne, Travellers need land on which to carry out their business. The local representative, meanwhile, expresses "complete and utter helplessness to improve the conditions of the Travellers here while this is going on. It is a complete affront to a lawful society."