In 1961, Charles J Haughey, then junior minister for justice, said “there could be no final solution until itinerant families were absorbed into the general community”. He was addressing members of the Commission on Itinerancy, none of whom were Travellers. Haughey may have been many things but no one would argue that he was naive. His chilling choice of words neatly captures the doctrine of assimilation pursued by the State and marked the official othering of Travellers.
Over the last 100 years, the State variously excluded and tried to assimilate Travellers by legislation. Laws have been enacted which have negatively impacted on Irish Travellers almost exclusively. The general public was not neutral. The commission’s report stated that, “in nearly all areas, itinerants are despised as inferior and are regarded as the dregs of society… [Their] plight… has not troubled the public conscience to any degree.”
This attitude of contemptuous neglect is still pervasive, evidenced by how broadly socially acceptable it is to be racist and use hate speech about Travellers.
The population of Irish Travellers is small, about 40,000 people – that wouldn’t half-fill Croke Park. Health, education and employment outcomes make for stark reading. Suicide is six times higher among Travellers than in the general population and accounts for 11 per cent of deaths. Life expectancy is much lower than for the general population; only one in 100 Travellers is over 65 years of age. Fewer than one in five Travellers are in paid employment. Only 13 per cent of Traveller children complete second-level education compared to 92 per cent of the majority population.
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Lesson in ‘othering’
Reading the Report of the Commission on Itinerancy is a lesson in “othering”; there is the “settled” population – morally superior with an identity that is valued and the “itinerant” population which, in contrast, is defined by its faults and deficiencies. Even where objectionable attitudes were identified in the dominant population, blame is placed on Travellers, concluding that normal kindly feelings would emerge if Travellers changed their behaviour.
Reflecting on these relationships from a psychological perspective, one is struck by the pattern of relationships throughout Irish history. As a nation, we had long known the experience of being othered. We are still viscerally acquainted with the shame and helplessness of being seen and treated as inferior by the “superior” colonial power; stupid in contrast to learned, backward versus civilised and irrelevant as opposed to significant. Since the inception of the State we have been repeating the relational patterns of colonisation, a distinctive pattern called internal colonialism.
We have begun to recognise this to some extent. It has become part of our own story of nation-building; how we relegated to the status of second-class citizens those who did not fit in with the desired image we had of ourselves. We have begun to hear the voices of those who survived industrial schools and Magdalene laundries. But there is a blind spot in the Irish psyche in relation to Travellers. Irish Travellers are denigrated in the same way as Irish people were denigrated throughout history; the shoe is merely on the other foot.
Having long identified as the victim and underdog, it may be challenging for Irish people to see how well we have also learned to inflict cultural trauma. It is a cruel truth that can be horrifying to contemplate at first; that throughout the time of being harmed one has deeply observed all that is involved in perpetrating that particular kind of harm – the attitudes and feelings, the scripts and behaviours. How we were treated becomes how we treat ourselves and can extend to how we treat others, if the pattern is not interrupted.
Racism and health
There is a growing evidence base documenting the impact of racism itself on health; it is associated with poorer mental and physical health. Chronic exposure to humiliation, chronic stress and feeling unsafe are some of the direct impacts. A deeper injury still is the assault on someone’s sense of self from lifelong exposure to disrespect. To properly understand the impact of racial and cultural trauma, one has to recognise that not only are you seen as “other” but you begin to regard yourself as “other”.
Coping with racial stress usually involves relying on friends and community and leaning in to our cultural identity. For Irish Travellers, the dilemma is to lean in and risk further stigmatisation and attack or lean out and risk losing a sense of identity and belonging to the only social group that accepts you.
Cultural identity, like personal identity, is fluid and changes over time to accommodate new experiences, like success or becoming a parent. When the State emerged from the stranglehold of colonisation, Irish identity was restrictive. Being Irish was synonymous with Mass-going and the GAA, and there was social pressure to conform. These days, Irish people are free to reject these customs and still feel and be considered Irish. Traveller identity, however, is under siege and does not enjoy the same freedom to expand.
Undesirable behaviours such as family feuds, criminality and drunkenness are referenced to justify prejudice and discrimination. They are mistakenly viewed as aspects of Traveller culture rather than typical responses of a people who were never included in the social contract. They are as undesirable to Travellers as they are generally. One only has to look at the cartoons in Punch magazines from the 1800s to remember that these were the behaviours ascribed to Irish people and were used to justify non-intervention during the Famine.
Elaine Martin is a counselling psychologist and Patrick Nevin is a Traveller activist
“Irish Travellers/Mincéirs & the State, 1922-2022″ conference at University of Galway on September 16th-17th is part of the Decade of Centenaries programme. It will bring together Traveller activists and allies, historians, psychologists, artists, educators and sociologists to examine and reflect on the treatment of Travellers since the inception of the State and its impact on relationships in Irish society.