Traveller convoy at beach

Heinrich

Here's a snippet from yesterday's Irish Times. Apart from the locals who are directly affected by this situation how do you feel about it?

It would appear that these people have their own set of rules for society.

A group of Travellers has breached a security gate erected by Mayo County Council and moved about 12 caravans and motor vehicles onto the dunes at the blue flag Bertra Beach, about 12km (7.5 miles) from Westport, writes Tom Shiel.
The breach, which happened last weekend, has upset local people and beach users as well as the Murrisk Development Association. On Sunday the Travellers gained entry to the beach.
A lock was broken on a security barrier which was erected last year.
Mayo county secretary John Condon said yesterday the county council will be doing all it can to remove the Travellers from the area.
The council is considering taking legal action, he added.

TempestSabre

The laws should be applied equally. End of story.

thegoth

I am sick of discrimination regarding the travelling community. They should be treated the same as any other person in Ireland an be thrown in jail for actions like this. I live in a part of the country where traveller children are collected by mini bus that travels 20 miles each way to being them 1 mile down the road to school, even though their parents have cars and vans !!! I would love this service. Will I get it? No. Why? Seemly because I am foolish enough to work and pay taxes. Many more examples, but I am just getting mad thinking about it. :mad:

Heinrich

TempestSabre wrote:

The laws should be applied equally. End of story.

That would mean that these people should keep the area which they are trespassing clean and tidy pending their eviction.

Then they could clean up the mess before they leave. I pay €300 for a skip when I need to dump junk and were I to dump stuff as they do I would end up paying a huge fine.

My friend in Wexford tells me that a helicopter goes around looking for illegal bonfires. Maybe the copter will have a look around Murrisk...

5uspect

There was a pretty heated debate on the Last Word about this. I only caught the end on the repeat show this morning. Basically a there was a local TD and a rep from a traveller group having a shouting match. The TD said that the state should only provide housing for travellers born in the county only and not provide "holiday" housing for any traveller. The Traveller rep responded, sounding completely shocked, "Why not?!"

The TD, Fine Gael I think, let rip with the whole tax payers will not provide travellers with a free ride while they pay thru the nose for everything that travellers expect handed to them arguement.

It was a shame that it decended into a shouting match but the travellers have to sort out their behaviour/image. They're only making things worse for themselves. One of my major annoyances is travellers using the public roads to race their horse and traps. Its getting out of control here in Limerick. If that was anyone else they would have to build their own track/facilities and probably get done for cruelty to animals for making horses trot on such a hard surface.

Culchie

This plague on Irish Society are running rings around the Gardai and doing whatever they want.

They make me sick at this stage, and there's very little that gets my back up I can tell ya.

Too many politically correct politicians not willing to call a spade a spade.

de5p0i1er

Culchie wrote:

This plague on Irish Society are running rings around the Gardai and doing whatever they want.

They make me sick at this stage, and there's very little that gets my back up I can tell ya.

Too many politically correct politicians not willing to call a spade a spade.

The politicians are afraid of the bleeding heart clubs who always rally to help the "poor unfortunate" travellers, as long as these muppets keep complaining about the way the travellers are treated the law will never be in favour of honest hard working people like us. :mad:

thegoth

Here here. I think the large majority of people in Ireland agree with you

Shiminay

My personal thoughts aside, as moderator of this board I do have to warn you all that we're skating on thin ice with regards to incitement of hatred and racism here folks, keep it civil.

Tempest said it, an equal application of the law to all citizens/visitors to this country is what's called for, not just on issues such as this, but across the board. It's one of our nations biggest failings I think, we have a stack of laws that just never get applied and as a result we have people up in arms over issues that could have been nipped in the bud much sooner.

5uspect makes an interesting point about travellers bringing it upon themselves, but generalisations are never fair, and the old "you can't paint them all with the same brush" rule must be applied. Are there honest, hard working travellers out there? Of course. Are they to be discriminated against because of their ethnic background? I should hope not. Is it fair to say it's up to the travelling community to rally around and show those who believe "DAYRE ALL SKUM!!!" that they're not? That's presumption of guilt and placing the burden of proof of innocence upon them which is not how our society works. Travellers have a bad reputation, this is true and many can argue that they bring it on themselves (I don't ever think I've had a good encounter with a memer of the travelling community, but that's just me and as the mod, I'm trying to keep my personal beliefs and opinions out of this one) but we must remember that if we're to evolve as a society we need to be more tolerant of groups of people. Are we not all alcoholics because we're all Irish? Are all Americans gun-loving war-mongers? Are all Islamic people terrorists? Absurd points all, but it's the same thing to call every traveller a criminal because of their heritage.

As an aside, did the travelling community get accepted as an ethnic minority within the EU? Despoiler mentioned something to me about it before...

I welcome debate on this matter, but like I said, keep it civil and legal, boards doesn't need to be sued because of your opinion!

Bob the Builder

Well. I'm from Westport, and whilst I agree with what all of you have said, I believe we are stereotyping a small bit too much. I am friendly with a traveller family in Westport who just lost their father through suicide. I generally believe, whilst these weren't fully law abiding people, they followed most laws. I think the categorization of that family as "knackers" is harsh and unwanted.

The group of 15 caravans, pose a threat to our blue flag beach by using the beach as a dumping ground, bringing dogs on it, etc.
These are the people who deserve the word "knacker" to be labelled across their arses and hung from a tree.

I disagree with the fact that they pay no tax. They don't have mortgages like normal people do, they *generally* don't use the traditional waste bin...wheras normal people pay tax on top of mortgage, electricity, telephone...

Whats really bad is the tough travellers! Everyone is afraid!

The Gardaí would rather chase after armed lethal IRA members rather than run after unarmed travellers. Thats what I find scary....

I tried to keep my opinion civil and un-racist as possible. i hope everyone understands teh fact that there are civil tarvellers. maybe, not many, buit tehy still exist. Next time, you call someone a knacker, ...just think....would you say that to a traveller/"knacker"....eh....NO..

Stereotypes are wrong and not wanted. Judging people by the accommodatio they own is wrong....judge them by their status in society...

Would anyone agree with me on these issues I raised? I remain completely neutral as to the fact of traveller chaos....