Travellers in Galway

ChristOnAStick

Fierce problems. I remain neutral on the topic as I've been friendly with many travellers over the years and find at least a minority to be very loyal, good-natured people. As Des Bishop once said, "if your befriend a traveller, they will die for you!"
I am however, liable for a complete mental u-turn on the subject. I know many are rough (I have never known a single one who is not a kickboxer or boxer), and use this to their advantage for soliciting money off people as well as random, unprovoked beatings.
Hit back and you can set your watch to a legion of their cousins coming to settle the score.

Living in Moycullen, I have for the past month been watching a halting site situated about 5 minutes from the village grow in size and population. Two weeks ago we qualified for the football finals in Croke Park (which we won of course). This inevitably led to a small scale evacuation of the town, practically EVERYONE was present at that match on the day.
And, lo and behold, this in turn led to a spate of town-wide burglaries.
I'm not saying it was the residents of the halting site, but...

I also discovered a traveller, in plain daylight, 'feeling out' my house, standing in the garden, eyes darting from window to window.
When I told him to be on his way he asked me if I wanted to buy some DVDs or wire.

I'd love to hear of other experiences. Please share!

ambasite

dvd's or wire???

wet-paint

Wireless wires. It's where the market's going these days.

And this'll be locked fairly soon I figure.

Andrea B.

I'd love to hear of other experiences. Please share!

Could you elaborate on what you mean by "experiences"?

We all know what our furry friends are like, and they know their "rights" (eg: to be in your garden) better than we do.

In fairness, the post is kind of meaningless and the only advise I can give is to get a dog.

Fey!

ChristOnAStick wrote: »

Blah, blah, blah

I'm not racist, but..... :eek:

soundbyte

ChristOnAStick wrote: »

I'd love to hear of other experiences. Please share!

Well, I got really hammered one night about 10 years ago and got well and truly beaten by the turtle's head while walking home. Twas a cold November night and there was an undeniably satisfying warmth in my undercrackers though.

ScumLord

ChristOnAStick wrote: »

And, lo and behold, this in turn led to a spate of town-wide burglaries.
I'm not saying it was the residents of the halting site, but...

It was.. probably maybe..

The main problem as I see it is we don't mix together. This means they can do stuff to settled people without feeling to guilty about it because the only dealings they have with us is not being let into pubs. They take advantage at times just to take advantage.

I've never had any bad experiences with travelers, whenever I've been ripped off by one (which hasn't been that often) I've never felt to bad about it due to the ballsy way they pulled off the con.

biko

At Christmas time it's hard to get onto planes for all the travellers and their damn gifts. Why they don't check them in I don't know.

Btw, this thread maybe better off in AH, the official knacker bashing forum of boards.

ve

I would consider myself a very tolerant person, and certainly not racist. I don't generalize, but to be honest I have had more negative experiences first hand with members of the traveling community than I have had positive. The only time I have been attacked was by a member of the traveling community, who attempted to rob me and didn't appreciate me telling him to head off. Most recent was about 2 weeks ago coming back from France. Myself and my partner were in the queue at the gate for our flight. The queue was in place and growing for about 20mins before a gang of travelers showed up and promptly put themselves at the top of the queue. Everyone in the queue was annoyed and you could certainly see some of the non-Irish citizens were dumbfounded as to how a group of people could think that they had the right to do so. Yet you find me an Irish person, who wouldn't know exactly what's going on. Thankfully when we started to board the plane, most of them let a few people ahead after being warned by airport security for skipping the queue.

Most of them IMO lack etiquette, courtesy and the general regard for others that any normal civilized member of society would have learned during their upbringing. They simply don't have it because their parents didn't have any regard for it either. It's not important to them, and unfortunately our society is designed in such a way that it is expected of it's members, ergo the clash.

What I think is interesting though is..

I have never known a single one who is not a kickboxer or boxer

Why do you think that is?
I believe it comes down to a fundamental human need to defend oneself, and also to show others who's boss (akin to a pack of dogs). They don't have any regard for the law or anything like that. So they take the law in to their own hands. They also know that the majority of society when faced by a gang of skilled fighters with weapons, will comply with their demands. They exploit loopholes in our law because it benefits them to do so. It would benefit me also to find loopholes in the law and exploit every one of you, but unfortunately for me I have ethics, morals and learned from a young age how to be a productive member of society. If I bump in to you accidentally on the street, you deserve! and will get an apology from me. It is my duty to offer you that apology.

I believe I have more to lose by not doing so, they don't, simple as that.

Sherifu

ChristOnAStick wrote: »

Two weeks ago we qualified for the football finals in Croke Park (which we won of course). This inevitably led to a small scale evacuation of the town, practically EVERYONE was present at that match on the day.
And, lo and behold, this in turn led to a spate of town-wide burglaries.
I'm not saying it was the residents of the halting site, but...

Unless they were the only ones who knew about the football finals then it's a bit of a stretch... And did the fine police in Moycullen think to have some extra patrols on the day the town was empty, it's not a very long drive for some of the mill street lads to keep an eye on the place.

Krieg

ambasite wrote: »

dvd's or wire???

Least its a step up from Gates and T-shirts.

smackbunnybaby

Sherifu wrote: »

Unless they were the only ones who knew about the football finals then it's a bit of a stretch

it mightnt have been the travellers, it might have been the foreigners

Sherifu

smackbunnybaby wrote: »

it mightnt have been the travellers, it might have been the foreigners

Now you're talking /heads off to get pitchforks and petrol

Bass Cadet

House-parties being crashed by some notorious travellers in the good ol days...by God that was one way to turn a good buzz into a BAD buzz

Went to school with some travellers, they were salt of the earth, decent guys. Can't say that about all my dealings with them unfortunately

the GALL

ah c'mon didn't ya see into the west ..... sure who wouldn't like em

Zulu

/arrives with pitchfork and torch.

did some one mention foreigners?

smackbunnybaby

Zulu wrote: »

/arrives with pitchfork and torch.

did some one mention foreigners?

foreigners and travelers working as a team i heard.

DonalN

I thought Moycullen acutually was a halting site.

oooohhh..seeya !!

padi89

ChristOnAStick wrote: »

(I have never known a single one who is not a kickboxer or boxer)

All the ones i ever met "think" they are kickboxers or boxers but most couldn't punch their way out of a paper bag, so the old weapons have to come out.

ve wrote: »

faced by a gang of skilled fighters

Skilled? That has to be a joke, majority are seriously overweight wannabes that throw haymakers.Did you ever see a pikey fight video?? Hilarious is word, if any of them took on a skilled boxer it would be lights out in seconds.

JimmyCrackCorn!

padi89 wrote: »

All the ones i ever met "think" they are kickboxers or boxers but most couldn't punch their way out of a paper bag, so the old weapons have to come out.



Skilled? That has to be a joke, majority are seriously overweight wannabes that throw haymakers.Did you ever see a pikey fight video?? Hilarious is word, if any of them took on a skilled boxer it would be lights out in seconds.

Had more problems with non travellers than i ever did with travellers. Treat them like any other person if they threaten you and make a treating move forward hit first. I wish i figured out that one years ago so not worth being hit first (lets just say i now snore).

Like anyone who threatens you on the street be it your average scumbag or a member of the italian/chinese/elvis impersonates group i treat them equally.

Interceptor

Dunno what your whining about OP, lovely people and a credit to your community if you let them into your heart. Some of my best friends etc...

'cptr

gufcfan

Time to lock thread i think...

JohnCleary

In before the lock

gufcfan

Mee tooooo!!!

galwayrush

Why do you think this Thread will be locked?:rolleyes:

CrowdedHouse

Well at least most of 'the foreigners' contribute something to society/country.

The travellers.....f**k all

Sherifu

galwayrush wrote: »

Why do you think this Thread will be locked?

To stop it being stolen?

galwayrush

Sherifu wrote: »

To stop it being stolen?

:D:D
Want ta buy a Board Thread Boss?

awhir

Sherifu wrote: »

To stop it being stolen?

lol in there terms i think its called "mased"

Mrs OBumble

ve wrote: »

Most of them IMO lack etiquette, courtesy and the general regard for others that any normal civilized member of society would have learned during their upbringing. They simply don't have it because their parents didn't have any regard for it either. It's not important to them, and unfortunately our society is designed in such a way that it is expected of it's members, ergo the clash.

They don't have any regard for the law or anything like that. So they take the law in to their own hands.

I believe I have more to lose by not doing so, they don't, simple as that.

Fascinating use of the terms "they" and "our society" - far as I can see, members of the Travelling community have as much stake in Irish society as members of the settled community (what IS the word for non-Travellers, anyway???)

I've heard stories from teachers of Traveller kids being systematically treated badly in schools, and other teachers ignoring this totally. I've heard of local councils not even providing the basic facilities that they agreed to provide at halting sites. I've seen people living in some mightily uninsulated caravans in winter .. and you know how cold it gets here in winter. I've heard that Travellers are not recognised as a separate ethnic group, even though basic linguistics shows that their language is very different in origin from both English and Irish. I've seen them banned from pubs even when they're not going to cause trouble - and in Ireland, if you don't socialise in the pub, then where on earth do you socialise!

Put all that together, and it's no wonder that kids from Traveller backgrounds grow up with a mighty chip on their shoulders, and a fierce anger about how badly treated they are, and that this comes out in their behaviour for the rest of their lives.

Now I've had my rant, a few questions I've been dying to ask ... but too scared that people will clam up if I do:

Does knacker mean Traveller? (I thought it did, but then someone said otherwise .. but there's a reference on this thread that makes me think it does ...)

How do you know that someone is a Traveller?

Can someone ever stop being a Traveller - eg a kid where one parent is and one isn't?

Mrs OBumble

ChristOnAStick wrote: »

Living in Moycullen, I have for the past month been watching a halting site situated about 5 minutes from the village grow in size and population. Two weeks ago we qualified for the football finals in Croke Park (which we won of course). This inevitably led to a small scale evacuation of the town, practically EVERYONE was present at that match on the day.

Does the "practically EVERYONE" who went to Croke Park for the day include the Travellers? Or don't they actually count as people who live in there???

randylonghorn

Travellers have their good and their bad like every community. There are travellers I would steer well clear of (so would the majority of their own community) and travellers I would never pass in the street without stopping to say hello.

galwayrush

randylonghorn wrote: »

Travellers have their good and their bad like every community. There are travellers I would steer well clear of (so would the majority of their own community) and travellers I would never pass in the street without stopping to say hello.

Well put, :cool:

smackbunnybaby

smackbunnybaby wrote: »

foreigners and travelers working as a team i heard.

Or .. or .. or .. foreign travellers!

ChristOnAStick wrote: »

When I told him to be on his way he asked me if I wanted to buy some DVDs or wire.

We used to get them coming up to us when we lived in Barna asking if we needed any work done around the house.

sgthighway

I don't think its fair to think/presume they robbed the place. Its obviously an easy target when a whole community heads off to such an event as an All-Ireland. (Not many people would know about this especially if you were from Mayo)

I have to say its a disgrace how they are not moved on by now. They are there long enough.

sgthighway

sgthighway wrote: »

I don't think its fair to think/presume they robbed the place. Its obviously an easy target when a whole community heads off to such an event as an All-Ireland. (Not many people would know about this especially if you were from Mayo)

I have to say its a disgrace how they are not moved on by now. They are there long enough.

But if you try to move them, they'd probably try and sue and get thousands.

ve

JustMary wrote: »

I've heard of local councils not even providing the basic facilities that they agreed to provide at halting sites.

I've seen people living in some mightily uninsulated caravans in winter .. and you know how cold it gets here in winter.

I think the general population will be able to tell you how they've heard a traveller describe the hardships they face at the hands of the civil parts of society. While at the very same time I know of a traveller family not too far away who were awarded a brand new house from the council and then moved their caravan in to the garden, brought horses in to the house, while the family slept in their caravan. I wouldn't call that very greatful. I don't know any non-member of the travelling community that did the same thing.

JustMary wrote: »

I've seen them banned from pubs even when they're not going to cause trouble

Two words: "Knacker Funeral", ... and why does that ring a bell for so many people, well it's probably because it wasn't an isolated incident. Probability of behaviour doesn't do them any favors. Hands up who has a story...

Trouble exists outside the traveller community also. For example after hours in many pubs and clubs across the country every weekend you will have fights breaking out between non-members and sometimes members of the travelling community. Again everyone will have a story of this happening. It wasn't an isolated incident, it's probable and subsequently most venues will have security staff at hand to control the situation if things get out of hand, as a result. My point. If it's probable, it's a concern.

JustMary wrote: »

Put all that together, and it's no wonder that kids from Traveller backgrounds grow up with a mighty chip on their shoulders, and a fierce anger about how badly treated they are, and that this comes out in their behaviour for the rest of their lives.

I have a simple solution. Channel that anger and energy back in to punishing those other members of the traveller community that give them all a bad name.

In my own job a few years ago where I worked was often visited by traveller children. One day one of the kids was messing, and trying to annoy me. I told him to clear off and watch his manners. In the middle of me doing that his mother shows up and starts literally slapping him in the face, then punching him in the head as he tried to defend himself. I stood there in shock. I almost felt guilty, but then again "clear off" is as far as I would have gone because he was a kid. So I don't think anyone can blame their use of violence, solely as a response to their treatment by civil society.

randylonghorn

ve wrote: »

While at the very same time I know of a traveller family not too far away who were awarded a brand new house from the council and then moved their caravan in to the garden, brought horses in to the house, while the family slept in their caravan. I wouldn't call that very greatful. I don't know any non-member of the travelling community that did the same thing.

The whole travelling culture is built around just that ... travelling! While some have settled happily, many still feel imprisoned and tied down by an ordinary house. Many will settle fairly happily at halting sites or similar, because they still have their caravans ... if the urge to move on becomes too strong, they can still do so.

ve

randylonghorn wrote: »

The whole travelling culture is built around just that ... travelling! While some have settled happily, many still feel imprisoned and tied down by an ordinary house. Many will settle fairly happily at halting sites or similar, because they still have their caravans ... if the urge to move on becomes too strong, they can still do so.

So...and I'm quite positive you're expecting this question...based on my example above....why would such a traveller family take up space on a waiting list for a council house if they feel "imprisoned and tied down by an ordinary house"?

If I went looking for a house, was awarded a house, and brought horses in to my house, and stayed in a caravan out the front while the animals stayed inside, do you think my neighbours would be saying "poor thing, sure he's imprisoned in that house, those lads in the council are such bastards giving him what he asked for".

Are you serious?

randylonghorn

ve wrote: »

So...and I'm quite positive you're expecting this question...based on my example above....why would such a traveller family take up space on a waiting list for a council house if they feel "imprisoned and tied down by an ordinary house"?

If I went looking for a house, was awarded a house, and brought horses in to my house, and stayed in a caravan out the front while the animals stayed inside, do you think my neighbours would be saying "poor thing, sure he's imprisoned in that house, those lads in the council are such bastards giving him what he asked for".

Are you serious?

Whether someone in the family actually put their name down on the housing list (it does happen that they convince themselves they're ready, only to find otherwise), or whether some social worker persuaded them it was the thing to do, or whether they actually applied for a halting site place but there wasn't sufficient provision, or whether they had to have a "fixed abode" in order to get their children into a school or for some other reason, or what the story is, I don't know ... surprisingly enough, I'm not completely au fait with the case of a travelling family "not too far away from" you.

What is obvious is that the Council allocated the house without actually evaluating whether it was the right solution ... and unlike you, councils know from long experience the intricacies of housing travellers, but they often choose to ignore that experience and indeed the input of their own professional staff because developing a plan that might actually work usually means offending the NIMBY brigade and losing votes for the councillors.

I'm not suggesting that the situation you describe is any kind of ideal scenario ... in fact, I'm saying the opposite, and that it should never have been allowed to happen in the first place.

And sarcasm >! actually taking the time to understand something about a different culture.

muppetkiller

ve wrote: »

If I went looking for a house, was awarded a house, and brought horses in to my house, and stayed in a caravan out the front while the animals stayed inside, do you think my neighbours would be saying "poor thing, sure he's imprisoned in that house, those lads in the council are such bastards giving him what he asked for".

Are you serious?

Here's a novel approach give them (and any wasters on the dole) nothing until they work and start paying taxes like the rest of us in the real world !
How anyone expects these comforts in the first place without working a day in their life really grinds my gears..

Fobia

awhir wrote: »

lol in there terms i think its called "mased"

Nah that'd be the non-travelling knackers. The actual traveling ones wouldn't tend to use that word. In Galway, anyway, dunno about elsewhere.

I, like someone else in this thread went to school with a few travellers and found them to be grand, sat beside one for two years and apart from smelling a bit he was as nice as anyone to sit beside. However, this family would be one of the more notorious around Galway so I can well believe that guy's caused a lot of trouble since. It's just handy knowing them, I guess.

Still, I think much, much, much more trouble (and I'm speaking from complete personal experience, I've been mugged a few times and had to run for my life a few times too) is caused by...I don't want to say settled travellers as they're simply not settled travellers, these are knackers who aren't from any travelling family or council house or anything at all. They're just knackers. At least (in my experience) actual travellers, while violent, wont generally go around purely to pick a fight or mug people. There a good hundred lads in Galway alone who do this, and apart from a few "MacDonnaghs" none of them are travellers as far as I know. From rough areas of the city mostly, but nothing to do with travellers. Open yer eyes guys, tonnes of knackers around, but they're simply not travellers, and it's wrong to throw them in the same basket.

Oh, and to everyone starting their post with "I'm not a racist" ye...ye realize travellers aren't a different race, right?

JohnCleary

muppetkiller wrote: »

Here's a novel approach give them (and any wasters on the dole) nothing until they work and start paying taxes like the rest of us in the real world !
How anyone expects these comforts in the first place without working a day in their life really grinds my gears..

I've come to the conclusion that in Ireland the lazier you are, the more help you get from the Government. Seriously, why the feck do we even work these days? :rolleyes:

Fobia - Went to Pats did ye?

Fobia

JohnCleary wrote: »

Fobia - Went to Pats did ye?

Nope, Endas, but I think I know the lads yer on about...the finest of Christmas trees

JohnCleary

Fobia wrote: »

Nope, Endas, but I think I know the lads yer on about...the finest of Christmas trees

Holla Holla!

Dudis

JohnCleary wrote: »

Holla Holla!

HOLLA HOLLA! WANNA BUYA HIFI!

Das Kitty

We had "Travellers" renting the flat across the hall from us for 2 and a half years. We quickly learned to have nothing but bills delivered to us and had anything else (even stuff that might look like a birthday card) delivered to work.

When one of their babies was crying they used to put it out into the communal hall for all of us to endure.

They'd fire their rubbish (lit cigarettes, half eaten bags of chips) out of the window. The main problem with this is that the front door is right below their window. Fun!

They were too lazy to go around to the bins so they'd leave their bin bags full of nappies outside their door in the hall with the puke inducing smell of baby diarrhea permeating our flat.

They'd have screaming matches in the hallway, one day this culminated in her threatening to f*** the child down the stairs after him if he didn't come back.

They used to beat each other and the children regularly in plain view of the rest of the residents. One of my other neighbours rang the police and was told that they don't involve themselves in traveler feuds! She than rang social services who pretty much told her the same thing.

They moved a load of their friends' caravans and trailers into the carpark. Thankfully at that stage I didn't have a car myself because there were children jumping all over the cars that were there. When the management agency finally got rid of them, they wouldn't say who let them in.

This is probably the worst: They used to have karaoke parties on Tuesday nights!

I cracked the day I left the flat to go to work and there was a dangerous looking drunk guy in the hallway, the spas had jammed the downstairs door open and the light was on and he'd wandered in.

I spilled my guts like the rat I am to the management agency. It was another 3 months before they were finally evicted because the landlord had no issue with them they kept the flat itself really well and paid the rent on time (which is astounding, or not, because neither of them worked at all).

Anyway, long story short. I used to be very sympathetic to the Traveller "cause" until I had to live beside these child-abusing, robbing, twunts and having all of these encounters with them and their vastly extended families has given be a severe anti-traveller prejudice. If they were a different race I would certainly be classed as racist against them.

gufcfan

I've just dived back in again, and I i'm surprised to see that it hasn't been locked.

It's just that these kinds of threads don't take long to spiral out of control and reasoning fairly quickly usually. Perhaps I should have more faith in the other members of our society.

Sherifu

Ya, tbh I expected it to be mased by now. Lets all leave to a GAA match.

gufcfan

gufcfan wrote: »

I've just dived back in again, and I i'm surprised to see that it hasn't been locked.

It's just that these kinds of threads don't take long to spiral out of control and reasoning fairly quickly usually. Perhaps I should have more faith in the other members of our society.

So people aren't allowed to talk about their bad experiences with the travelling community?

Zulu

Deleted User wrote: »

So people aren't allowed to talk about their bad experiences with the travelling community?

Not unless it balanced.

I had a great experience:
A member of the travelling community gladly took away some rubbish from our house (old tree stumps) for £20 (it was a while back).

I also had a bad experience:
When a number of travellers left a field they had stopped in, they left behind all manor of industrial waste which polluted the area, and cost the council a small fortune to clean up.