Travellers

Heraclitus

Hi guys,

Just wanted to start a thread discussing people's general views on Irish Travellers and their place in Irish society. Anyone got any opinions or experiences of interest?

I'm interested in the issue of Travellers and education; how they're getting on in school, if they're facing any difficulties etc. Anyone got any interesting stories or opinions?

Nozebleed

im sick of travellers skipping the bleeding queue down the welfare on signing day. they dont give a **** so they dont.

irishh_bob

Heraclitus wrote: »

Hi guys,

Just wanted to start a thread discussing people's general views on Irish Travellers and their place in Irish society. Anyone got any opinions or experiences of interest?

I'm interested in the issue of Travellers and education; how they're getting on in school, if they're facing any difficulties etc. Anyone got any interesting stories or opinions?

my experience with tinkers has been without exception , negative

djk1000

I don't have any issue with the traveling community, I'm a live and let live kind of guy. I try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, but on the few occasions that I come into contact with travellers, the ones I meet make it very difficult for me to view the community as a whole, in a good light.

I hope that was a balanced statement, I can already see where this thread is going to go tbh.

Reginald P. DuM

I'm sick of them coming into my shop and trying to rob stuff.. They don't teach that sh*t in school....

Overheal

Is it really discrimination if they choose to segregate themselves?
As an individual you're either a) Tolerant of other people or b) Intolerant of Other people. And when you're intolerant, you need to expect that others are going to reciprocate. I just find it a bit contorted when the self-identified Traveler Community makes a show of being discriminated against in the media when they don't do much in the way of turning the other cheek: the expectation that everything else should change to suit you is just - odd.

murf313

irishh_bob wrote: »

my experience with tinkers has been without exception , negative

at last, something i can agree with you on

nothing but bad experiences, especially in work.

Heraclitus

Thanks for the replies guys bu could you explain these experiences you're talking about? Irishh bob, what experiences made you have a negative opinion? Same question to you djk1000! Any thoughts on the education side?

kravmaga

Heraclitus wrote: »

Hi guys,

Just wanted to start a thread discussing people's general views on Irish Travellers and their place in Irish society. Anyone got any opinions or experiences of interest?

I'm interested in the issue of Travellers and education; how they're getting on in school, if they're facing any difficulties etc. Anyone got any interesting stories or opinions?

Well for one its a well known fact that travellers have reading and writing issues.

I have been in a position whereby I have been asked whilst shopping how much a grocery item is by many a traveller as they cant read the SEL label on the shelf.

A lot of the children dont attend school in the first instance as parents have no motivation to send them. I know this as my cousin is a school teacher and some of the stories she has told me about the kids is frightening.

buzzymam

Most recent experience......travelers skipping the q in post office to get dole, saw the same travelers shoplifting in tesco few hours later. Personally I cant stand the sponging smelly f"ckers. Every experience bar none has been negative.

Winty

I would like to write something nice but all my contact with travellers is negative

rovert

This is going well

IrishTonyO

Have to say all my experiences are negative as well.

• From my house being threatened to be burned down because I did not want to buy a carpet from them.
• To being pushed out of the way as they skip queues in shops
• 2 of them opening my front door and walking into my house
• stealing a lawn mower from my back garden and then hitting me when I caught them

These are some examples and as a result of these and more things, I have absolutely no time for travellers any more. And I find it a pain when they go on about being discriminated against, people would not treat them like this if they were ordinary decent people. They are treated in a bad way because the majority of people have been treated badly by them. I know you might say this is a generalisation, but when over 90% of my experience of them has been negative, that makes me feel this way.

cypharius

I'm still waiting for

A) - The thread to be locked.
- Some PC-nazi to complain about how the Travelers killed hitler, and went to the moon, and cured aids, and stopped global warming and how The Travelers and the Muslims are a super-human tolerance force.

donmeister

I would consider myself as quite a tolerant person, but any experience I have had with a traveller is completely negative.

One time I was assaulted by a member of the Travelling community for absolutely no reason. I know its tarring them all with the one brush but I really don't care at all, detest the lot of them.

Oh and they also stole my lawnmower also. Happy days.

Joey the lips

Heraclitus wrote: »

Hi guys,

Just wanted to start a thread discussing people's general views on Irish Travellers and their place in Irish society. Anyone got any opinions or experiences of interest?

I'm interested in the issue of Travellers and education; how they're getting on in school, if they're facing any difficulties etc. Anyone got any interesting stories or opinions?

What specific aspect do you wish to discuss. Modern travellers are educated. They read and write quite well. They have a lot of internal difficulites ie the structure at home but as i doubt many will discuss this on boards I think its all speculation.

nice1franko

Have had a few bad and also some 'good' (i.e. indifferent) experiences with them but heard of, basically, nothing but bad experiences with them - a hugely disproportionate amount it would seem. For example, some things: robbing houses, selling drugs, counterfeit dvds, busted televisions cling-wrapped and boxed as new, robbing sheds in allotments and things from gardens, pedigree dogs from a girl I work with.. friends who worked in pubs who told us about murder they caused... the list just goes on and on and on.

All in all, not a good view.

Thoie

In general I'd say my contact has been relatively neutral. I have no particularly negative experiences, but nothing positive either.

My two most recent experiences:

House out the country, not many visitors. I hear a van stopping behind the house (out on the road) a bit, then a minute later a van pulls up at the front of the house, and the doorbell goes. Because I know the routine, I head straight for the backdoor and lock it before heading to the front door. At the front door I'm met with the "We're doing a spot of tarmaccing down the road and have some left over". We both politely ignored the fact that we patently didn't need anything tarmacced, and there was no-one "down the road" getting tarmac done either. While I was telling him that we were grand, I heard someone try the back door, and next thing the neighbour's dog is across and going mental. I asked your man would the dog be OK and was reassured "Sure he's good with dogs missus". There was no acrimony, we maintained the polite tarmac fiction, and we both knew I'd be on the phone to various neighbours within 30 seconds of the van leaving.

The more recent experience was in a more urban setting. An unmarked van pulls up, gentleman rings the door and tells me that he happened to notice that the gutters needed doing, and as he was in the area anyway with a few lads they could take care of them. He knew that I knew that the only way he could have seen the gutters on that building was with a telescope from a mile away. I said "thanks, but there's a bloke coming next week", and suggested that he leave his card in case the other guy let us down. Sadly, he'd left his business cards in the other van, and had just got a new mobile and couldn't remember the number. We both nodded at the pity of that, and he promised to pop back with a card next time he was around.

Either of those could have been negative experiences if I wasn't familiar with the situation, or if I'd started getting mouthy. They could equally have been positive experiences if I'd invited them in for a cup of tea, but I'll never know now.

The Davestator

My problem with travellers has mainly been in sport, but they're not all bad I suppose.
However, my problem is with the authorities treating them different - they drive around in yellow reg vans with no tax or insurance and sail by traffic stops because the gardai cant be bothered with the hassle (imo)
This is just one example of how the settled community are so afraid of them, they just try to stay out of their way.

irishh_bob

Heraclitus wrote: »

Thanks for the replies guys bu could you explain these experiences you're talking about? Irishh bob, what experiences made you have a negative opinion? Same question to you djk1000! Any thoughts on the education side?

lets see , they hassled my mom to buy thier stolen merchandise and frightened her in the process , they ripped off my brother who is a farmer by painting his sheds with a ratio of 9:1 diesel to paint ( thats an old tinker trick ) but in reality he should have known better than to trust scum , last but not least , they poisioned MY dog

Zambia

I have had no pleasant dealings with them. I grade them as a parasite at best.

There are a few knocking around rural Australia, I was talking to one bloke who they tried to sell a generator to out bendigo way. He said he smelled a rat and told them to never set foot in the town again. I said we never got them to leave that easy. To which he replied

"Don't you have guns over there?"

peasant

The travellers in my neighborhood are decent people.

The few dodgy ones that have been round the house (out in the country) over the years were reasonably impressed with the dogs and haven't come back.

BrianJD

Being involved in Retail i've had plenty of negative experiences with them, however, I work with 2 girls from a settled family and they are both lovely people who are well liked by their colleagues.

Thoie

irishh_bob wrote: »

lets see , they hassled my mom to buy thier stolen merchandise and frightened her in the process , they ripped off my brother who is a farmer by painting his sheds with a ratio of 9:1 diesel to paint ( thats an old tinker trick ) but in reality he should have known better than to trust scum , last but not least , they poisioned MY dog

OK, poisoning the dog is despicable and I hope the culprit chokes on a fish bone, but I genuinely don't understand how they hassle people into buying stolen goods, or rip people off on odd jobs. Like you said, watered down (or dieseled down) paint is an old trick and any time I've been offered carpets (I always seem to attract the carpets) I haven't had a penny on me and I'm at my wits end cos the ESB is threatening to cut me off. I know the carpets are dodgy, they know I'm not that broke and we both have a bit of polite banter. They'll ask do I not have a few bob, and maybe they could do me a deal on a cheaper rug, but all I ever have is €3.47 and I'm out of milk. Have I just been particularly lucky that all the tinkers I've met are happy to maintain the polite fiction?

donkey balls

they are known for stealing diesel from commercial vehicles last year two of them came along and asked one of our drivers for a bit of dayseal he was parked up. about 50 mtrs accross the road from him was a petrol station.

Scofflaw

Not exactly Politics, is it? What next - "people I don't like?"

moderately,
Scofflaw

FearDark

Im a firm believer of "If you've nothing good to say dont say it". So I'm going to leave a very large blank space under this about my experience with "travellers".













































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TheZohanS

Heraclitus wrote: »

Hi guys,

Just wanted to start a thread discussing people's general views on Irish Travellers and their place in Irish society. Anyone got any opinions or experiences of interest?

I'm interested in the issue of Travellers and education; how they're getting on in school, if they're facing any difficulties etc. Anyone got any interesting stories or opinions?

Do your research somewhere else.

Lazy journalism.

And to all those who made smart comments about travellers on this thread; you're lucky you made them in Politics where this thread originated from.

Had you made them in AH you'd be banned now.