Irish Travellers - A New Race??

TheSB

Irish Travellers are now looking to be defined as a new race of people. My understanding is that they started off by just travelling about causing a nusisance around the time of the famine. The UK made the mistake of classing them as a seperate race in 2000. Now landlords and councils across the UK are facing legal action for racial discrimination for trying to turf out these chancers. I hope we are not as gullible.

Irish Times

Cork City Council has become the first local authority in Ireland to support granting Travellers their own ethnic status.

The motion, put forward to Sinn Féin councillor Mick Nugent, comes from calls for the Travelling community to be classed as an ethnic group by members of the Irish Traveller Movement.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/cork-city-council-backs-granting-travellers-their-own-ethnic-status-1.1424769

Deutsche Welle

"Because they are not recognized as an ethnic group within Ireland, they are not really enabled by the government to run their anti-discrimination campaign as anti-racism," says Trinity College sociologist Ronit Lentin. "And that's the main point that they want to be recognized as an ethnic group."

http://www.dw.de/irish-travellers-fight-for-ethnic-recognition/a-16879882

biko

If a traveller beats a non-traveller up, is it then a hate crime under this new rule?

super_furry

It's a lifestyle choice, not an ethnicity.

arse..biscuits

Two of them jumped into my back garden a couple of weeks ago and stole some of my pets. Lovely bunch of lads.

Firewalkwithme

This should be an uneventful thread that will end well.

RGDATA!

super_furry wrote: »

It's a lifestyle choice, not an ethnicity.

what definition of ethnicity do you use? (serious question)

FanadMan

arse..biscuits wrote: »

Two of them jumped into my back garden a couple of weeks ago and stole some of my pets. Lovely bunch of lads.

The first bashing post in yet another Traveller thread.

Celly Smunt

Will it be 100 metre sprints?,i don't think i could watch them race the hurdles again.

Private Joker

nobody post anything until my popcorn is ready.

latenia

At least in the UK you could make an argument for them being an ethnic minority but the truth is they're nothing more than Ireland's trailer park trash.

syklops

FanadMan wrote: »

The first bashing post in yet another Traveller thread.

They stole his pets. How is that a bashing post?

Private Joker

ah Latenia, what did i say. ok you can go now.

RikkFlair

A Sulky Race?

Guill

Where will we havre this race? My monies on Mickey.

josip

What defines one race from another? Anyone with definitions?

Rabies

Private Joker wrote: »

nobody post anything until my popcorn is ready.

Fvck!

*puts back pitch fork*

Muckie

If a traveller beats a non-traveller up, its assault.(catching and taking them to court is another thing)

If a traveller beats a fellow traveller, tis a feud, all part of their colourful culture...:pac:

aidoh

I remember an RTÉ programme a few years ago where some (possibly famous) Irish traveller was travelling around Ireland (obviously) trying to educate people about traveller culture and so on. It was pretty good from what I remember. There was also one part where a geneticist from UCD traced the guys DNA back to tissue from some of the earliest settlers in Ireland. Don't think that makes them a different geographic race but I guess it's interesting that many of them might have "pure Irish" bloodlines.

Edit: So if they are a "race" then they're a very old one, not a new one.

OldNotWIse

FanadMan wrote: »

The first bashing post in yet another Traveller thread.

Funny, reads more like a statement of fact to me.

BillyMitchel

Mods was there not something the other day, that next person to start a traveler thread will be banned. Its getting old and very boring at this stage and bringing the usual fun AH downhill pretty quickly.

Celly Smunt

josip wrote: »

What defines one race from another? Anyone with definitions?

I think it depends on the people taking part,you wouldn't put a car and driver up against a sprinter.

OldNotWIse

syklops wrote: »

They stole his pets. How is that a bashing post?

Because they are travellers so he cannot say anything about what they did without being accused of bashing. Have you not got the Bleeding Heart Act 2012 as ammended by the Double Standards Act 2013, and supplemented by the One Rule for them and Another Rule for us Act?

Muckie

Careful now....

The PC Brigade will be saddling up their (high) horses and arriving shortly.

FTA69

"Blood of the Travellers" it was called and it featured the boxer Francie Barrett. If I recall correctly they established that Travellers have a specific genome that marks them out as having been a long-established separate group of people. They were around long before the Famine. Also if people want to be pedantic about it they pretty much fulfil the criteria of a separate "ethnic group."

OldNotWIse

Muckie wrote: »

Careful now....

The PC Brigade will be saddling up their (high) horses and arriving shortly.

Their horses have all been stolen, though they could probably buy them back for fifty quid at the Smithfield circus market next week...

RayM

latenia wrote: »

At least in the UK you could make an argument for them being an ethnic minority but the truth is they're nothing more than Ireland's trailer park trash.

They were granted ethnic minority status in the UK because they fulfil the two essential characteristics of ethnicity - (1) a long shared history, of which the group is conscious as distinguishing it from other groups, and the memory of which it keeps alive; (2) a cultural tradition of its own, including family and social customs and manners, often but not necessarily associated with religious observance.

In what way could that same argument not be made in Ireland?

Celly Smunt

RayM wrote: »

In what way could that same argument not be made in Ireland?

Because they're Irish?

lecker Hendl

what's so different about them to entitle them to their own race status, other than the stench of stale urine, scabs on their face, freckles all over, unmistakable accent and the vacant look in their eyes?

gobnaitolunacy

They are a separate race, i.e. not part of mine.

stretchdoe

The sheer temerity of them to cause 'a nuisance around the time of the Famine'.
How dare they spoil such an idyllic time with their attempting to remain alive antics.

FTA69

lecker Hendl wrote: »

what's so different about them to entitle them to their own race status, other than the stench of stale urine, scabs on their face, freckles all over, unmistakable accent and the vacant look in their eyes?

It's sad to see such dehumanisation going on. Portraying entire groups of people as "scabby" and "p*ss-stained" or generally verminous has happened before. And it rarely ended well.

kylith

In fairness, if French people and German people aren't classed as a different race or ethnicity I see no reason why travellers would be.

RayM

pmcmahon wrote: »

Because they're Irish?

That doesn't answer my question. By your logic (and I use that word quite wrongly), Jewish people shouldn't be recognised as an ethnic group, simply because of their nationality. Nationality and ethnicity are two completely different things.

(1) a long shared history, of which the group is conscious as distinguishing it from other groups, and the memory of which it keeps alive; (2) a cultural tradition of its own, including family and social customs and manners, often but not necessarily associated with religious observance.

That applies to Ireland just as much as it does to the UK.

latenia

RayM wrote: »

They were granted ethnic minority status in the UK because they fulfil the two essential characteristics of ethnicity - (1) a long shared history, of which the group is conscious as distinguishing it from other groups, and the memory of which it keeps alive; (2) a cultural tradition of its own, including family and social customs and manners, often but not necessarily associated with religious observance.

In what way could that same argument not be made in Ireland?

Because neither I nor my descendants could ever be Indian, Italian or Chinese but if I moved into a halting site, put on a stupid accent, married my cousin and got involved in criminality then raised my kids the same way we would be travellers. Why not declare D4 heads or Cavan people to be an ethnic minority too?

RayM

latenia wrote: »

Because neither I nor my descendants could ever be Indian, Italian or Chinese but if I moved into a halting site, put on a stupid accent, married my cousin and got involved in criminality then raised my kids the same way we would be travellers. Why not declare D4 heads or Cavan people to be an ethnic minority too?

Ignoring your unpleasant, bigoted remarks...

You acknowledged that there is an argument for granting travellers ethnic status in the UK. I posted a brief summary of the criteria under which they were given that status. In what way could it not equally apply to Ireland?

dr.bollocko

latenia wrote: »

Because neither I nor my descendants could ever be Indian, Italian or Chinese but if I moved into a halting site, put on a stupid accent, married my cousin and got involved in criminality then raised my kids the same way we would be travellers. Why not declare D4 heads or Cavan people to be an ethnic minority too?

lecker Hendl wrote: »

what's so different about them to entitle them to their own race status, other than the stench of stale urine, scabs on their face, freckles all over, unmistakable accent and the vacant look in their eyes?

latenia wrote: »

At least in the UK you could make an argument for them being an ethnic minority but the truth is they're nothing more than Ireland's trailer park trash.

Hello folks,

Again, comments like the above prevail. Round of infractions issued. Bans from here on out seem to be the best way to go forward.