Let's say something nice about Travellers

mikeysmith

My kids have lots of traveller friends on FB with the boxing

Never heard any issues either

Galwayguy35

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

They played no part in the dodgy activities which lead to the banking crisis.

And they can manage their body temperature well: a couple of winters ago, I was in a community hall with a group of people on a particularly cold day day. The buffers (including me) where wrapped up to the nines and whining about the cold. The travellers had their winter jackets on, for sure, but weren't messing with hats, scarves, gloves - and weren't shivering either.

I think you'll find most of us played no part in dodgy activities as you put it in the lead up to the banking crisis, difference is unlike the nomadic folk we have to pay for it.

noaddedsugar

My next door neighbours are travellers and they are lovely. They will always help us out if we need anything, like when our car was in the garage they offered to go get coal for us if we needed it. They often bring around little bits for the kids and always drop off a box of chocolates at Christmas. They also have so much cctv at their house that I feel it's a bit less likely that we will get burgled, to get to our house you have to pass their rows of cameras. It makes me think that no one would bother robbing us when you can rob the houses in the other direction without being filmed doing it.

the beer revolu

Tenigate wrote: »

If you get punched so much, you need to re-evaluate your own behaviour.

You mightn't get up again if a traveller punches you.

Well, considering I haven't been punched since 1995, maybe I've learned the error of my ways.

Nice bit of victim blaming, though.

jcd5971

the beer revolu wrote:

Well, considering I haven't been punched since 1995, maybe I've learned the error of my ways.

the beer revolu wrote:

Nice bit of victim blaming, though.

If you have been punched that many separate times then either
A: your unlucky as all hell
B: an asshole

jopax

They are animal lovers, they can't help themselves when they see a dog unaccompanied by their owner or left home alone they will bring the dog with them.

the beer revolu

jcd5971 wrote: »

If you have been punched that many separate times then either
A: your unlucky as all hell
B: an asshole

First time I shouted at a scumbag who was hassling a busker. I was young, stupid, drunk and idealistic.

Second time, I was minding my own business outside a night club, a guy got kicked out, someone next to me made a smart comment and I got punched.

Third time I ended up stuck in a situation where a well known young criminal family member wanted to spar with me. All friendly like. Needless to say, I got punched.

Fourth time, I threw a bit of orange peel at someone going for a piss on the street outside my then local I thought I knew him. Turns out I didn't. He came back with his friends and my friend and I got punched.

So, asshole or unlucky?

But hey, I've managed to stay out of trouble for 22 years now!

ABEasy

They love their family, especially their cousins...

tooManyChoices

Nobody likes to be treated like an a$$hole. We all get defensive when we're treated badly.

If you're friendly with people then they'll treat you the same way.

The only difference with Travellers is that they're so used to everyone treating them like a$$holes that they're sick of it and are probably thinking "Ah phuck, not this again". It only takes 5 seconds of pleasantries and a smile to show someone you think of them as an equal, and you'll end up having a friendly chat. Same goes for those kids hanging outside your local Centra.
People are people.

Help!!!!

noaddedsugar wrote: »

My next door neighbours are travellers and they are lovely. They will always help us out if we need anything, like when our car was in the garage they offered to go get coal for us if we needed it. They often bring around little bits for the kids and always drop off a box of chocolates at Christmas. They also have so much cctv at their house that I feel it's a bit less likely that we will get burgled, to get to our house you have to pass their rows of cameras. It makes me think that no one would bother robbing us when you can rob the houses in the other direction without being filmed doing it.

Yeah its quite ironic that their homes have cctv & high walls etc, usually a guard dog as well
Bought our car off a settled traveller cctv all over the place. Car had less than 40Kmiles on it 2004, €600 no probs with it & it wasn't nicked so happy days:D

SnakePlissken

padd b1975 wrote: »

Their life expectancy is very low.

Mod-Banned

Why was the poster banned for this comment? Statistically speaking the travelling community do in fact have a lower life expectancy than the settled.

the beer revolu

SnakePlissken wrote: »

Why was the poster banned for this comment? Statistically speaking the travelling community do in fact have a lower life expectancy than the settled.

I think it was suggesting that this is a good thing was the problem.

retro:electro

Some of the traveller girls in my class in school were genuinely hilarious. I still laugh to this day at some of the memories. The stuff they come out with can be gold.

Many of them have great respect for sick people. They'll pray for anyone you know if you mention they're ill. I know a traveller man who met my mam one day when she was ill with a chest infection and to this day he always asks how she is when I meet him.

Annasopra

SnakePlissken wrote: »

Why was the poster banned for this comment?

Celebrating their deaths

SnakePlissken

the beer revolu wrote: »

SnakePlissken wrote: »

Why was the poster banned for this comment? Statistically speaking the travelling community do in fact have a lower life expectancy than the settled.

I think it was suggesting that this is a good thing was the problem.

That's fairly dickish alright, I didn't interprete it that way on first reading, but considering the thread title you may well be right.

jcd5971

SnakePlissken wrote:

Why was the poster banned for this comment? Statistically speaking the travelling community do in fact have a lower life expectancy than the settled.

the beer revolu wrote:

I think it was suggesting that this is a good thing was the problem.

Joeytheparrot wrote:

Celebrating their deaths

SnakePlissken wrote:

That's fairly dickish alright, I didn't interprete it that way on first reading, but considering the thread title you may well be right.

Was that a site ban.?

A joke in poor taste alright but jaysus seems harsh.

Even if he meant it was a good thing they have a shorter lifespan, does it warrant a ban?

Be an interesting read if it goes to drp if nothing else.

gordongekko

They broke up the monopoly that was the tarmacadam business

BrianJD

The company I work for have at different stages had 4 sisters from a settled family working with us and they are the nicest and hardest working staff members I have ever worked alongside.

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

Are Am Eye wrote: »

Going back a few generations we excluded travellers from irish life or main stream society. This is the result. They weren't going to roll over and die. Human beings will survive in any way possible and will always survive.

Exactly. Laws which made the traditional travelling lifestyle impractical were brought in from the seventies onwards and the relationship between the two communities has steadily worsened since then.

But sure let's just keep shítting all over them every time the subject comes up. That's the attitude that'll make them inclined to integrate into the settled community, if we just keep saying their family, their accent and their appearance is disgusting and that we have an extremely negative opinion of the vast majority of travellers, that surely won't make them retreat into their own community and view settled people with suspicion!

On that note, I've spoken to travellers whose first memory of dealing with "country people" was of bullying in school or in one case of hiding inside a caravan while men fired shotguns over it to move them on. And telling those stories those travellers were very keen to emphasise that they didn't tar all settled people with the same brush and they knew not everyone was prejudiced. Their experience of prejudice, IME, makes them very attuned to things like that.

Permabear

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

This is my favourite!

barrymanilow

There was one time we were stuck in the car-park after body and soul as our driver left the light on all weekend . Two young traveller lads had jump leads and started us up off their van . Sound

Sweetemotion

Julissa Icy Labyrinth wrote: »

Exactly. Laws which made the traditional travelling lifestyle impractical were brought in from the seventies onwards and the relationship between the two communities has steadily worsened since then.

But sure let's just keep shítting all over them every time the subject comes up. That's the attitude that'll make them inclined to integrate into the settled community, if we just keep saying their family, their accent and their appearance is disgusting and that we have an extremely negative opinion of the vast majority of travellers, that surely won't make them retreat into their own community and view settled people with suspicion!

On that note, I've spoken to travellers whose first memory of dealing with "country people" was of bullying in school or in one case of hiding inside a caravan while men fired shotguns over it to move them on. And telling those stories those travellers were very keen to emphasise that they didn't tar all settled people with the same brush and they knew not everyone was prejudiced. Their experience of prejudice, IME, makes them very attuned to things like that.

So it's all the settled folks fault then?

Had two young travellers open my car door for me last night. That was nice of them.

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

Sweetemotion wrote: »

So it's all the settled folks fault then?

Had two young travellers open my car door for me last night. That was nice of them.

:rolleyes:

This obsession with "whose fault" it is is stupid. The question is do we want things to get better or not, do we want the interactions between the communities to keep getting worse and worse, travellers more and more insular. There are traveller community health workers, youth workers, social workers trying so hard to improve things in the community, including keeping people out of crime, trying to improve family planning, attitudes to marriage, to social issues in general.

And every single time, literally every single time there's a thread or a radio item or a TV programme about travellers settled people undermine all that work with their reaction. Of course there are scummy, violent travellers, the nice travellers are shítless scared of them too. Decent travellers, of which there are PLENTY are more than willing to meet people half way and they hardly ever even get that. I don't blame them one bit for being wary of interacting with settled people until they know the craic, because the hostility and disgust they're met with (people refusing to shake hands at mass and stuff like is in this thread) makes that a natural human act of self preservation.

Rubberchikken

Of all the bullies who tormented some kids in my kids school, not one of those little buggers was a traveller.

Sweetemotion

Julissa Icy Labyrinth wrote: »

:rolleyes:

This obsession with "whose fault" it is is stupid. The question is do we want things to get better or not, do we want the interactions between the communities to keep getting worse and worse, travellers more and more insular. There are traveller community health workers, youth workers, social workers trying so hard to improve things in the community, including keeping people out of crime, trying to improve family planning, attitudes to marriage, to social issues in general.

And every single time, literally every single time there's a thread or a radio item or a TV programme about travellers settled people undermine all that work with their reaction. Of course there are scummy, violent travellers, the nice travellers are shítless scared of them too. Decent travellers, of which there are PLENTY are more than willing to meet people half way and they hardly ever even get that. I don't blame them one bit for being wary of interacting with settled people until they know the craic, because the hostility and disgust they're met with (people refusing to shake hands at mass and stuff like is in this thread) makes that a natural human act of self preservation.

:rolleyes:

The big changes that need to be done is within the traveling community itself. This crap of blaming it the settled people is wrong,People are wary of them from their own personal experience.

More people have had bad experiences with the traveling community than good. Now imagine if that was reversed and more people had good experiences with them than bad. Do you think this current predijuce would exist?

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

Welcome too wrote: »

Come off it, did you ever walk inside a traveller chalet or caravan, the best of the best, nothing spared yet the kids are neglected?

Huge yards, with surrounding fields for animals.

There's is very little good travellers left, the ones now prey on the elderly, rip people off, rob anything if it's not nailed down.

Their behaviour in the recent decade, has terrified normal rural people in Ireland,

Animals seriously mistreated, yet if a settled person done any of the that, guards with guns would be on the scene.

I can go on, if you like?

Go on all you like, carry on exactly as you're doing. You're well on your way to solving the problem, good man.

I've spent time on halting sites, lived beside travellers twice, and worked in Pavee Point. I've made it my business to be friendly to and have good interactions with Travellers, I have never had a problem with them. I've had a few very interesting conversations on their opinions on the problems in the community. And all this time I could have been slagging them off instead, that would have been way more productive!

Ewan Hoosarmi

I've had many interactions with travellers over the years and, I have to say there are many other groups in Ireland that would make me cross to the other side of the road. Some examples would be: politicians, wealthy people, celebrities and bible bashers. Seeing as we're generalising and all.



Oh and BMW drivers. :pac:

I'd like to share a thing which makes me genuinely sad when I interact with Traveller families in my job. I do my very best to have a smile for everyone I meet until they give me a reason not to. So when I greet a Traveller lady or gent with a hearty ''good morning, how are you? How can I help you?'' they're almost taken back by it as if it's unexpected or you're ripping the p*ss. You can see an almost shocked pleasantness come over them when they realise you're just being nice to them. It might just be a mundane thing I'm doing like organising an appointment but they're usually overly full of gratitude saying things like ''thank you very very much for your help, sir ''. It makes me wonder are they dealing with gruff people day in and day out. That thoughts of that makes me feel bad.

end of the road

Sweetemotion wrote: »

The big changes that need to be done is within the traveling community itself. This crap of blaming it the settled people is wrong,People are wary of them from their own personal experience.

More people have had bad experiences with the traveling community than good. Now imagine if that was reversed and more people had good experiences with them than bad. Do you think this current predijuce would exist?

it absolutely would yes. bad experiences or other reasons are just used as an excuse for that prejudice, the same happened with other minority groups in the past.
the difference is now that with other minority groups such as blacks and gays, prejudice is no longer tolerated and rightly so. the same will happen with travelers eventually.

Tipsy McSwagger

Every positive post thanked by EOTR. I'd say he has a horn on him that could knock over a caravan.