On Saturday last 10 travellers died in a fire at a halting site in Dublin. 5 of them were children. There was all the usual reactions from the public at large. There was genuine shock and sadness. However it seems to have gone away rather quickly. A lot has happened since I suppose, both serious, and relatively trivial but even in this world of constant breaking news the Carrickmines fire seems to have slipped from the public consciousness with indecent haste. Think about it TEN people. This sort of multiple fatality doesn't happen too often but after the initial burst of shock its almost like it didn't happen. Twitter, that amplifier of the most mundane is silent with #carrickmines conspicuous by it's absence.
Why? It's a hard truth but it's because they were travellers. We have a difficult relationship with travellers. Lots of lip service but behind it all we don't like them. I'm as guilty as anyone. I went to school in Rathkeale which is traveller central at certain times of the year. I would be at best ambivalent towards travellers and certainly would have been generally dismissive of any I've encountered.
There's no doubt that some travellers are not model citizens. Growing up I saw enough evidence of that. However there are less than desirable people everywhere not just in the travelling community so why tar all travellers with the same brush. I think because it's easy. There's an awful lot less censure of derogatory statements about travellers than about blacks (for example) Not serving an Asian will see you up on discrimination charges a hell of a lot more quickly than not serving a traveller. There's a casual indifference towards them that permeates the "settled" society.
Sometimes they don't help their own cause though. Traveller attitudes towards women, arranged marriages and so on are out of step with 21st century thinking. easy then, to dismiss them as lazy dirty ne'er do wells. The key to everything as it is so often is education. Travellers don't go to school very much, particularly post primary. That has to change. The state has a duty to give everyone an education. It's not good enough to argue that because travellers move around its hard to enrol them in school. Start small, bring the teachers to them. They (in many cases) don't pay tax it's argued Neither do unemployed people Are you going to deny their kids education as well.
It all comes down to attitude though. Always the last thing to change. It's telling that what's making the news tonight is people objecting to temporary accommodation for those affected by the fire. Even dead kids aren't enough to combat some people's NIMBYism We all jumped up and down and offered to take in refugee families. Didn't hear anyone on Liveline offering space to the bereaved of Carrickmines.
