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???