Travellers in Waterford?

Ri na hEireann

Just started thinking after reading the "Is Waterford a racist city?" thread.
With the recent and well publisized dumpings/Littering by travellers at the Kilbarry halting site do you think it's a case that the travelling community are just misunderstood or do you find it hard to accept their generally mentallity?
What's the overall opinion on the travelling community in Waterford? Is it fair to say that the majority are abusing the system and taking advantage of their minority status?

Personally I'm finding it increasingly difficult to communicate with the travelling community and I find for the most part they deserve the negativity directed towards them. I'm basing this on my personal encounters with travellers and the overall contribution by the community to society in general. Would I be right in thinking most of us are intimidated by them?

dlofnep

You've heard the old saying "I've met a few nice travellers.."

I think they are a product of environment. In some parts, I think they are misunderstood and often treated poorly when in some instances, they probably haven't deserved it.. But all too often, I've seen the youths terrorise other youths in the City. I believe there are issues within the travelling community that must be addressed.

junkster12345

they offer nothing to our society, they beg borrow and steal and most of them have not worked an honest day in their lives , where they live, others are scared to pass for fear of being intimidated, bitten by dogs , and just the general filth that they live amongst.

the government and local authorities stick their head in the sand until something kicks off like fellas attacking each other with machetes or setting each others caravans on fire and then they are all on billy mc'carthy saying this should have been dealt with a long time ago,

but sure what can be done??,

they are just a general all round nuisance.

Freddie59

junkster12345 wrote: »

they offer nothing to our society, they beg borrow and steal and most of them have not worked an honest day in their lives , where they live, others are scared to pass for fear of being intimidated, bitten by dogs , and just the general filth that they live amongst.

the government and local authorities stick their head in the sand until something kicks off like fellas attacking each other with machetes or setting each others caravans on fire and then they are all on billy mc'carthy saying this should have been dealt with a long time ago,

but sure what can be done??,

they are just a general all round nuisance.

Agree 100%. They've built a Social Housing Scheme (Halting Site), complete with bays for caravans and - wait for it - a field for the hoss on the Carrickphierish Road. And the relations just turn up, park on the footpath, and dump whatever they like there. And what do the Council do? Nada. They should be either moved on or prosecuted. The site is full, no room. Now clear off. End of story. Misunderstood my a$$. And when exactly are they treated poorly DLOFNEP?

CantGetNoSleep

I think the next halting site should be built on that little island just of Kilfarassey beach, with a one way ferry service out to it.

If I said any more in this thread i'm sure i'd be banned / have my house burned to the axles

dlofnep

Freddie59 wrote: »

And when exactly are they treated poorly DLOFNEP?

I don't document every atrocity to them, but I've seen countless times where a young traveller has been kicked out of a shop for being a traveller, when he intended to buy a bar or a packet of crisps or something. Surely it is demoralizing?

I'm not the good defender of the travelling community, but I don't think they are all bad. I think a large portion of them however cause alot of problems within society. When I worked in the Pulpit about 7 years ago or so.. a group of them came in and told me to give them free drink or they'd stick me in the back of a van and break my legs. My experiences with them aren't always great, but I have met some very decent Travellers and I don't like to paint everyone with the same brush.

junkster12345

dlofnep wrote: »

I don't document every atrocity to them, but I've seen countless times where a young traveller has been kicked out of a shop for being a traveller, when he intended to buy a bar or a packet of crisps or something. Surely it is demoralizing?

I'm not the good defender of the travelling community, but I don't think they are all bad. I think a large portion of them however cause alot of problems within society. When I worked in the Pulpit about 7 years ago or so.. a group of them came in and told me to give them free drink or they'd stick me in the back of a van and break my legs. My experiences with them aren't always great, but I have met some very decent Travellers and I don't like to paint everyone with the same brush.

give me ur brush and i'll do the paintin' !

Ri na hEireann

I agree with most of what's been said. It never ceases to baffle me their seeming superiority over the law. The y often do what they like and do it freely. Frustrating for the law abiding citizen to say the least.

Sully

I think that a lot of travellers are a law upon themselves. So much so, its pretty much a fact the guards are affraid of them. Anything big, and they send in armed officers. I think since the Guards are afraid or can not police them, they think they can do anything they want and get away with it.

Saying that, there are still a large amount of very friendly and obliging travellers. I think the ones parked outside the halting site seem to keep there vans and surrounding area clean enough. Same can be said for the ones on the Port Road.

Its a very mixed group. Some are very friendly and obliging and others can be very dangerous to mix with.

longshanks

apparently if ya feed em after midnight they start to multiply

cianclarke

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

I think the next halting site should be built on that little island just of Kilfarassey beach, with a one way ferry service out to it.

If I said any more in this thread i'm sure i'd be banned / have my house burned to the axles

I have to say I take offense to this post.

Kilfarassey beach is a lovely spot, and I wouldn't like to see the beauty of the area ruined!

Freddie59

Sully wrote: »

I think the ones parked outside the halting site seem to keep there vans and surrounding area clean enough. Same can be said for the ones on the Port Road.

Which Halting Site are you talking about Sully? Have you seen the state of the Crrickphierish Road near the illegal encampment at the moment?

Dac51

Sully wrote: »

Saying that, there are still a large amount of very friendly and obliging travellers. I think the ones parked outside the halting site seem to keep there vans and surrounding area clean enough.

I hope you're not talking about the Kilbarry halting site / Ballybeg Link Road. I live nearby and I can tell you now that the Ballybeg link road is an absolute kip. Dead horses and dogs have been found in adjacent fields by the council. The amount of rubbish and filth in these fields is nothing short of a disgrace. A new childrens park was built on the link road and I have never seen children play in it because traveller children are intimidating the local children.

BTW, I was driving along the link road in the past few days and saw a '08 Lexus parked outside a caravan a few times. Wonder how many days that traveller worked to pay for that car. :mad:

CantGetNoSleep

Yeah I see your point, maybe a boat off Tramore would be better

With a big hole in it of course

trishw78

Sully I hope what your not calling the travellers on the Port Road CLEAN. They've been dumping their rubbish in the man made lake nearby. They've also been lighting illegal fires and all that stone that is dumped on the grass around their vans is also illegal. They have also been harrassing a lot of the local people that take there dogs for a walk on the nearby IDA road.

I do believe they've also been moved on just before the Easter Holidays but I'll know more when i go back to work tomorrow.

irish fighter

their still their
and it looks like their digging in
it nearly time for them to be moved on caz the law are not able to do it
and alot of the local people are getting pissed :mad:

trishw78 wrote: »

Sully I hope what your not calling the travellers on the Port Road CLEAN. They've been dumping their rubbish in the man made lake nearby. They've also been lighting illegal fires and all that stone that is dumped on the grass around their vans is also illegal. They have also been harrassing a lot of the local people that take there dogs for a walk on the nearby IDA road.

I do believe they've also been moved on just before the Easter Holidays but I'll know more when i go back to work tomorrow.

Freddie59

trishw78 wrote: »

Sully I hope what your not calling the travellers on the Port Road CLEAN. They've been dumping their rubbish in the man made lake nearby. They've also been lighting illegal fires and all that stone that is dumped on the grass around their vans is also illegal. They have also been harrassing a lot of the local people that take there dogs for a walk on the nearby IDA road.

I do believe they've also been moved on just before the Easter Holidays but I'll know more when i go back to work tomorrow.

I looked at them on the Carrickphierish Road again today. Just up from the new Mount Suir estate, where people have taken out huge mortgages and are contributing to the state.

Can someone point out the contribution made by travellers? Something has to be done about these once and for all. Make them abide the law. If a law doesn't cover it then bring one in.

Quigs Snr

Sterilisation. Its the only way. No seriously, like many people I have had mixed experiences with travellers, from a bunch threatening to come in to my sisters pub and not leave until they are paid to do so, to having a kick around of a football with the decent sorts that came to tarmac the driveway (A terrible cliche I know, but they really did a super job and were very professional and respectable). Then of course you get the "I'll fight you for your dog "types, another cliche, sadly well earned.

Like the rest of society, you get both good and bad. However I would imagine that even the most respectable of them with the 08 cars an super clean caravans etc.. would have tax issues that would even make Bertie blush and I don't like the fact that I get bend over and given it good and hard by Mr Taxman and would probably get jail if I didn't tell him I liked it, whilst these lads get away scot free. You want to be fully integrated in society ? Then play by the same rules the rest of us do (apart from the rich - who have a similar ethos to tax issues, and who are similarly untouchable usually).

Cabaal

Quigs Snr wrote: »

Sterilisation. Its the only way. No seriously, like many people I have had mixed experiences with travellers, from a bunch threatening to come in to my sisters pub and not leave until they are paid to do so, to having a kick around of a football with the decent sorts that came to tarmac the driveway (A terrible cliche I know, but they really did a super job and were very professional and respectable). Then of course you get the "I'll fight you for your dog "types, another cliche, sadly well earned....

As for Sterilisation, while we're at it lets start on half the people in ballybeg :rolleyes:

Travellers the same as settled people in any housing development can be both good and bad and people need to be careful not to tar them with the same brush,

Quigs Snr

Cabaal, I would extend that beyond just people in housing developments, private, corporation or otherwise. You can get nasty pieces of work from anywhere. Some of the worst scum I ever met in my life were born and reared with a silver spoon in their mouth in some of the most exclusive post codes in South Dublin. The only difference between them and the ones you hear about day in day out, were the price tags on their tracksuits !

I was obviously joking about sterilisation, but I have noticed a tendancy for the "bad travellers" to stick together in clusters, likewise the "good travellers" do same. It would make for an interesting documentary to break down the various structures, customs etc...

trishw78

Freddie59 wrote: »

Can someone point out the contribution made by travellers? Something has to be done about these once and for all. Make them abide the law. If a law doesn't cover it then bring one in.

Yes, it sounds like a plan but you very well know what the answer would be. Because it's not in their "CULTURE" to pay tax, get a job, abide by the law. To them we must be suckers for going out getting jobs abiding by the law, paying taxes.

Oh and as for my last statement it appears they have not been moved on from the port road. The security guard is still at the IDA road so I'd figure that it's only a matter of time before they are moved on. They're boldy intimadating is what they are.

Oh and can someone tell the women folk that it is NOT acceptable behavour to pull down ones knickers and go for a dump in full view of truckers that use the port road. I kid you not, my eyes have been scarred by the sight.

Quigs Snr

Oh please Trish, you are just a prude, I like nothing better than taking a dump at the side of the road, the thrill of the breeze on your bare buttocks, its how mother nature intended us to relieve ourselves.

Really what you are doing is trying to project what is the cultural norm for you onto those poor downtrodden travellers, did you ever stop to think that pooing in public is not wrong, that in fact you and your predjudices are the problem ?

No, me neither. Maybe in the interests of cultural diversity you should have gone over and asked her to explain what she was doing and how that fit in with her fascinating culture. Maybe asked her about her feelings and invited her around for tea and biccies.

Sully

Lets not paint everyone with the same brush please. Places like Ballybeg may have a very rough crowd, but there can be good people living in these estates to. Its not 100% bad.

Comments suggesting otherwise can be offensive to people who are not causing the trouble.

Tellox

While I'm sure there are some decent travellers (yet to meet any), the ones I've had experience with should have been aborted sometime during their first 40 trimesters.

There's one that lives near me, a little fat one, who gets great kicks in trying to get milled down by my bike. And while I'd love nothing more than to slam into her at 40mph (80% die that way), I'd only end up having to pay for the paint damage to my bike, amongst other things.

When not throwing herself under my bike, she throws other things - ranging from bottles, to rocks. Worst case scenario, a firework. Following this incident, I hopped off the bike and gave her a bollocking - to which I had to answer to her mother about.

Same traveller once decided to live in my food bin on collection day. So the mammy was up that day, noticed her out there, and tore her out of the bin, admist cries of "THIS IS MY HOUSE!". And following that, up comes her mammy again, threating to tear our heads off.

Her brother is about 18 or 19 now (still looks about 12, inbred ****ers), and I've seen him in the back of a squad car countless times. Her sister runs out on the estate and tries to open the doors of any cars - if one opens, she'll either live in there until forcibly removed, or just rob anything of value.

Her other brother goes around stealing the dust caps off of cars/bikes etc, and tries to sell them back to people. And if you take them back by force, mammy will be up. If he runs out of dust caps to steal, he usually steals the neighbours pets. One such case is the neighbour didnt pay up, so her cat was shot repeatably with a pellet gun, glass bottles broken off it etc etc. Apparently the cat died from this, but I havent actually spoke with the neighbour herself, so can't really confirm that one.

My own mam also used to drive taxi's for a living, until a traveller got in one night, and beat her senseless while she was driving - the traveller telling her that she's not dead, she'll be disfigured. So the mam taps in the SOS call on the meter, and the traveller hops out and does a runner. Never got done for it either.

Lots of other small cases such as getting my phone robbed, getting a good chasing etc etc, but this is enough of an essay as it is.

tl,dr; more bad than good. If they were all reported dead in the morning, I'd die myself from laughter.

racram

Just read this on the RTE website. Heard a brief mention about it on the radio earlier!......

The Criminal Assets Bureau has successfully seized and sold four luxury cars and a jeep from a Traveller halting site in Waterford.

Today the High Court granted CAB an order to seize the money it received from the sale of the jeep, the final vehicle to be disposed of.
The CAB had been investigating the activities of the Reilly family from Kilbarry in Co Waterford for some time.

In a series of raids in 2005, the Bureau seized two new Audis, two new Volkswagen Golfs and a new Mitsubishi Pajero Jeep owned by Patrick 'rubber' Reilly and his extended family.
CAB also seized €37,000 in cash.

The cars and jeep were sold immediately because their value could depreciate and CAB sought disposal orders.

CAB officer Chief Superintendent John O'Mahony told the court that he believed the cash and the cars were the proceeds of crime, in particular burglaries, thefts and distraction crimes.

The High Court has already permitted CAB to retain the money from the four cars and today it granted the final Section 3 order under the Proceeds of Crime Act for the Mitsubishi jeep.

CantGetNoSleep

Tellox wrote: »

While I'm sure there are some decent travellers (yet to meet any), the ones I've had experience with should have been aborted sometime during their first 40 trimesters.

There's one that lives near me, a little fat one, who gets great kicks in trying to get milled down by my bike. And while I'd love nothing more than to slam into her at 40mph (80% die that way), I'd only end up having to pay for the paint damage to my bike, amongst other things.

When not throwing herself under my bike, she throws other things - ranging from bottles, to rocks. Worst case scenario, a firework. Following this incident, I hopped off the bike and gave her a bollocking - to which I had to answer to her mother about.

Same traveller once decided to live in my food bin on collection day. So the mammy was up that day, noticed her out there, and tore her out of the bin, admist cries of "THIS IS MY HOUSE!". And following that, up comes her mammy again, threating to tear our heads off.

Her brother is about 18 or 19 now (still looks about 12, inbred ****ers), and I've seen him in the back of a squad car countless times. Her sister runs out on the estate and tries to open the doors of any cars - if one opens, she'll either live in there until forcibly removed, or just rob anything of value.

Her other brother goes around stealing the dust caps off of cars/bikes etc, and tries to sell them back to people. And if you take them back by force, mammy will be up. If he runs out of dust caps to steal, he usually steals the neighbours pets. One such case is the neighbour didnt pay up, so her cat was shot repeatably with a pellet gun, glass bottles broken off it etc etc. Apparently the cat died from this, but I havent actually spoke with the neighbour herself, so can't really confirm that one.

My own mam also used to drive taxi's for a living, until a traveller got in one night, and beat her senseless while she was driving - the traveller telling her that she's not dead, she'll be disfigured. So the mam taps in the SOS call on the meter, and the traveller hops out and does a runner. Never got done for it either.

Lots of other small cases such as getting my phone robbed, getting a good chasing etc etc, but this is enough of an essay as it is.

tl,dr; more bad than good. If they were all reported dead in the morning, I'd die myself from laughter.

Don't think youu'd be the only one, as long as it wasn't a nice peaceful death

Quigs Snr

But have you not tried to engage in dialogue with these people who are terrorising you ? I am sure if you tell them how you feel they will instantly apologise. You need to engage these people, they feel disenfranchised because they got bypassed by the Celtic Tiger and are just striking out at a society which has shunned them. Tellox, I think its your fault.

You buying any of this ?

Edit if that CAB story is correct then that has made my day, however its awful close to April fools. Actually we should have a sweepstake on the lamest "April Fool" prank on here. Usually its someone on bargains, free Mercedes SLK, ha fooled well no-one actually.

racram

Quigs Snr wrote: »

Edit if that CAB story is correct then that has made my day, however its awful close to April fools. Actually we should have a sweepstake on the lamest "April Fool" prank on here. Usually its someone on bargains, free Mercedes SLK, ha fooled well no-one actually.

I don't know, I just copied it from the RTE website but I doubt it's an April fool??

Freddie59

racram wrote: »

I don't know, I just copied it from the RTE website but I doubt it's an April fool??

The CAB doesn't do April Fools. Kinda really highlights it though - doesn't it? The image of the 'poor traveller' well and truly disspelled.

Quigs Snr

Well if its RTE its no April Fool, they don't do humour, thats evident from their home grown "comedy" programs over the years.

magick

Quigs Snr wrote: »

Well if its RTE its no April Fool, they don't do humour, thats evident from their home grown "comedy" programs over the years.

oh snap!