'Traveller housing not wanted here,' say locals

Johro

FinnLizzy wrote: »

That's pretty morbid. But it has nothing to do with the point I'm making about travellers settling into a public car park, with a stable for the horses and bonfires in the middle of a town.

And unless you know who's fúcking up the environment in those pictures, as opposed to the ones in my links, who's presence is actually the problem, then I have no idea what point you're trying to make.

You mentioned 'how travellers treat our lovely county', I'm just pointing out that non travellers make a shitty mess of it too.

FinnLizzy

Johro wrote: »

You mentioned 'how travellers treat our lovely county', I'm just pointing out that non travellers make a shitty mess of it too.

It's been pointed out in numerous traveller related threads that 'settled people can be just as bad'. Yes, of course they can be, but it's been pointed out again and again that travellers account for less than 5% of the overall population. But the level of anti-social behaviour is alarmingly high in their community.

Back to the point about litter and environment, haulting sites and other traveller settlements are in themselves an unholy mess and of no benefit to the country. Not to mention the amount of shít their horses leave, would you think the amount of dumping done by settled people (per capita) comes close to the amount of dumping (per capita) that the travelling community makes?

EGAR

Due to my work I have many encounters with Travellers. I can honestly say that I am finding it extremely hard to forget some things I have seen...and I am wearing a stab vest when I go on these call outs. Nuff said.

Johro

FinnLizzy wrote: »

It's been pointed out in numerous traveller related threads that 'settled people can be just as bad'. Yes, of course they can be, but it's been pointed out again and again that travellers account for less than 5% of the overall population. But the level of anti-social behaviour is alarmingly high in their community.

Back to the point about litter and environment, haulting sites and other traveller settlements are in themselves an unholy mess and of no benefit to the country. Not to mention the amount of shít their horses leave, would you think the amount of dumping done by settled people (per capita) comes close to the amount of dumping (per capita) that the travelling community makes?

I'd say that would depend on where you live, but no, probably not. They're pretty bad for throwing their rubbish wherever the hell they like. Granted. It's just that i know of plenty of people who complain about the mess made by travellers who are not averse to dumping their own bags of household rubbish in the ditch. It's an Irish thing. Every cottage seems to have a buried heap of glass jars and bottles, a dead car in a field and a barrel or heap of half burned rubbish down the end of the yard. You dig about a bit in the garden and ya find broken glass, plastic bags and twine, paint tins, car parts etc.
But yeah, point made.

the_syco

The wooden bollards shown here were put there to stop the travellers from illegally camping there, and to prevent them from intimidating people who wanted to walk there.

I have seen plenty of destruction in my locality caused by the travellers. I have met one nice family that used to visit the area every year. They stopped coming as they were intimidated by other travellers, and said that the other travellers were causing the locals to be hostile towards them. Never saw said family again, but every one that has come since has cost the County Council millions in fixing up the mess after they leave.

And the worst part? It seems they wanted a halting site built for them. For free. The one in Maynooth? Occupied by a family they didn't like.

Well, tough sh|te, tbh. If you want a place built, pay with your own money, otherwise piss off.

ShaneMc2012

Duggys Housemate wrote: »

I will give my solution to the traveller halting site issue. Its simple. The theory is

1) Travellers are badly treated by society.
2) We need to give them better facilities and areas to live in.

And yet - this simple theory never leads to the obvious conclusion.

Put all traveller sites in the rich areas. Mostly Dublin, mostly south side, mostly the rich. Dalkey, Howth, Ballsbridge. And so on. Top 10%, and top 10% only.

There are a number of reasons for this.

1) Poorer and lower middle class areas have only so many resources, in schools, in council facilities etc. Pushing more human poverty on these areas is unfair.
2) If travellers are poor because of their surrounding environment ( as well as their own sites etc.) then it will help alleviate the poverty if the environment of the travellers improves. In theory, of course.
3) It is unfair to blame "society" for ill treatment of travellers, if only some of society are charged with dealing with it, and that some is the bottom 50-60% who are least resourced to dealing with it.
4) It seems that a lot of the whining about the "racism" comes from traditionally elite institutions ( like Trinity) from where the great and good who opine then decamp in the top areas, ghettoed by distance from the rest of us. Not just travellers. ( the main reason to pay more to live in an elite area is to live beside the kind of people who live in an elite area. The rich want to ghettoise themselves from nurses, IT workers, teachers, and office workers, and whine about the lower middle, and working class hostility to, and ghettoisation from travellers).

So far when halting sites are mentioned, it always Tallaght, or the poorest country towns and the poor parts of those country towns, who seem to get sites. Lets distribute them more equitably.

The reason there areas are 'rich' are because the people who live here aren't travelers and actually worked pretty damn hard to buy the 'expensive' homes in which they live. Do you honestly think its fair to give traveler families free (of course) housing in some of the most expensive parts of the country, while most of the neighbours around them have been working for the best part of 50-60 years? If that ever happened do you actually think the travellers will be better treated? This would breed even worse hatred for them all over the country!

Temptamperu

My problem with Travelers is, They don't pay tax and they don't want to be part of our society. The are so insular that they marry of cousins like 15th century monarchs.

Let them buy there own land and pay for themselves for once in their lives.

Duggys Housemate

ShaneMc2012 wrote: »

The reason there areas are 'rich' are because the people who live here aren't travelers and actually worked pretty damn hard to buy the 'expensive' homes in which they live. Do you honestly think its fair to give traveler families free (of course) housing in some of the most expensive parts of the country, while most of the neighbours around them have been working for the best part of 50-60 years? If that ever happened do you actually think the travellers will be better treated? This would breed even worse hatred for them all over the country!

Most of the wealth in the rich suburbs is inherited, or dependent on privilege. These houses cost millions. I am just trying to spread the cost of sites.

Freddie59

Dudess wrote: »

To be fair, that's one incident. Reasonable to concede there are a lot of dodgy elements within traveller culture, but to say traveller = automatically no-good person - is wrong and unfair.

Only one of many. If you look at any of the "social housing" schemes for them (and I live not too far away from one) there is an endless amount of rubbish, horse shyte, and nearby fields occupied with horses. Plus sulky racing on a dual carriageway. One-off my arse.

Freddie59

the_syco wrote: »

The wooden bollards shown here were put there to stop the travellers from illegally camping there, and to prevent them from intimidating people who wanted to walk there.

I have seen plenty of destruction in my locality caused by the travellers. I have met one nice family that used to visit the area every year. They stopped coming as they were intimidated by other travellers, and said that the other travellers were causing the locals to be hostile towards them. Never saw said family again, but every one that has come since has cost the County Council millions in fixing up the mess after they leave.

And the worst part? It seems they wanted a halting site built for them. For free. The one in Maynooth? Occupied by a family they didn't like.

Well, tough sh|te, tbh. If you want a place built, pay with your own money, otherwise piss off.

The sentiments of the majority of Irish people.

ShaneMc2012

Duggys Housemate wrote: »

Most of the wealth in the rich suburbs is inherited, or dependent on privilege. These houses cost millions. I am just trying to spread the cost of sites.

I used to live in Foxrock and I can honestly say only 10% (probably less) inherited their fortunes, most of them were either successful Solicitors, Accountants or Doctors while the rest took a chance and created a profitable company themselves. If your saying to give Westminster and Brighton Road to the travelers, then whats the reward for success? With that attitude we all might as well be on the dole as no matter how successful you become there will always be trouble (travelers) beside you.

Gingernuts31

I work in a garage and I had 6 of them in the shop yesterday. 4 adults and 2 kids. All male too I might add. 1 lad filled up with 10 of diesel and the driver came into the shop with the rest of them, picked up a paper, walked up the counter and proceeded to read the paper on the counter right in front of me while they kids nicked stuff from the shop then I see the kids walkin out casually with big bumps under their jackets. Eventually after the driver spouting sh!t he gives me a 100 euro note to get 5euro phone credit. I asked him who was paying for the diesel and he said that guy (the guy who filled it). I gave him back his 95 change and he left. The guy who filled then comes up to the counter with an icecream. I told him the price including the diesel.

He says to me 2 im not paying for it the other guy is paying for it". I told him the other guy said he was paying for it but he kept insisting it was the driver. He tells me he will go outside and tell him he owes me for the diesel.

Now I don't trust them at all so I take 10 from the till to give him his change when he gives me a 20 I just gave him with his 95. I walked across the forecourt and then driver then tries to blame me on the fact the diesel wasn't paid and then says he only owes me a fiver :mad:. I stuck to my guns and explained it all to him step by step as it was obsivous he was trying to con me. He paid me the 20, I gave him back his 10 and they left the forecourt.

I know that program "the truth about travellers" puts them looking like they are all nice and they don't commit crime and they have their own culture etc. Yes they do but their culture is theiving, coning people, bare knuckle illegal fighting, bascially making people's lives a misery.

I do believe there are a FEW decents ones out there but i've yet to see a family that come in, pay for what they got and leave like a normal person and NOT hang around the forecourt, dropping litter and trying the con the cashier.

BTW the coning thing has happened to me 3 times in 6 weeks by travellers and each time they didn't get anything extra not for want of trying.

Ms. Pingui

I used to keep horses and work in a stables just a few hundred metres from a halting site. The travellers were a nightmare! They contantly broke in, vandalised the place, stole thousands worth of equipment, scared the **** out of the horses etc. They stole the yard dog (we got him back minus collar and rug). A few big guys would often come into the yard "looking for the owner" at times when they knew full well he wouldn't be there. A few would try and distracted me while the others swiped everything that wasn't nailed down. Very deliberatly intimidating and I was always fightened when I saw them coiming.
When exercising on the road I had traveler kids chasing the young horses with sticks and throw stones at me.... very dangerous for everyone!
You couldn't leave anything out of sight with them around.
The way they treat their site and their animals is appaling as well. The place is falling down with dirt and rubbish. The horses are tied to the side of the road staving, clipped but unrugged in the winter, no water and the only thiung I've seen them been given to eat is cut grass (this can make ahorse seriously ill or even kill it) i've often seen sulkys and ponies over turned on the by pass. Don't even get me started on the dogs, chickens and rabbits they're keeping.
Nothing is ever done when you report this to the gaurds or spca for fear of being accused of racism.
I'm sure there are some nice travellers, but that is certainly not my experience of them!

Gingernuts31

Ms. Pingui wrote: »

I used to keep horses and work in a stables just a few hundred metres from a halting site. The travellers were a nightmare! They contantly broke in, vandalised the place, stole thousands worth of equipment, scared the **** out of the horses etc. They stole the yard dog (we got him back minus collar and rug). A few big guys would often come into the yard "looking for the owner" at times when they knew full well he wouldn't be there. A few would try and distracted me while the others swiped everything that wasn't nailed down. Very deliberatly intimidating and I was always fightened when I saw them coiming.
When exercising on the road I had traveler kids chasing the young horses with sticks and throw stones at me.... very dangerous for everyone!
You couldn't leave anything out of sight with them around.
The way they treat their site and their animals is appaling as well. The place is falling down with dirt and rubbish. The horses are tied to the side of the road staving, clipped but unrugged in the winter, no water and the only thiung I've seen them been given to eat is cut grass (this can make ahorse seriously ill or even kill it) i've often seen sulkys and ponies over turned on the by pass. Don't even get me started on the dogs, chickens and rabbits they're keeping.
Nothing is ever done when you report this to the gaurds or spca for fear of being accused of racism.
I'm sure there are some nice travellers, but that is certainly not my experience of them!

Myself and the wife went to balinasloe horse fair before looking for our stolen dog because she was taken by travellers that had come around 3 times asking us to sell her. She is nothuing special just a fluffy lurcher, beautiful little girl she is. Anyway we went to the fcuking fair and I swear if I had a gun I would of gone on the rampage there. The poor horses and dogs, some with the rope embeded into their necks for sale and the SPCA stood by and did nothing. That fair should not be allowed as its only rewarding them for animal cruelty and crime. You can be sure half the horses there are stolen from somewhere and the puppies and breed purely for selling them there, nearly all rib cage thin :mad:.

We got our girl back after 9 days in bad condition. 9 days and she was brown and filthy white instead of a shinny black coat and lovely white hair. Had cuts and crazes all over her from trying to get out or wherever she was. Red throat from crying and barking all the time. We think they dumped her as she was neutered and not a hunter.

If I ever see the fcukers that took her il invite them into my house and they won't leave it.

Dan133269

the_syco wrote: »

And the worst part? It seems they wanted a halting site built for them. For free. The one in Maynooth? Occupied by a family they didn't like.

Well, tough sh|te, tbh. If you want a place built, pay with your own money, otherwise piss off.

This is the thing, I've seen loads of traveller debates on television, listened to them on radio etc. I even signed a petition from a group of kids to get their original council house back because they were kicked out of their house for repeated criminal offences and anti-social behaviour, I only signed it because they were all 10 years old and had been dumped by their parents outside the city council offices to protest and collect signatures all day in the rain.

But anyway, my point is that I have heard time and time again about travellers insisting on their "human rights" and respect for their traveller culture and identity. In other words, they want the government to provide them with the facilities to allow them to keep travelling and living in mobile accommodation, the grounds for setting up that mobile accommodation in numerous different locations, facilities for water/electricity/heating etc that is compatible with their caravans and mobile homes. They keep shouting and insisting that all of this must be provided because it's their culture which must be respected. Not once, EVER, have I heard a traveller or advocate of travellers explain why all of these things should be provided by the government, at the cost of the taxpayer.

Imagine me and my extended family coming out and saying it's our culture that we live in big mansions, drive brand new BMWs and eat caviar for dinner everyday, and the government must respect our culture and provide it for us. That is the exact same as what the travellers are demanding. They want extra stuff for no valid reason. If they want it, let them pay for it themselves, otherwise fcuk off and be grateful that this country offers you a free house with other perks that you get for nothing. Don't look a gifthorse in the mouth.

Dudess

Gingernuts31 wrote: »

Ms. Pingui wrote: »

I used to keep horses and work in a stables just a few hundred metres from a halting site. The travellers were a nightmare! They contantly broke in, vandalised the place, stole thousands worth of equipment, scared the **** out of the horses etc. They stole the yard dog (we got him back minus collar and rug). A few big guys would often come into the yard "looking for the owner" at times when they knew full well he wouldn't be there. A few would try and distracted me while the others swiped everything that wasn't nailed down. Very deliberatly intimidating and I was always fightened when I saw them coiming.
When exercising on the road I had traveler kids chasing the young horses with sticks and throw stones at me.... very dangerous for everyone!
You couldn't leave anything out of sight with them around.
The way they treat their site and their animals is appaling as well. The place is falling down with dirt and rubbish. The horses are tied to the side of the road staving, clipped but unrugged in the winter, no water and the only thiung I've seen them been given to eat is cut grass (this can make ahorse seriously ill or even kill it) i've often seen sulkys and ponies over turned on the by pass. Don't even get me started on the dogs, chickens and rabbits they're keeping.
Nothing is ever done when you report this to the gaurds or spca for fear of being accused of racism.
I'm sure there are some nice travellers, but that is certainly not my experience of them!

Myself and the wife went to balinasloe horse fair before looking for our stolen dog because she was taken by travellers that had come around 3 times asking us to sell her. She is nothuing special just a fluffy lurcher, beautiful little girl she is. Anyway we went to the fcuking fair and I swear if I had a gun I would of gone on the rampage there. The poor horses and dogs, some with the rope embeded into their necks for sale and the SPCA stood by and did nothing. That fair should not be allowed as its only rewarding them for animal cruelty and crime. You can be sure half the horses there are stolen from somewhere and the puppies and breed purely for selling them there, nearly all rib cage thin :mad:.

We got our girl back after 9 days in bad condition. 9 days and she was brown and filthy white instead of a shinny black coat and lovely white hair. Had cuts and crazes all over her from trying to get out or wherever she was. Red throat from crying and barking all the time. We think they dumped her as she was neutered and not a hunter.

If I ever see the fcukers that took her il invite them into my house and they won't leave it.

Absolute f'uckers. :mad:

Logical Fallacy

Gingernuts31 wrote: »

Myself and the wife went to balinasloe horse fair before looking for our stolen dog because she was taken by travellers that had come around 3 times asking us to sell her. She is nothuing special just a fluffy lurcher, beautiful little girl she is. Anyway we went to the fcuking fair and I swear if I had a gun I would of gone on the rampage there. The poor horses and dogs, some with the rope embeded into their necks for sale and the SPCA stood by and did nothing. That fair should not be allowed as its only rewarding them for animal cruelty and crime. You can be sure half the horses there are stolen from somewhere and the puppies and breed purely for selling them there, nearly all rib cage thin :mad:.

We got our girl back after 9 days in bad condition. 9 days and she was brown and filthy white instead of a shinny black coat and lovely white hair. Had cuts and crazes all over her from trying to get out or wherever she was. Red throat from crying and barking all the time. We think they dumped her as she was neutered and not a hunter.

If I ever see the fcukers that took her il invite them into my house and they won't leave it.

Very same thing happened to a friend of mine, his dogs were taken, also after inquiries about a sale had been made. We had to go to the fair to track them down and get them back.

Lone Stone

We should make one giant halting site in the middle of no where and be done with them.

Johro

Yes I agree with the posts above on the way most travellers treat their animals, it's disgraceful and I've reported some for it but that doesn't actually seem to get ya anywhere.

Clareboy

Lone Stone wrote: »

We should make one giant halting site in the middle of no where and be done with them.

What about the residents of " The Middle of Nowhere "? Do they have any rights?

daenerysstormborn3

The gardai want nothing to do with the travellers. Some will even say they are afraid of them. I'm saying this from firsthand experience.

My boyfriend has just opened up his own business and since he opened in November a week hasn't gone by when the travellers haven't either come in with the whole "well boss" cute out, scoping out the place routine or parked up on the main road right outside the business looking in for hours. They're all in expensive cars, the oldest being 2009. They arrive up in relatively new cars which very obviously have new tyres on them pretending that they are shopping for tyres. They don't even try to hide the fact that they're up to something.

I have contacted the gardai myself because my boyfriend refused to get them involved because he said they'd do nothing, lo and behold they've done nothing. There's about 15-20 different fellas that have been in, no idea where they're coming from as there's no halting site nearby. My boyfriend and his business partner have told some of them in no uncertain terms to eff off and not come back but some of these lads are extremely dangerous and have burnt out places in the past for being refused service.

We have a huge dog here and we have gone from telling people that he is soft and harmless (which he is) to telling them that he'll rip someone's arm off on command (not a hope!). We have cameras and security lights up around the house and up around the shop and workshop. There is alarms on everything, including the padlocks (I didn't even know you could get alarmed padlocks until we started having these problems).

The majority of travellers are an absolute nuisance and they give the small percentage, that are actually decent human beings, a bad name. I have met good, decent, honest travellers who want nothing more than just get on with their lives and not bother anyone.

grindle

Clareboy wrote: »

What about the residents of " The Middle of Nowhere "? Do they have any rights?

Nobody lives in Longford, silly. :rolleyes:

the_syco

Lone Stone wrote: »

We should make one giant halting site in the middle of no where and be done with them.

Purpose built state of the art halting site, 8000 caravan bays, with a 5 bedroom house next to each caravan bay.

One family moves in, in one far corner. You try to move another family in and you'll get "sorry boss, but my grandmothers brothers fathers aunties dog was killed by them in 9,000 BC and we cannot live next to them".

Clareboy wrote: »

What about the residents of " The Middle of Nowhere "? Do they have any rights?

Uninhabited island.

Scruffles

am from an area which has a large number of travellers and gypsies-both in the traditional sense [caravans and tents] and settled travellers and gypsies.
one of their camps has even been seen on that 'big fat gypsy wedding' programme ,that camp in question looks decent and not out of place,has a lot of care for the animals-they have a stable block for the horses rather than just tethering them up on a road edge somewhere or letting them roam in the middle of a ragwort filled field,they hose,clean and shoe the horses,the yard dogs are well looked after and so on.

further down from them there are alot of fields occupied by horses of travellers-mainly the more roaming ones who dont seem to stay for long, the horses have been left in awful states-no grooming in place leading to rainscald,no HW rugs in winter or far to small rugs left hanging off the neck, badly overgrown or cracked hooves,horses left roaming in ragwort filled fields, no water,tethered to tightly with no room to turn,fencing that has barbwire sticking out and clearly shows horse skin attached or is broken and allows for escape,not enough attention given to them so they are afraid of people,no safe methods against the bots/mites in summer that cause infection etc.
we have reported the bad ones before for all of this,its usualy all from the same individuals,most likely due to having no proper horse management education.

we have fellas that are settled and live in nice houses which they have done up well,they look after their horses very well and they are integrated in the community.

see,unfortunately people are quick to stick labels on others if they happen to experience problems with people who are from the same group,but sometimes people will badly label groups because theyre jealous enough of the services/help available they get;so much that they will use any excuse or made up story to make a group look in the wrong,for example-if its not travellers/gypsies,its single mothers,dole claimants,disabled people and the various associated services/support/benefits/accomodations,ethnic minority groups etc.

there most certainly are bad travellers and gypsies but not having met law abiding friendly ones does not equate to non existant,it simply means have not met any yet.

Dudess

You can still acknowledge there are decent travelling folk while also stating the truth: there is a disproportionate amount of anti social behaviour and intimidation and crime prevalent in their communities. It's a crap thing for good travellers to read, I'm sure, but what's worse for them is having to live in close proximity to such misery.

Ghost Buster

grindle wrote: »

Nobody lives in Longford, silly. :rolleyes:

FYI Second highest traveller population in the country:eek:

Ghost Buster

Johro wrote: »

You mentioned 'how travellers treat our lovely county', I'm just pointing out that non travellers make a shitty mess of it too.

Settled people dont pretend this is acceptable as it is 'part of their culture'.

grindle

Ghost Buster wrote: »

FYI Second highest traveller population in the country:eek:

There we go then, the Middle of Nowhere has it covered and is rising up the ranks to solve all our woes.

We can finally uninstall all of our CCTV/alarm systems, transport Padraig Nally from the past to the near future and we won't have to listen to years of apologism.

Mmm...

Apollo Jism.

bonzos

MadYaker wrote: »

So you're saying the majority of travellers in sligo drive range rovers and BMWs? Bollocks. Most of them are quite poor. There are some wealthy families who are probably involved in the drug trade but most of them are poor.

There is not a traveller in Sligo driving a car,van or 4x4 that older than 2009!The gang (and that the only name for them) that reside in ballyfree have matching white range rovers and bmw 5 series.....CAB need to get the finger out and start asking some hard questions about where all the money is coming from.

Freddie59

Scruffles wrote: »

see,unfortunately people are quick to stick labels on others if they happen to experience problems with people who are from the same group,but sometimes people will badly label groups because theyre jealous enough of the services/help available they get;so much that they will use any excuse or made up story to make a group look in the wrong,for example-if its not travellers/gypsies,its single mothers,dole claimants,disabled people and the various associated services/support/benefits/accomodations,ethnic minority groups etc.

there most certainly are bad travellers and gypsies but not having met law abiding friendly ones does not equate to non existant,it simply means have not met any yet.

But people seem to have met a lot more bad ones than good ones - would you agree?

ProudDUB

Yep. Would agree with that. Mine would not be good at all.

When I was a nipper, a halting site sprung up about a mile away from us. Two people in particular from it used to call around to houses in the area begging. One old hag, rude, verbally abusive, would show up at kiddies bedtimes & pound on windows of houses who wouldn't open the door to her or give her money. The houses were bungalows with bedrooms towards the front of the house, so needless to say that went down a treat with the mammys trying to get their kids to go to sleep. Word on the street was that she was casing out houses for new bikes, toys etc laying around driveways, as very often things would go missing the day after she would show up. At our house, she was heartily told to feck off whenever she showed up.

There was one young lad who used to come begging too. He was sweet as could be & very gentle and polite. My utter softie of a dad would always open the door to him, and give him 10p. That was an amount not to be sneezed at those days. It was more than he'd give to his own kids for pocket money. He'd always give him two 5p coins and would tell him that one of them was just for him to buy sweets with. I met him one day in the local sweetshop trying to buy two 1p fizzle sticks (remember them ?) from his 5p. He had no idea how to pay for them. So I helped him out. It is hard to respect a culture where a 10 year old lad can not do basic adding and subtracting, not to mention the inner humiliation he must have suffered by being made to go around begging by his parents. Lovely wee lad. Often wondered what happened to him.

My ma loved to garden. We had some lovely window boxes and containers in our front garden, as did the neighbours either side of us. Wasn't long before anything that wasn't literally nailed down in the garden began to disappear. Neighbours experienced the same thing. After about a year, the Corpo shut down the halting site and hey presto, the thieving stopped.

The area around the halting site was turned into a rubbish dump, and it used to be lovely. The state of the animals chained to fences used to upset me and my sister so much, my parents would drive us to school a different way, just so we wouldn't arrive at school with tears rolling down our faces every morning.

My brother and I used to love to go with our dad and watch the planes take off and land near Dublin airport. Then an illegal halting site cropped up about 2 mins away from our favourite spot on the back road near the Boot Inn. We had to stop going, as you literally could not turn your back for 5 minutes or the wheels - and Lord knows what else - would be gone off your car when you got back. That was shut down fairly sharpish, as the rubbish around the site used to attract so many birds (crows I think) that they were deemed to be a hazard to aircraft. God help you if you live in an average area, and you don't have the Dublin Airport Authority to go to bat for you.

So even if you were raised to respect and treat people for who they are as people, it is hard not to have your opinions coloured by your own experiences of them a group, if those experiences are largely negative. Were 95% of the halting site residents law abiding citizens, and it was the 5% who gave it a bad name? Or were the 95% gougers, and the 5% were law abiding citizens? I don't know. It's just sums to me. What I do know is that I would not want a halting site any where near me for love nor money.

Clareboy

Even wondered why in Ireland there are no roadside rest areas or picnic sites? Drivers on our motorways and main roads have no place to pull in and have a rest so many drivers fall asleep at the wheel with tragic consequences. The reason is that if we had roadside rest areas, the Travellers would take them over and turn them into filthy encampments. The usual spinless and gutless reaction of local councils is to put up boulders. The lack of roadside rest areas has without a doubt cost lives.

As regards Traveller housing, the day Travellers arrive in an area, that is the finish and the place will quickly go downhill.

shangri la

FinnLizzy wrote: »

Residents in Sligo village oppose construction of allotments that they believe are going to be used as Traveller homes Yes, another Traveller thread. But I wouldn't want a haulting site built right next to my estate, so I can sympathise. Also, the village in question is already raped with Celtic Tiger-esque ghost estates and empty retail buildings. As well as this disaster just down the road, so from a perspective that has nothing to do with travellers, I'm sure locals would be upset that more fields are being raped. So, do you think that the locals are handling this issue well? Or have they played the 'P*ss off travellers' card too quickly?

i dont think you are using raped correctly.

raped with ghost estates?

shangri la

charlemont wrote: »

Travelling folk, The greatest people in the world.

not from this side of the knife.

shangri la

Chuck Stone wrote: »

That's why the councils are trying to house Travellers in one off housing in the country but people are extremely hostile to this too.

free houses... Why?

shangri la

votecounts wrote: »

A lot of this is due to locals being greedy "oh no, this will knock more money off my house mentality". While forgetting that members of the settled community can be the biggest tools, criminals, bullys, etc Reaps of racism.

odds are...

FinnLizzy

shangri la wrote: »

i dont think you are using raped correctly.

raped with ghost estates?

The proposed allotments (based on all the other haulting sites and allotments for travellers around the country) would be just as bad of an idea as another ghost estate.

charlemont

shangri la wrote: »

not from this side of the knife.

Sarcasm, I was super trolling..It was a well known Limerick traveller John the Man who said it one night when I was present I nearly wet myself laughing.

I have been friends with a few travellers in my time so I tend to judge them individually but no a culture of robbing and scamming isn't nothing to to with ethnicity its downright thievery.

charlemont

Clareboy wrote: »

Even wondered why in Ireland there are no roadside rest areas or picnic sites? Drivers on our motorways and main roads have no place to pull in and have a rest so many drivers fall asleep at the wheel with tragic consequences. The reason is that if we had roadside rest areas, the Travellers would take them over and turn them into filthy encampments. The usual spinless and gutless reaction of local councils is to put up boulders. The lack of roadside rest areas has without a doubt cost lives.

As regards Traveller housing, the day Travellers arrive in an area, that is the finish and the place will quickly go downhill.

A new neighbour moved up to the slum two weeks ago, A big fat red headed drunken traveller. First time I saw him he was locked out of his flat, He was also locked drunk and somebody in the building was throwing empty milk cartons out of a window at him, He spent the rest of the evening drinking in a garden with two lads one of whom was a heroin addict.

The funniest sight of the year so far above was when we spotted him the next day strutting up the road topless with his hairy gut hanging out, A fairly nice slim girl strapped to him like he was Brad Pitt and the customary 2 litre of Linden Village in the hand, We were in knots laughing.

Unavailable for Comment

The vast majority of travellers are not content simply to use their houses the way settled people use theirs. Instead they use them for everything.

Their garden is the equivalent of a settled person's spare bedroom. A feud between families can send normally docile and settled travellers scampering to avoid the predatory attentions of other families. These disturbed people usually seek refuge on other halting sites cramming onto gardens and pavement verges and ensuring sites are filled above capacity. Waste collection and groundwater services suffer as they are not designed for this increased demand leading to general filth and littering.

The house itself and the surrounding area becomes their place of business. Unfortunately these trades can be in scrap or animal breeding or car breaking or tarmacking. The levels of junk and rubbish familiar to anyone who has ever seen a halting site is usually as a result of their "businesses".

School attendance amongst travellers is disgraceful. This leads to gangs of young travellers able to get into mischief at any old time. Even a cursory visit to the Children's Court attests to a severe and endemic lack of parental guidance and supervision.

Travellers are never afraid to call discrimination if they think for one moment their rights are infringed. However if they were treated the same way local authorities treat settled people there would be very, very few halting sites that didn't have some manner of enforcement order against them.

A mature society must be able to look to its achievements with something approaching pride to decide if its culture is worth protecting. I absolutely fail to see where the travellers enormous achievements in the fields of gender discrimination, high mortality, crime, unemployment and lack of education are worthy of any settled person's or governmental support.

Spread

Travellers use the system and have been subsumed by the victim culture. The social workers, pseudo intellectuals and liberals that espouse their cause do not have these people as neighbours. If they had a family next door they would soon STFU. Living in a society means that you should live by the law ......... not pick and choose what suits you. If travellers cleaned up their act and integrated they would find that settled people would have no problem with them. But then, they would have to contribute to the same society and not just take all they can get. In more lucid moments, do they ever try to understand why they are shunned? After all, we were all travellers once.

Nok1a

Clareboy wrote: »

Even wondered why in Ireland there are no roadside rest areas or picnic sites? Drivers on our motorways and main roads have no place to pull in and have a rest so many drivers fall asleep at the wheel with tragic consequences. The reason is that if we had roadside rest areas, the Travellers would take them over and turn them into filthy encampments. The usual spinless and gutless reaction of local councils is to put up boulders. The lack of roadside rest areas has without a doubt cost .

Do you work for the daily mail? You are blaming travellers for all the non existent sleep deprived deaths on our motorways?

Ireland is the only country in europe that has roadside rest areas dotted along their motorways, the are a death trap and go against common sense

spank_inferno

Nok1a wrote: »

You are blaming travellers for all the non existent sleep deprived deaths on our motorways?

Ireland is the only country in europe that has roadside rest areas dotted along their motorways, the are a death trap and go against common sense

You have obviously never driven in any country outside Ireland.
Frankly the above post is stupid.
Many countries have rest areas along side their primary roads, I have used same in both France & Germany in the last two years.

To back up the poster, the N11 had a rest area at Newtownmountkennedy.
Soon afterwards it was occupied and destroyed by travellers.
The area was closed off, and never reopened.
I know, I had the misfortune of living close by.

shangri la

Where are the travellers defending their culture?

markesmith

Traveller culture does seem to be a classic case of it being all about their 'rights' and not at all about their 'responsibilities'. When you see all the normally level-headed Boardsies speaking honestly about their experiences with Travellers, you can tell that this is a really divisive issue.

shangri la

I was thinking it may be a case that the RSPCA under garda protection need to confiscate every neglected animal at the fairs but how many would be put down?

shangri la

We have seen all the well known problems in the tread. We have all had negative experiences with travellers. The country is fed up.

What are the solutions?

shangri la

Any figures for male travellers with a charge in ireland?

juan.kerr

They should be ashamed of themselves.

doctor evil

shangri la wrote: »

I was thinking it may be a case that the RSPCA under garda protection need to confiscate every neglected animal at the fairs but how many would be put down?

No such thing as the RSPCA in Ireland thank goodness.