Channel 4's fascination with travellers?

CB19Kevo

What's with Channel 4 showing so many programs about Irish traveller's.
There's no culture being shown.
Its just projecting a negative light of traveller's and this country.

kfallon

Knuckle was shown on BBC4 last week

Sauve

Demand + Supply

Cookie_Monster

CB19Kevo wrote: »

What's with Channel 4 showing so many programs about Irish traveller's.

it's car crash tv, so bad you actually want to watch it.

CB19Kevo wrote: »

There's no culture being shown.
Its just projecting a negative light of traveller's and this country.

is there anything positive they can show?

CB19Kevo

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

it's car crash tv, so bad you actually want to watch it.



is there anything positive they can show?

I cant think of anything positive but i don't think the producers spend much time looking for positives.
Suprised Pavee point are not making issue of these shows as it really just shows travellers in a terrible way (albeit i have my own opinions based on personal experience).

Praetorian Saighdiuir

Sexy traveller women.......................just dont speak!!

squod

CB19Kevo wrote: »

What's with Channel 4 showing so many programs about Irish traveller's.
There's no culture being shown.
Its just projecting a negative light of traveller's and this country.

I remember when C4 showed bewbs after 9 o'clock.

MrStuffins

CB19Kevo wrote: »

What's with Channel 4 showing so many programs about Irish traveller's.
There's no culture being shown.
Its just projecting a negative light of traveller's and this country.

This country?

All of the travellers in the show are travellers in England.

Galwayguy35

CB19Kevo wrote: »

What's with Channel 4 showing so many programs about Irish traveller's.
There's no culture being shown.
Its just projecting a negative light of traveller's and this country.

Nope, it's just showing them as they are.
And I should know as I see them every day.

CB19Kevo

MrStuffins wrote: »

This country?

All of the travellers in the show are travellers in England.

Based in England but many were born in Ireland or are regular back and would consider themselves Irish travellers.

leggo

I'd agree that it's a bit of a perverse fascination but, to be fair, I saw a bit of BFGW last week and the eviction scene was quite powerful in itself. Very fair on both sides, showing their unkempt nature but also how heartless settled society can be towards them. I'm not a BFGW fan, so I wouldn't see much of it, but that was the first genuinely insightful thing I've ever seen on the show.

MrStuffins

CB19Kevo wrote: »

Based in England but many were born in Ireland or are regular back and would consider themselves Irish travellers.

If you think that a C4 show showing gypsy travellers who live in England, some of which describe themselves as "Irish" is a reflection of Republic of Ireland as a country then i'm surprised you had the mental capacity to even type the words to start this thread!

Yamanoto

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

Nope, it's just showing them as they are.
And I should know as I see them every day.

Like the Sixth Sense, but more disconcerting.

Chuck Stone

People want to watch.
Sell advertising in the gaps.
???????
Profit.

Galwayguy35

It made Paddy " you can call me an Irish **** but don't call me a ***** " Doherty a rich man.

leggo

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

Nope, it's just showing them as they are.
And I should know as I see them every day.

I've had hundreds of run-ins with travellers in my day job, not just seeing them, actually having to deal with them regularly. And I remember in Henry McKean's documentary, 'The Truth About Travellers', where one spoke of how the way society treated them brought the knacker out in them. There's something in that.

I'll also say, categorically, that the mass majority of travellers I've dealt with haven't caused any trouble whatsoever. Some are absolute scum but it's legitimate that some bad eggs ruin it for the rest. Others also are provoked into causing trouble, as mentioned above.

CB19Kevo

MrStuffins wrote: »

If you think that a C4 show showing gypsy travellers who live in England, some of which describe themselves as "Irish" is a reflection of Republic of Ireland as a country then i'm surprised you had the mental capacity to even type the words to start this thread!

''Some '' you say ?
I stated ''many'' in my post because if i stated that all considered themselves to be Irish it would be an assumption by me..
However MANY of the persons shown speak in a Irish accent.
Also there is many Irish reg plates visible in the halting sites shown aswell as references made to back home in Ireland..

Cienciano

In all the traveller shows they have, they never seem to show the men out working. I'd love if they let a camera crew follow a group of lads going doing peoples driveways and gutters.

Galwayguy35

leggo wrote: »

I've had hundreds of run-ins with travellers in my day job, not just seeing them, actually having to deal with them regularly. And I remember in Henry McKean's documentary, 'The Truth About Travellers', where one spoke of how the way society treated them brought the knacker out in them. There's something in that.

I'll also say, categorically, that the mass majority of travellers I've dealt with haven't caused any trouble whatsoever. Some are absolute scum but it's legitimate that some bad eggs ruin it for the rest. Others also are provoked into causing trouble, as mentioned above.

You know I hear this alot how society treats them and it grinds my gears tbh.
Here in Galway the councils bend over backwards to help them, for very little thanks.

bluecode

That's because all the 'right on' Channel four people have never had to deal with these neanderthals on a day to day basis. In a typical English way they find them amusing and typical Irish.

For the most part, they never saw them as they are. Thieves, drunks, chancers and burdens on the state.

In all seriousness, is there anyone in this country who hasn't had a nasty experience with these, half civilised chancers?

Rasheed

CB19Kevo wrote: »

There's no culture being shown.
Its just projecting a negative light of traveller's and this country.

I don't agree with you here at all. I always thought it showed them fairly positively, which is no easy job.

Galwayguy35

Cienciano wrote: »

In all the traveller shows they have, they never seem to show the men out working. I'd love if they let a camera crew follow a group of lads going doing peoples driveways and gutters.

You might be waiting a while for that film footage.

The Very Hungry Catterpillar

It's not very complicated really - they make shows which lots and lots of people enjoy to maximise advertising revenue = profit. So you see they don't really have a fascination with travellers, they have a fascination with making money and travellers make them money, simple if you think logically about it.

Cee-Jay-Cee

I too deal with them on a regular basis, they have no respect for anyone not even themselves. The vast majority are involved in crime and that includes women and children. They whine about their culture but in reality they have no culture, their culture died years ago with older travelers who were tradespeople and travelled from town to town and earned their living. The travelers of today travelled about and thieve, rob and cause trouble in the vast majority of cases.
There are some very decent travelers but they are few and far between.
If they willingly subject themselves to ridicule by appearing on C4 programmes, then who cares?
And lastly, travelers were once the poorest in society, that has now reversed, they are extremely well off, they pay for nothing, get all sorts of hand outs and yet still cry about being disadvantaged and poor. There isno such thing as a poor traveller anymore, naturally they'll not tell you or me that but how many law abiding citizens do you know of that can change their cars/vans every few years and buy them outright for cash? I certainly can't.

CB19Kevo

The Very Hungry Catterpillar wrote: »

It's not very complicated really - they make shows which lots and lots of people enjoy to maximise advertising revenue = profit. So you see they don't really have a fascination with travellers, they have a fascination with making money and travellers make them money, simple if you think logically about it.

Yes clearly there seems to be an audience for this type of program and this is not what i am focused at.
It just seems unfortunate and damaging to traveller's to have these programs shown..

dd972

As if the English don't have enough chavs, white trash or romani gypsys of their own to make tv series about

Irish travellers are in abundance in soft touch Britain because they can pull the sort of stunts that they wouldn't get away with in a small country like Ireland. It gets on your nerves when the British regard them as rank and file Irish which they are not.

uch

As of yet nobody has mentioned, PICS or gtfo

uch

dd972 wrote: »

As if the English don't have enough chavs, white trash or romani gypsys of their own to make tv series about

Irish travellers are in abundance in soft touch Britain because they can pull the sort of stunts that they wouldn't get away with in a small country like Ireland. It gets on your nerves when the British regard them as rank and file Irish which they are not.

What makes you think they're not? Because they live in England ?

dd972

No. living in England has nothing to do with it, it's the inability of many dimwitted English people to distinguish them from normal rank and file Irish folk, either resident in England or Ireland.

ArtSmart

It's standard Barnum principle. They'll find a new 'freak' show and move on to that soon. and yes, i have heard some English refer to the travellers as Irish, irrespective of their accents or birth place. and like any group, there's good n bad, in exactly the same proportions. the only major diff is levels of education amongst travellers, which is lower than average (AFAI remember) and so might incline some of them to be televised in this manner. but then again, those 'Real Dublin Wives' or whatever it was called, have no fuking excuse.

MrStuffins

dd972 wrote: »

No. living in England has nothing to do with it, it's the inability of many dimwitted English people to distinguish them from normal rank and file Irish folk, either resident in England or Ireland.

You don't give English people a lot of credit for being smart do you?

Nobody worth listening lacks the ability to distinguish between both sets of people!

leggo

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

You know I hear this alot how society treats them and it grinds my gears tbh.
Here in Galway the councils bend over backwards to help them, for very little thanks.

You say that as if they shouldn't be afforded any assistance or tolerance, or as if the actions of a scummy minority who cause problems mean that their entire civilisation should be denied certain rights. You know they used to think that about black people...

As someone who (I'm willing to bet good money) has probably had far more trouble with travellers than many who comment on them, I can tell you that my experience has taught me that most just want to get by, stick to themselves and not be bothered.

Yet as soon as a security guard, like me, hears an accent we are on high alert and they receive a lot of undue harassment from poorly trained workers in my industry. They are widely approached with a 'guilty until proven innocent' attitude. So, when you treat people that way en masse, it pushes them to eventually act a certain way. It's a self-fulfilling prophesy and it begins with our own misguided attitudes towards them, and the treatment of the majority based on the actions of a minority. I don't hate travellers, I hate criminals and scumbags. A does not necessarily equal B.

Galwayguy35

leggo wrote: »

You say that as if they shouldn't be afforded any assistance or tolerance, or as if the actions of a scummy minority who cause problems mean that their entire civilisation should be denied certain rights. You know they used to think that about black people...

As someone who (I'm willing to bet good money) has probably had far more trouble with travellers than many who comment on them, I can tell you that my experience has taught me that most just want to get by, stick to themselves and not be bothered.

Yet as soon as a security guard, like me, hears an accent we are on high alert and they receive a lot of undue harassment from poorly trained workers in my industry. They are widely approached with a 'guilty until proven innocent' attitude. So, when you treat people that way en masse, it pushes them to eventually act a certain way. It's a self-fulfilling prophesy and it begins with our own misguided attitudes towards them, and the treatment of the majority based on the actions of a minority. I don't hate travellers, I hate criminals and scumbags. A does not necessarily equal B.

You said it there yourself, they make no effort to mix with settled people, and quite a high percentage out of a population of maybe 40 or 50 thousand are involved in criminal activity.
They want to claim all benefits yet park a caravan where ever they feel like it.
Some of them are given council houses and proceed to wreck them.
Any traveller who does this should have their benefits cut off but it never happens as the council is afraid to take them to task.

Festy

bluecode wrote: »

That's because all the 'right on' Channel four people have never had to deal with these neanderthals on a day to day basis. In a typical English way they find them amusing and typical Irish.

For the most part, they never saw them as they are. Thieves, drunks, chancers and burdens on the state.

In all seriousness, is there anyone in this country who hasn't had a nasty experience with these, half civilised chancers?

Well said.

As for the travellers complaining about abuse and discrimination I don't know many settled people who go around looking for trouble of them,if anything we do everything we can to avoid them.Anytime I come across them I just completely ignore them.

RaRaRasputin

I watch these shows! Mainly because I knew Ireland had such people before I came here. It's quite amazing, a bit like a trip to the zoo....

Having watched some of the documentaries already paid out for me. Some days ago I went to some place to look at a house and spotted a traveller community right next to it, so I quickly locked the car doors and forgot about the house

I'd rather live next to a landfill site

Micky Dolenz

/abusive thread.