Romany

sinead81

schemingbohemia wrote: »

There are two Travller sisters who have been begging outside/near Marks & Spencer grafton street and clarendon street and also Dawson St for years. They always had the same line - "i'm very hungary (sic), can you spare a few quid" - never gave them anything anyway but saw them shopping in M&S buying all sorts of expensive stuff whilst I was only getting anything with a yellow discounted sticker on it!
We have our own indigenous professional beggars here too, it's not just Roma.

YES!!!! They are often on Wicklow street too. There is a new one on South William St/Wicklow St that whispers and people often have to go very close to her to hear what she is saying and she is looking for money. And by then you almost feel obliged to give a euro or 2. I had lunch on Coppinger row yesterday, outside, and we were harassed by a junkie with a can in his hand begging for money. We had 4 euro on our table and he wouldnt give up until I gave a big firm NO to him. He then walked down through the tables and took leftover food off the tables that hadnt been cleared yet. So intimidating. Strange that there is NEVER a roma gypsy begging around this area of South William St, Exchequer St, Wicklow St etc. It is all down to territory!

dubbie82

So what is the solution to the problem?
Tarring the whole group with one brush doesn't work. I know plenty of decent folk and they get abuse because of the actions of others.
I try to imagine what I would do if I was born into a roma family forced to beg. How can you break the circle, you grow up poor, probably with limited literacy skills and education, you are put on the street to beg from very early age. Then you are smuggled into a foreign country. If you are a girl you don't count for nothing anyway. You are out on the streets degrading yourself and the money you get you have to hand over to others.

A romanian friend of mine told me that the poor families sell themselves to traffickers and they get smuggled into other countries. They are forced to beg until they paid off the debt which can take them years, some of the young girls end up on brothels and if the authorites catch them they can't say who got them across the border because they are affraid that the rest of the family is killed in retaliation.

Other countries have the problem for years and still haven't found a solution and I don't think there is a straight answer.

sinead81

For the Roma people, I think part of the solution would be tighter immigration rules etc. For the Irish, I just don't know.....

I know one guy who was in a car accident, lost his legs and has no family to help him and he is living in a hostel and begs on the top of South William Street. He was in the hospital at the same time as my grandad so I recognised him and I asked him how he go to be sitting here begging and he said the HSE wouldn't provide him a place in the rehab clinic. So somewhere along the lines.... there is a broken link in this country! But he is just one guy, and has only started begging in the past few months, he had a full time job before his accident. What about the really bad junkies who are intimidating people as they walk up the streets minding their own business. I dont know, is there a solution? I would love to see something done about it. Moving them from the ATM's was the first step