Michael Higgins Praises Travellers Contribution to Irish Society

The bad news about them out ways the good positive news when there is any

Because whatever the issue is, is not part of their culture if it’s not unique to their culture. Is that an unreasonable point of view?

Of course there are plenty of problems within the traveller community, and pointing fingers at them as if the very same problems don’t exist outside of their community, and ascribing it to “their culture” based upon one’s own beliefs, isn’t addressing the issue, it’s simply attempting to justify one’s own prejudices.

I agree with you that it’s the scale and size of the issue that matters, but what doesn’t address the issue is pretending it’s because of their identity that the issue is more prevalent in their communities than it is outside of their community. That’s why I suggest anyone who wishes to address an issue start a lot closer to home, before they point fingers at other people.

(and for the love of God don’t wear the ears off anyone preaching about ‘toxic masculinity’ and ‘misogyny’ in any culture, because anyone doing that is making it entirely about themselves and their own ideological perspective)

Can't decide whether I'd give you a like for that comment.Thought provoking comment.

No one has a problem with their honour culture. It's the robbing, thriving anti social culture that is pervasive in their community that is the issue here.

Everything about travellers, is about how the rest of society is wrong, how we need to accommodate them. The likes of miggeldy never tell travellers that this has to be a two way street, you need to give respect to get respect.

Remove the robbing thieving anti social state dependent and misogynistic elements from that culture and the vast vast majority of people wouldn't have a problem with them.

yes they would.

those who have a problem with all of them just because traveler would find other excuses to have an issue with them, such people aren't actually bothered about those issues as i said, they just use them to traveler bash.

Indeed the four times electoral failure did opportunistically give voice to some rotten attitudes that exist but thankfully there were more than enough decent people to ensure the one-trick pony was shown the door, good riddance.

Gilmartin road in the news again for all the wrong reasons, says a lot about them that 2 funerals can't be held on the same day without them flaking each other.

If any of ye saw the Whatsapp videos nothing more needs to be said.

Sick people in A&E probably had to wait longer because those scumbags were there taking up doctors time fixing them up.

What kind of a bizarre statement is that? Travellers, like any group in society are only unpopular with a tiny minority of the population. Everyone else has greater concerns than people who have no impact on their daily lives whatsoever. Were it not for media types trying to sell newspapers and clicks, there wouldn’t be anything for them to write about, and travellers make as good fodder for generating a bit of outrage as any other groups.

A tiny minority of people having issues with travellers (and if it isn’t travellers it’s another group, for… reasons!), doesn’t represent Irish society as a whole, and certainly isn’t any indication that people’s ignorance is well-founded upon anything other than looking for reasons to demonise travellers, precisely because they’re travellers.

Travellers were granted special status on the back of studies showing their general unpopularity across society. Something can be both disliked and not take up much mental space. I don't like chocolate flavored ice-cream but I don't spend every waking hour thinking about it.

Prejudices against travellers are real, it's the "why" that's never investigated. Anecdotally, sadly, it's usually lived negative experiences.

Not to be nitpicking or anything but it’s an important distinction - travellers weren’t granted any special status, their status as an ethnic minority was recognised and deemed worthy of protection in law in order to protect people from unlawful discrimination on the basis of their membership of the traveller community. It’s no different than any of the other grounds of protected characteristics which applies to everyone in Irish society equally.

And as for prejudice, well by definition it exists entirely in one’s imagination. Discrimination on the other hand, is the manifestation of that prejudice, and it’s only a tiny number of people who’s heads are occupied by every opportunity available to them to take a potshot at travellers. The latest ones a doozy, with not just one, but THREE threads started in CA alone to function as an outlet for all sorts of shyte, and very little about the actual incident itself.

Anecdotally, do you reckon you might be more attuned to anecdotes which confirm your prejudices about travellers? It’s natural that you would be more attuned to stories which confirm your biases, and those that don’t, well you’ll find an angle some way to portray yourself as the REAL victim, somehow, in order to justify your beliefs.