Yesterday
The Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre, North Great Charles Street Dublin 1
John Connors, Christy Moore and Bressie helped launch a position paper on Traveller Men’s Health. Research shows that men in the Travelling community suffer more from depression, low self-esteem and discrimination.
The Pavee Point organisation wants a national strategy to address the suicide rate among the male Travelling community, which is almost seven times the national average.
Research published a decade ago showed Traveller men’s lives were 15 years shorter that the overall male population in Ireland. Pavee Point says there is nothing to suggest that has changed.
Call for strategy to address male Traveller mental health (RTÉ)
Meanwhile….
The Traveller advocacy group Pavee Point has welcomed the news that Taoiseach Enda Kenny has resolved to support the recognition of Traveller ethnicity.
Mr Kenny said on Wednesday that the Government would begin taking steps towards the recognition of Traveller ethnicity in the new year.
The Taoiseach said he had asked Minister of State at the Department of Justice David Stanton to prepare a report for the social affairs committee on the question of recognising Traveller ethnicity. The report is expected in a few weeks.
In fairness.
Pavee Point welcomes recognition of Traveller ethnicity (irish Times)
Rollingnews
If you’ve nothing good to say then just nothing.
First of all, I don’t believe Travellers are a separate ethnic group. I think this is a pointless process which will enshrine their sense of victimhood.
Second, on the mental health side, the suicide rate for male travellers is truly appalling. The press I read stressed poor facilities and infrastructure as causes but completely ignored factors internal to travellers and their families such as social attitudes. This is a common theme whereby many travelers and their representative groups solely blame external factors for their misfortunes. The external factors are definitely there and certainly impact significantly but internal factors need to be faced up to by the Travelling Community too.
100% on point.
Thats just racist. Victim blaming. And probably a dose of mansplaining in there as well.
Once someone uses the idiotic term “mansplaining” you know a reasonable debate with them is impossible.
Wow, provocative and edgy sarcasm on a post about suicide! What base human behaviour will be revealed by this daring display of nastiness? Stay tuned!
This is a great initiative and lovely to see Christy Moore a prime example of a man taking care of himself
+1.
Does Christy have a problem with his digestive system?
There is an alternative view. Perhaps discrimination against Travellers, their disproportionately poor health and life expectancy and high levels of criminality are more likely to be resolved if they are fully integrated into mainstream society, rather than hived off into a separate “ethnicity”?
I would like to understand what practical changes would ethnicity make in the challenges faced by Travellers?
There used to be a symbiotic relationship fro travelling agricultural workers throughout the seasons, bringing news and stories from other parts of the country as well as tin smithing.
We don’t have that kind of society anymore, so how is that life to adapt to 21st century?
The answer seems to be “because” and little else.
Might Kenny refer the issue of traveller ethnicity to the Citizen’s Assembly?
Hello, hello,
I’m at a place called Vertigo.
Not only that, I’m in the wrong thread :D
You’re alright, pet. Shall I fetch you some cocoa and a blankie?
Those bloody stairs had me all at sixes and sevens.
Well this is awkward.
Travellers protest in Mayo after Syrian refugee family accommodated in local authority house.
Story on The Journal but no comments are allowed because it’s ok for travellers to be racist.
I’m gonna guess that careful consideration told them that the racism of the Travellers would be dwarfed by the racism of the comments. Doubled, in the cases of racists who hate Travelers AND refugees. Who needs that noise?
+1