That Seemed To Go Well

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Presidential candidate Peter Casey

Peter Casey: “I don’t believe travellers should be given special status. I mean why should they be given special status over and above yourself or myself. You know?”

Kevin Doyle: “They are seen as a minority ethnicity.”

Peter Casey: “That’s a load of nonsense. You know. They’re not Romaning, Romanie, whatever, they’re not from Romany area.

They’re basically people that are camping on somebody else’s land. Imagine the poor farmer whose land that they camped on, you know, and who’d buy the land from him?

The neighbours in the houses all around, do you think they’re going, ‘this is great for my property value because I’ve now got three dozen caravans down the road’, you know. It’s just wrong, you know.

Somebody needs to sit up and say this is nonsense. And here we are are giving them luxurious houses and they’re turning them down because they want stables but they know that nobody else will move into the house, you see.

Can you imagine the brave person that would go, in Dublin that would go ‘I’d love a lovely four-bedroom house with solar panels and beautifully kitted-out kitchens’?’

Do you think they’d move in past all the travellers that are sitting out there waiting, watching them…not going to happen. They’re afraid of them.”

Presidential hopeful Peter Casey, speaking to Kevin Doyle of the Irish Independent on the paper’s podcast, ‘The Floating Voter’.

Good times

LISTEN: Presidential candidate Peter Casey believes Travellers should not be recognised as an ethnic minority (Independent.ie)

Previously: ‘What Are You Talking About?’

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96 thoughts on “That Seemed To Go Well

  1. kellMA

    This could swing it for him…not. The irony is that in amongst the appalling ignorance and misjudged lack of correct definition etc. (that is not good enough to waffle incomprehensibly as a potential president – hello Trump) there are some valid points. But no, just no.

    1. JD

      Double it to 4% although even in the 2% he has, there will be people who are offended by what he said so I suspect the net gain will be limited.

    1. Nigel

      Must do, otherwise why bring it up? It isn’t a burning issue to anyone who isn’t a Traveller except to people who can’t stand them Travellers getting notions.

      1. Rob_G

        I don’t agree with the manner in which he made his point – but he is dead right. We live in a republic – there should be no ‘special status’ conferred on anyone on the basis of their birth, other than ‘citizen’.

        And the example of Travellers turning down large homes because they were not provided with stables for their horses is not hyperbole – it happened in Tipperary in the past two weeks.

  2. Anomanomanom

    He’s got my vote for that. At last a political hopeful that actually has the balls to say what the vast majority think but wont say.

      1. Anomanomanom

        nothing ignorant about it. Travellers history with Animal, sorry their “traditional” cultural attitude to horse’s especially is one of the reason I dislike them. You show your own ignorant mentally by just assuming people dislike them for no reason.

        1. Nigel

          Pity you don’t care more about the Irish cultural attitude to Travellers, I’m sure there are lots of reasons for historically treating them worse than Travellers are supposed to treat their horses, but they’re only people, after all, not horses.

          1. Anomanomanom

            So by your logic if I was say to leave a dog dying in the street after working it to death or running it in front of a car or dog fighting and people disliked me for it. Assuming its not a one off, which with travellers its not, people should just say ” its grand, because its only a dog and we shouldn’t people for doing that because people are more important than dogs”‘. I really hope you have no animals or children.

          2. Anomanomanom

            I’m assuming your playing stupid. Because you don’t normally seem that stupid. You, like evey other person in this country knows why travellers are thought of how they are. I could name the reasons but for some strange reason BS seem to censor/take down posts with the real reasons given for disliking travellers.

          3. Nigel

            No. I’ve called the Guards and the ISPCA a few times at poor treatment of horses by people who could have been travellers, could have been settled, hard to be sure. You don’t decide a whole sub-group of people are inherently bad or worthless because of it, and you don’t justify a century of hostile government policy that has targeted that group of people and pretend that the current state of and treatment of travellers has nothing to do with it.

          4. Anomanomanom

            Personally responsibility, they cant scream and shout about how their treated by “settled” people but refuse to look at the reasons. We all know the reasons, stop pretending you don’t.

          5. Nigel

            ‘Personal responsibility’ isn’t a magic spell you can chant to make problems go away, though it does help dig a nice head-sized hole in the sand.

  3. The revolution will not be televised

    Looks thick as, sounds thick as, is thick as.
    Imagine having to listen to that dose for seven years.

      1. Rob_G

        I think that, if you were not a Traveller, and you asked the county council to build a housing development for you and all of your extended family, who would probably told to take a running junmp for yourself.

        1. Brother Barnabas

          id say you’re well aware, rob, that this doesn’t generally happen for travellers either

          if you’re referring to the six houses in cabragh bridge, it’s worth noting that this traveller family has been on the waiting list for 54 years (yes, 54 years). hardly special treatment.

          1. Rob_G

            When people on this site suggest that the state should build social housing, this illustrates one reason why it maybe shouldn’t (and this is nothing to do with the fact that they example concerns Travellers):
            – why on earth did the members of this family not spend any of the intervening 54 years accessing the various education and social supports, and get jobs to earn money to buy their own houses? Sitting around for 54 years, demanding the state provides you with bespoke housing, and then turning up your nose at it because it doesn’t have space for horses, is absolutely ridiculous – entitlement culture at its very worst.

          2. Brother Barnabas

            you’ve switched from whether travellers get preferential treatment to whether the state should be providing social housing

          3. Andrew

            Conferring travellers the status of ‘ethnic minority’ is infantilising them and does more to keep them where they are. It’s wrong headed and counter productive.

          4. Rob_G

            I think I have already demonstrated the preferential treatment with the ‘housing estate for extended family’ point.

            Why would anyone work to improve their situation if they have a state-subsidised ‘forever home’ – social housing should be provided on a 3- or 5-year lease and reassessed then, otherwise you will generate a culture of dependence (as has been demonstrated in the case of Mme. Cash, as well as countless others).

      2. Nigel

        The special status of being treated like a bunch of lying, cheating, disease-carrying animals by successive Irish governments. But now we hate them because some of them treat their own animals badly and they have the cheek to ask for stuff from the same government. Such a special status that their suicide rates are catastrophic.

        1. Anomanomanom

          You’ve left the other reasons. Destruction of the area they decide they now own until actually forced out, oh and with no comeback for the owner or surrounding people when the just leave their destruction behind, numerous criminal activity. I could go on.

          1. Nigel

            These are social problems that need to be addressed but it’s funny how treating a group of people like pariahs doesn’t make them like you back or in any way come close to solving those problems.

  4. The revolution will not be televised

    I listened to the rest of that interview and now my ears are bleeding. Wojus stuff.

      1. The revolution will not be televised

        Yes! All that crap about buying houses and castles and not telling his wife – ffs. And then that nonsense about his kids driving and the ensuing lawsuits. He’s making an absolute spectacle of himself. And also, the inappropriate maniacal laughter throughout

        1. Brother Barnabas

          yeah – the joke about how bad a driver one of his kids is and the time he knocked someone down was a proper what-the-fupp moment

    1. Bertie Blenkinsop

      Just to be clear Ollie.
      We don’t dislike you because you’re English.
      We dislike you because you’re a poxbottle.
      Hope this helps.

      1. Anomanomanom

        Well Ollie irish born could be people from an immigrant family, I’ve no problem with that by the way, so the traditional Irish hospitality of course gets diluted as more and more (for use of a better word) non traditional irish families are here that don’t have the same values as us.

          1. Brother Barnabas

            have we had today’s brexitwatch yet, big guy? can we add this:

            #Britain will face £36 billion Brexit bill if it fails to agree a trade deal with EU, Chancellor warns MPs#

            “Britain will still have to pay the EU up to £36 billion if it fails to agree a trade deal, Philip Hammond has claimed, as Brussels said no deal is now “more likely than ever”.

            The Chancellor told Cabinet ministers the UK would be unlikely to win any legal battle to withhold large chunks of the Brexit bill, despite previous Government promises that the payment was conditional on a deal.”

            https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/10/16/britain-will-face-36-billion-bill-fails-agree-trade-deal-eu/

          2. Anomanomanom

            That headline you put up said “less welcoming” not racist. You said racist, I was talking about being welcoming.

          3. Ollie Cromwell

            Other cabinet ministers have put the figure much lower at around £17billion – these are existing obligations which Blighty has always said would be paid.
            Hammond’s doom-mongering and Project Fear 2:0 have made him a figure of much ridicule so I’d take what he says with a pinch of salt.
            Anyway,good to see you’re a Telegraph reader.Perhaps you saw the piece this week by Simon Wolfson,CEO of fashion chain NEXT which shifts around £4billion stock around the globe.
            He says ” The no-deal ‘economic Armageddon’ is a myth – big businesses like mine will be just fine. ”
            Marvellous.

          4. Ollie Cromwell

            Have you ever thought of going home early from O’Sheas instead of boring all the other expats with your Wolfe Tone songs ?

          5. Ollie Cromwell

            Sweating buckets in your nylon GAA shirt and the only person in the bar wearing a ginger wig over his real ginger hair.

    2. Jeffrey

      You should get out more. Maybe look closer to home for this – Brexit was backed in part for the border policies.

    3. CoderNerd

      Ollie says Ireland is racist.
      Ollie who, for the past week, has been referring to everyone on this island as “Paddy”.
      The children are right to laugh at you.

          1. Ollie Cromwell

            Not me guv.
            I reckon women are smarter than men by a country mile.
            Smart and attractive with just the occasional excessive amount of make-up is how I view Irish fillies.

  5. Worlds Biggest Ranter

    Its not his comments, a lot of people think exactly what he said is true, it was more the contempt with which he said it. Modern Traveller culture is victim culture and they’ve no intention of adjusting that narrative other wise they’d have to take responsibility for their actions. No gravy in that. The most marginalised within the the Traveller community itself are just like any other marginalised people in society. That they’re marginalised and Travelers is irrelevant. Playing on that is very cynical indeed. Not allowed say that out loud. Do gooders box all negative comments as discrimination.

    1. The revolution will not be televised

      Who cares what a lot of people think? A lot of people thought slavery was okay.

      There’s always a reason for everything and the ‘victim culture’ as you call it, may be there because of past and present prejudices. People don’t develop a victim mentality for no good reason. When victims are allowed heal, collectively in this instance, then their dignity may be restored.

      And what do you mean by ‘not allowed to say that out loud’? You have said it out loud and people do say it all the time, which is the point of this article.

      1. Worlds Biggest Ranter

        You’ve assumed all (Travellers) are one. They’re not. There are marginalised Travellers just like there are settled marginalised people. Both are marginalised. The difference between both cultures now is that the Traveller community continue the victim narrative irrespective of their current standing or wealth within a community. To shake the victim status would be a tremendous hit to their often over looked immunity to their frequent transgressions. They regularly discredit true Traveller culture with their flagrant use of the term “ethnic status” which they abuse ad nauseam. Racing horses to death is not culture, its criminal and so on and so on. If a settled person does this its not culture, its just that they’re c%^&s

        1. Nigel

          Continuing the ‘victim narrative’ is inconvenient because it is true that they have been victims of atrocious and hostile government policies. Why should they be obliged to give that up just because you don;t like it? It’s true, regardless of how well-off individual Travellers might be. There’s no denying that Traveller life is full of dysfunction, criminality and anti-social behaviours affecting them and people who have bad experiences and encounters with them. That’s not a reason to despise Travellers, that’s just describing the problem. This special ethnic status that inspires so much resentment is poor enough consolation for being the one group of people in this country it’s okay to treat badly.

          1. Nigel

            You really should look up how successive Irish governments have treated Travellers since the foundation of the state.

  6. ReproButina

    Irish Times opinion poll:
    MDH – 66%
    SG – 12%
    LNR – 11%
    JF – 5%
    GD – 4%
    PC – 2%

    Poll taken Wednesday, Thursday & Friday of last week so the impact of the Claire Byrne debate and PC’s embarrassing interview won’t be included.

    1. Cian

      If this is reflected in the election, MDH would be elected on the first round, and none of the others would get money towards their expenses.

  7. Joan Burton

    Travelers are an anachronism , their way of life is long gone and it should be up to the tax payer to fund them pretending to keep it up.

    They can assimilate into mainstream culture and still keep their traditions alive , look at any of immigrant communities and how they do this . Africa day is a great advert for this, all our new African-Irish citizens keeping traditions alive while in this country and working, contributing to their communities and educating their children.

    Travelers can be and ethic minority but should not be allowed separate themselves from society to keep a long gone way of life falsely alive.

    1. Nigel

      We’ve almost stamped out the Traveller way of life, and since the results have been so obviously awesome and beneficial, let’s just keep stamping!

      1. Worlds Biggest Ranter

        Celtic ways of life died out, Druid ways of life, Normans ways of life died out, Vikings way of life died on. Need I go on. Sone day in the distant future the irish way of life will die out. Such is life.

        1. Nigel

          Some ways of life were destroyed through violent action. Some ways of life peacefully became absorbed into the dominant culture such that it might look as though they died out. Guess which approach to Traveller culture Irish society took? You can take the long view historically about all of those things. Being amoral about something that has happened and continues to happen within your lifetime and by your government is another thing entirely.

          1. Worlds Biggest Ranter

            No you’re right. The modern day Traveller was created by past governments and their problems have being exacerbated by our current political classes. On that I don’t disagree. That there are clearly disenfranchised people within that community I do not disagree. It is the fact that the said culture being proclaimed today as “theirs” isn’t remotely representative of the supposedly lost culture of old. True it might well be lost through no fault of their own and it’s death expedited by the government of the state back in time. That’s irrelevant now though. Time moves on. Keep your culture, your heritage,your beliefs alive. Nobody objects to that.

            You see pretty much everyone wants that irrespective of their background. The simple facts are many people of marginalised, ethically different backgrounds have arrived in this country over the last few decades and soared past the Traveller community, not because they were shown preferential treatment (often they were as discriminated against if not more discriminated against) but because they the took the opportunities available to them on this island and took responsibility for their own progression, culture or no culture. If we blame the state for those left behind do we hold them up high as bastions of opportunity for those other marginalised people who made it! Cant have it both ways. Anyway.

  8. Bort

    Based on my personal experience with travelers, at school, working in various shops, in a couple of sports clubs, living near them I can tell you, in my opinion they have nothing but disdain and contempt for my way of life as a settled person. They don’t respect private property, shared public spaces, rules of the road. They think us settled people are a joke. This is unfortunately just my own personal experience, my property and the property of my employers brazenly stolen, threats of violence, my boxing club trashed and members cars thrashed, GAA club facilities thrashed, fighting outside the school among adults, had the local pub thrashed, my neighborhood green areas thrashed, witnessed animal cruelty, kids driving around in old wrecked cars. Still I actually have nothing against them, I’ve never said boo to one, I’ve got to know a few over the years, sound lads but they still would think we’re suckers. I can tell you though I don’t believe they deserve any special treatment as an ethnic minority.

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