Welcome to our website
‘The first journey creates the Traveller’
Irish Travellers are amongst the most socially excluded of groups in the UK. It is hard to be precise about the numbers of Irish Travellers as they are not monitored as a separate ethnic group in the national census data, but our estimate is between 20,000 – 30,000.
There are many social justice issues that present problems for the Traveller community, though the adequate provision of suitable stopping places is perhaps the overarching one. We estimate that 25% of Irish Travellers live in unauthorised or illegal encampments. This means that there is a shortfall of approximately 500-750 legal pitches forcing these Irish families into a cycle of forced evictions.
One of the knock-on effects of this accommodation gap is that too many Traveller children have their education disrupted, as they sporadically move from school to school. Access to health services also becomes difficult. Health surveys carried out amongst the community reveal shocking statistics – an Irish Traveller child is five times more likely to die than their settled counterpart, while Traveller women live on average 10 years less and Traveller men up to 13 years less than the national average.
Case Study: We were contacted by a community health worker, who was supporting a young Traveller man, Michael. Michael had just been discharged from hospital after a double amputation of his lower limbs. He was being cared for by his wife and they had four young children all under the age of six. The entire family were living in just one bedroom in a council BB. Michael needed constant care, and the family were struggling to cope. Although concerns had been raised with the council, the best that was on offer were two bedrooms in an unsuitable hostel. The health worker suspected that the family were being discriminated against because they were Travellers. Our project took up Michael’s case and advocated for him and his family, using contacts we had within the council. Our intervention ensured that the family were duly re-housed within a number of weeks. This example shows how our project is able to work at both a grassroots and strategic level to address social exclusion faced by many Irish Travellers.
What our Project Does
Our Traveller policy and outreach project, works at both a grassroots and strategic level. As a faith based project we hold a special place of trust within the Traveller community and ensure that they are involved in forming the solutions with public authorities. The type of support we offer includes:
• Dale Farm Traveller Site, Basildon – giving written evidence to the Judicial Review to help support the case of 60 Traveller families who are facing eviction.
• Lynton Close Traveller Site, Brent – supporting 30 Traveller families to negotiate new site management after a period of intense conflict.
• Appleby Fair, Cumbria –providing mediation to the local authority and police force that ensured safe staging of the event and proper community involvement in its planning.
• Diversity Training: Successfully delivering 7 Traveller culture training events to a range of police forces, local authorities and Church groups.
• Policy: On behalf of the Government (DCLG), we drafted good practice guidelines for mediation and conflict resolution in places where new Traveller sites are to be built based on our pilot work in Cottenham, Cambridgeshire.
• Traveller and Gypsy Accommodation Needs Assessments have now been completed by each Local Authority.Local authorities should now be identifying suitable places for new Traveller site development. This will no doubt bring inevitable objections and our role is to calm tensions between Traveller and settled communities so that sensible accommodation solutions can be negotiated.
‘Life for Irish Travellers is not easy and it never has been. Yet despite this they remain a fiercely proud people who have held true to their culture, heritage and their faith when lesser people would have buckled. Throughout my 15 years of working with the Traveller community, I am constantly humbled by their resilience and resourcefulness. They fight on to build a better future for their families, in the face of all sorts of hardships and setbacks.’
(Fr Joe Browne, Project Manager)
The Irish Chaplaincy in Britain has embarked on a groundbreaking project to explore the situation and experiences of Irish Travellers in the prison system. The aim of the research project is to improve the conditions of Irish Travellers in prison and their families by highlighting the specific hardships faced by this section of our community.
The Irish Chaplaincy in Britain is aware through its work that Irish Traveller prisoners face additional challenges to those facing the rest of the prison population. We have serious concerns based on anecdotal evidence regarding high levels of discrimination, mental illness, access to education, refusal of parole and the difficulties in maintaining family relationships. Unfortunately, there has not been a comprehensive report written on the conditions of Irish Travellers in prison. As a result, action on the difficulties experienced by Traveller prisoners is haphazard at best and non-existent at worst.
The ICB’s Travellers in Prison research project aims to fill this gap by working with the Traveller community to create a report which accurately depicts the situation of Travellers in the penal system. The ICB’s researcher, Conn Mac Gabhann, is responsible for the project. Conn will work within an experienced team which includes input from Travellers, pastoral workers, solicitors and academics to develop an effective report using a robust methodology and a range of sources including statistics, interviews and literature. The Travellers in Prison report when completed (Spring 2011) will be an invaluable resource for tackling the challenges faced by Travellers within the prison system. The report aims to create the basis for change and improvement within this system and thereby to minimise the harm caused by imprisonment on Irish Travellers, their families and the wider Traveller community.
To ensure that the Travellers in Prison report will contribute to policies and procedures within the prison system, the ICB will engage in a far-reaching dissemination campaign on completion of the report.
Any assistance, insights or practical support would be much appreciated by the ICB. Should you wish to contribute in any way to the Travellers in Prison research project please email Conn: conn.macgabhann@irishchaplaincy.org.uk
