The Justice Minister and the philosopher

The 1964 arrest of Travellers’ rights activist Grattan Puxon was controversial, writes Ryle Dwyer.

PAPERS released by the Justice Department today included files on the 1964 arrest of Grattan Puxon, an English campaigner on behalf of Irish itinerants. This controversial issue sparked a series of letters between Bertrand Russell, the philosopher and peace campaigner, and Justice Minister Charles Haughey.

Grattan Puxon had come to live in Ireland in the early 1960s. He was struck by the plight of Irish Travellers and helped organise them to resist evictions. He was living in the Cherry Orchard area of Dublin, where the first Travellers’ school was set up, but after a few weeks Dublin Corporation bulldozed it and evicted the Travellers because they were squatting on corporation land.

During the ensuing unrest Puxon was arrested, and Russell wrote to the Justice Minister on April 7, 1964, asking the charges against Puxon be dropped.

“I am sure,” he wrote, “that Ireland does not wish its good name tarnished by a Sacco and Vanzetti case.”

Sacco and Vanzetti, two Italian anarchists, were arrested in Boston in 1927, tried, convicted and executed for murder, even though they had alibis.

Mr Haughey replied that he was at a loss to understand why the charges against Puxon should be dropped.

Russell answered: “I consider the prosecution of gypsies or of itinerant people is unworthy of a civilised community.

“I should think that the attempt to prosecute such individuals for camping on city property, and continued harassment of such individuals serves no purpose, and I particularly think, that measures taken against Mr Puxon are persecutory.”

Haughey replied on May 5: “Grattan Puxon is not an itinerant.

“He is an Englishman who has described himself as a journalist. He has contributed articles regularly in the daily press in Dublin. He has been charged with unlawful possession or control of explosives and ammunition and has been returned for trial in Dublin Metropolitan District Court. He will, of course, have every opportunity of defending himself when the case comes for trial.”

Russell accepted this and wrote: “My information, which I believe to be accurate, is that Mr Puxon has been warned and threatened by special branch members of the Irish police about his campaign on behalf of itinerants.”

Thirteen students from Queen’s University wrote to Haughey on May 7 to protest against the treatment of itinerant families by Irish authorities. The students contended that the Travellers were protesting for “caravan parks with running water and sanitary arrangements, education facilities for their children, and the right to partake of the social services”.

These demands were met with violence and “the arrest of Grattan Puxon, a known pacifist, on a dynamite charge”, they said.

They demanded Haughey take steps to ensure “the senseless hounding” of these people was stopped.

Haughey replied: “The question at issue is not whether caravan parks can be provided but whether itinerants can be given the right to enter private property or property acquired (sometimes compulsorily) by municipal authorities for housing or some other essential purpose and to squat there indefinitely.”

He said “the idea foreign journalists” were more concerned with the welfare of itinerants than the Government was “naive”.

He wrote to Russell on May 20 that he had set up a commission in 1960, while Parliamentary Secretary, to investigate the Travellers’ conditions and “promote their absorption in the general community”.

Russell replied: “I cannot see why itinerants must be absorbed. I should have thought inconvenience could be avoided by providing facilities for them.”

Puxon was convicted and reportedly given the choice of leaving the country or going to jail. He left and is a leading advocates of Travellers’ rights in Britain. He alleged the explosives were planted by gardaí.