Victim agenda doesn’t work for Travellers

I WAS somewhat bemused at the conflicting content of two news items concerning Travellers (April 22).

One publicised the formation of a new Travellers’ organisation with an expanded victim agenda that wants an apology from the Irish people for their “neglect” over the years.

The other concerned a scheme of six houses that were built for Travellers at a cost of €2 million in Ennis a few years ago. This scheme has now been partly demolished and the remainder stripped and abandoned by its occupiers, and left to the Ennis ratepayer to secure at a cost of €2,000 a week.

I wonder how any of the hard-pressed working couples who struggled to put a roof over their heads in recent years would respond to the notion that they owe an apology to people who treat freely provided accommodation in such a fashion.

Unfortunately, politicians in general have given Travellers the idea that they are put-upon, that they can rely on the state to provide for their needs in perpetuity. Every able-bodied citizen of Ireland (as Travellers are) has the opportunity to avail of free education and to work and provide for their families if they will. Retreating further into victimhood, as the new organisation seeks to do, will only confirm the negative impression that much of society has of Traveller ‘culture’.

Ted Neville

‘Turnberry’

Carrigaline Road

Douglas

Co Cork