Let’s start by helping the children from the Travelling community

I know of one estate where nearby residents dumped rubbish at the entrance to a Traveller site, writes Fergus Finlay

ALMOST by definition, travellers live on the margins - despite the fact that three-quarters of Irish Travellers live in houses. Unemployment among travellers is five times the national average, and more than half of them leave school at or before the age of 15. Traveller men are seven times more likely than men in the general population to take their own lives.

These are not my statistics – they are published by Pavee Point, a travellers’ rights organisation. They paint a picture of a community that has always been ghettoised by the rest of us. We live, by and large, in fear of Travellers.