Cork City Council change tactics re. Travellers

cork | rights, freedoms and repression | news report

Tuesday August 24, 2004 17:45

by Joan - Traveller and Settled Solidarity (TASS)

Following the well publicised evictions in Cork city last summer, Cork City Council have now changed tactics in their attempt to shirk their legal obligations towards Travellers on the council’s accommodation waiting list.

Following the well publicised evictions in Cork city last summer, Cork City Council have now changed tactics in their attempt to shirk their legal obligations towards Travellers on the council’s accommodation waiting list.

Instead of being evicted from council land, Travellers are now being blocked in, either with concrete bollards (as reported on this website on Wed. 18/8/04) or with large heaps of earth. This makes life very difficult on a day-to-day basis. Fetching water and gas, shopping for food, bringing rubbish to the landfill, attending the doctor and, from next week, getting the children to school are made next to impossible and the lack of access for emergency services could have appalling consequences.

For several weeks now, a number of Traveller families have been camped in a privately owned field in the Fairhill area of the city. Last week, because this field had become a mud bath with the torrential rain and because of the threat of eviction, some families moved out on to the side of the road, while three other families moved onto adjacent council land.

The Travellers accessed the council land via the field they had been camped in, only to find that access to the public road on the other side had been blocked with earth by the council. The council have refused to unblock the gap, despite the fact that one of the Traveller women is heavily pregnant and the only way in or out is back through the field, with the attendant risk of becoming stuck in the mud. In fact, a garda car did get stuck in the mud for up to half an hour last Thursday morning!

Cork City Council has a legal obligation to accommodate these families, yet it is responsible for heaping the greatest grief on them. All appeals by Traveller and Settled Solidarity (TASS) to the council on behalf of the families have come up against a concrete bollard. The callousness of the council official contacted was shocking; “she should have thought of that before” was the response to the matter of the pregnant woman. The Gardai are no better; “the law is the law”, said one garda, a reminder of Margaret Thatcher’s “a crime is a crime, is a crime” and “I’m only doing my job”, said another. Well, a number of Nazis used that feeble excuse at the Nuremberg trials.

When TASS spoke to John O’Brien of Cork City Council housing department last week, he admitted that the council were not permitted by law to move Travellers on if they had no where else to go, and insisted that there had been no council evictions of Travellers this year. The Gardai say that there is nothing illegal about the blocking of access to council land, even if it might be necessary to call medical assistance for someone camped on that land!

So there we have it, the council is making life as hard as possible for Travellers on their own accommodation waiting list, but doing it within the letter of the law. At the end of the day, making it impossible for the Travellers to stay amounts to the same thing as moving them on with nowhere to go, only the council and the Gardai don’t have to get their hands dirty with a messy eviction. But I ask you, where is the humanity in that?

If you wish to protest this crime against humanity, you can contact Stephen Kearney, Director of Services, Housing Department, Fire Station, Angelsea St., Cork or tel. 021 4924561, or John O’Brien at the same address, tel. 021 4924732.

POSTSCRIPT

TASS has just learned that the Travellers blocked in on the council land have managed to leave there and are now parked up on the side of the road nearby. So now they have access to services and emergency services can get to them, but they are still in a very precarious position.

Comments (1 of 1)

Appeal for Support

by Dave McCarthy - Traveller Visibility Group

Fri Aug 27, 2004 01:58

tvg at indigo dot ie

This is like an archive from Germany in the 1930s. The reference to the Nuremberg trial is appropriate. As a citizen of Ireland and a Cork resident I feel embarrassed to be reading this post by TASS. As a person who works with Travellers, I find these events deeply frustrating and upsetting. What makes it worse is that many settled people who otherwise appear to be well informed, simply accept that this is going on and get along with their daily lives.
How much energy will it take? How many press statements? How many news reports? How many street demonstrations, before people open their eyes to the horror that is being inflicted in their names?
A human rights group based in Dublin is preparing a bill to be put to the Dail this autumn. The bill will propose a number of changes in legislation which will attempt to steer Irish law out of the nightmare of legalised oppression currently being visited on Travellers.
The Traveller Visibility Group has been asked to assist the group by suggesting legislative changes to be included in the bill. The sort of change we are thinking is, in prosecutions under the anti-trespass legislation, to make it a defence that you have nowhere legal to live.
Any other suggestions would be welcomed, at mailto:tvg@indigo.ie.
We would also welcome ideas from any source, about how to build networks with other local and regional organisations and groups, in a further attempt to shift public awareness towards a more balanced view the life experiences of Travellers.
Lastly, we would be interested to here from more voluntary activists who will attend evictions at short notice, to demonstrate against the eviction, to witness what happens, to be present in solidarity with the families, and to give your comments to the media if they arrive. All it involves is e-mailing your name and phone number to TVG. Members of TASS have put in long hours supporting Travellers during evictions. This cost people who took time off work to be present. The more people who can become directly involved, the easier it will be on people to show support. The outcomes of this support have been positive. Travellers have appreciated the support, some saying things like they don't feel so much under attack, they don't feel alone, and the children are able to register the fact that not all settled people are bad. Some have also reported that when settled supporters are around for subsequent court cases, they are the only friendly faces in the court, and it gives them the courage to speak up for themselves.