Riot police in Dunsink Lane
dublin |
rights, freedoms and repression |
opinion/analysis 
Wednesday October 20, 2004 20:53
by Nina Ni Cheallaigh
Intimidation and racism in Dunsink
As most people saw on T.V.last night, yesterday morning's dawn raids on families in Dunsink lasted for a total of four hours and were carried out with the back up of 200 Riot Police. A Traveller woman I spoke to today in Ballymun told me about her husband having predicted last week that raids would be carried out all over Dunsink as a direct result of the recent protests.
'They need to let us know who's boss-they did it to punish'
The Garda spokesperson made it very clear that the public disorder needed to be punished and what better tactic than a massive show of might on the part of the State. I can't think of another community that has come under the level of initimidation and blatant discrimination by the State,that the Travelling Community has had to endure for so long. One woman from Dunsink Lane told me that she was stopped at three different checkpoints on her way to work and that her children's schoolbags were searched.
A wall is erected to 'solve a dumpiing
problem', checkpoints appear in a specific neighbourhood, children are searched and yet it is all accepted because anything visited on the Traveller Community must be deserved-after all they all have guns, and fireworks in their schoolbags and counterfeiting equipment in their outside toilets... They also have a life expectancy that is now just about approximating that of the Settled Communnity in the 1940s. The infant mortality rate is three times that of the wider community.
The barrier in Dunsink had been in the pipeline for months and the CIty Council reacted to being so publicly challenged by cooperating wholeheartedly with the cops, and no doubt pointing them in the right direction to ensure a 'successful operation' and a lot of very bad press for Travellers.
Comments (12 of 12)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12Six arrested after halting site raids
19 October 2004 22:42
Gardaí say a substantial quantity of stolen property, counterfeiting equipment and illegal fireworks have been seized following raids on a number of unauthorised halting sites at Dunsink Lane in Dublin this morning.
Six people have been arrested, four on charges of violent disorder, one on suspected road traffic offences and one in relation to a stolen car.
Eight sites were searched this morning by a large number of gardaí backed up by detectives from Finglas and Blanchardstown and the public order unit.
A number of weapons were also recovered including three bows and arrows, a spear gun along with several thousand euro worth of power tools which gardaí believe were stolen.
Gardaí say they believe a number of people will be charged as a result of this operation.
Perhaps Nina Ni Cheallaigh could clarify something. If I'm caught with stolen goods, weapons, illegal foreworks I'm classified as a criminal. If travellers are caught in a similar situation action taken against them is considered racist. Perhaps you can explain this difference.
I can also add that there are many people living in Finglas who are sleeping happier in their beds knowing that the annual spate of anti-social behaviour involving fireworks has been nipped in the bud by the good work of the Gardai. All quiet on the north western front you might say!!
Dunsink Observatory, a jewel in the crown of Irish science, was deliberately targeted as it was state owned.
Its got an incredible history worth checking out. Wordsworth even visited after he became friends with William Rowan Hamilton.
"I can also add that there are many people living in Finglas who are sleeping happier in their beds knowing that the annual spate of anti-social behaviour involving fireworks has been nipped in the bud by the good work of the Gardai. All quiet on the north western front you might say!!"
You think just because the cops went OTT and raided the halting site that the problem of anti-social behaviour in Finglas is over. The settled community (hate that term) can match the traveller community anyday for similar behaviour. What planet are you living on?
Im in Planet Finglas unfortunately. I know there are just as many scum among the "settled" community as there are among travellers. However you will also be aware of the close links between the two. And if you havent noticed that recent nights have been quieter I don't know what planet you are on. Anyway - wishing you (and myself) a speedy escape :)
What was the weather like last night in your part of Finglas?
Not conducive to fireworks obviously but it has been firework free for previous days as well. 48,000 euro of them seized yesterday as well so hopefully the scum will be bereft for remainder of the "holiday"
If you take any estate in Dublin or anywhere and the Garda raided all the houses you would get some arrests from what they will find.
Depending on the class of the area you may find different types of criminal activity, for example, a raid of an upper class area would most likely reveal peodphiles, tax evaders, fraudsters, you get the picture. However, this will never happen because judges that approve raids live in these areas. To date, there are no travellers who have been elevated to the judiciary .
People will act in different ways to oppression. If I was cut off from my local area by a wall built without any consultation who knows what I would do.I think some of the reactions to the Dunsink wall were counterproductive but not as much as the City Council/Fingal CC decision to erect it in the first place. Try to imagine how you would feel if it had happened to you.
This whole experience has been a learning curve for me. The travelling community in Finglas have been dealt a raw deal. The left has largely been silent and offered no solidarity to the travelling community, 'liberals' and middle class LPers have actually joined the hysteria about some travellers criminality. In fact I believe that the LP TD in Finglas was consulted and agreed with the barrier decision. But then scratch a liberal and beneath you reveal a conservative with a (small)consience.
As for the media, well you had to visit our national 'liberal' daily, the IT to read the most nasty piece of racism from the poision from the pen of the obnoxious Flight Lieutenant Kevin Mire-s. His next article will be arguing for a pogrom against travellers, the cleansing (ethnic) of Dunsink and for the area to be used for fox hunting and a monument to anybody who murdered for the British establishment anywhere in the world.
And I really do live in Finglas
"The left has largely been silent and offered no solidarity to the travelling community,"
You should remember that this crisis sprung up very quickly and there was little time to respond for people who didn't live in the area. Unfortunately, we don't have a left wing movement that can swing into action with speed and numbers over issues like this. Still, some people did make great efforts to get out there and show some solidarity - including Indymedia's Kevin who did a great job of documenting the events here.
(Just thought that I'd remind people that some good work was done, although it was very limited.)
Contrary to the above post the left who work on the ground in Finglas have not been silent on the issue. Its true as Chekov pointed out that the whole thing happened very quickly so there was not much time to respond. However the ISN which is very active in the Finglas area, has reponded to this issue in as much as a small organisation can do:
In the November issue of our newsletter we clearly state our opposition to this racist wall, acknowledge the problem of criminal activity by a minority in both traveller and settled communities and call for a solution based on reps of travellers and the settled residents of Finglas working together to solve this problem (We also hope an initiative in that regard as soon as possible). We distribute our newsletter throughout the Finglas West and South areas.
Our local election candidate John O Neill has had a letter published in the Village magazine clearly condemning the Councils foolish attempt to deal with the problem of illegal dumping by punishing a whole community.
To the best of my knowledge the only other political organisation in Finglas to take a strong stanch on this has been Sinn Fein: Dessie Ellis issued a statement opposing the barrier. I have also heard that the local councillors, agreed in advance to the barrier being built and Noel Ahern, in a desperate attempt to undo the decimation of the Fianna Fail vote in Finglas tried to take the 'credit' for this fiasco!
Residing in Finglas all my life I can say for sure that there is some knackers amongst the travellers in Dunsink. These scumbags mix freely with the local armed robbers,drug dealers and general low lifes. As usual the Gardai know this but go about looking after the problem in the wrong manner. The dumping up there was predominantly by travellers but not all of it. The Garda are too SCARED to tackle the problem head on! They couldnt give a shit about the residents in Finglas. They're happy with the status quo because they sleep happily in their beds far away from the land of Finglas! They only care about getting the O/T when they need it and living happily ever after on their pensions!
The Gardai are as much to blame for the shit that goes on in Finglas as the scum themselves. The situation has been let get out of control by an under staffed,under resourced , severe lack of balls Garda presence!
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