Taking Travellers out of the picture

Looking back through news photographs from bygone days, it’s easy to get the impression that nothing much changes in our corner of the world. Happily, some things do. On rare occasions they even change for the better.

When Taoiseach Enda Kenny made a statement in the Dáil a couple of months ago, formally recognising Travellers as a distinct ethnic group, it was the culmination of a 30-year campaign by Traveller organisations, many representatives of whom were in the public gallery, and greeted Mr Kenny’s remarks with a standing ovation.

To get some idea of what the activists have been up against we should rewind to the autumn of 1968, when this image was published on the front page of The Irish Times in the autumn of 1968. It was taken, as the caption explains, at "a reception in the Peacock Theatre, Dublin, last night to open the Itinerant Settlement Week. . ."

In defence of all concerned, let it be said that in the 1960s the integration of Travellers into the settled community was not only accepted practice in Irish political circles but was regarded by many as the noblest, if not necessarily kindest, of social aspirations.

We should also note that the image is attempting to put a positive spin on the situation. The men in the photograph – named as, from left, “Mr Vincent Jones, organiser of the week’s activities, Dr Cecil Day-Lewis, Poet Laureate, and Mr Niall Tobin” – are examining a beautifully detailed model of a caravan which, the caption assures readers, was crafted by a Traveller.

But the strongest impression given by this photograph has nothing to do with the presence of these three individuals. Rather, it’s an absence. Why is there no Traveller in the picture? The fact that it didn’t even occur to anyone to include the maker of the caravan surely speaks volumes about the assumptions and attitudes of half a century ago.

Arminta Wallace

These and other Irish Times images can be purchased from: irishtimes.com/photosales. A book, The Times We Lived In, with more than 100 photographs and commentary by Arminta Wallace, published by Irish Times Books, is available from irishtimes.com and from bookshops, priced at €19.99.