GARDAÍ REMAINED on duty yesterday in a housing estate in Tralee, Co Kerry, after an escalation of violence involving a dispute between Traveller families.
The feud, which began some months ago, has seen Traveller mothers in Tralee receive Garda protection to accompany their children to school. There have been several violent incidents including riots and dozens of arrests.
On Sunday night, an outside Garda regional response unit was again called into Tralee to prevent an escalation.
Traveller families in Tralee are also moving out of their houses to live in caravans near their own faction.
Kerry County Council meanwhile has rejected a call from the Irish Traveller Movement to delay the removal of six Tralee Traveller families who have set up in caravans on a green area in a housing estate in Castleisland to live near relatives.
The families have been served with orders to move to a halting site in Killarney. They are refusing to move to Killarney saying that relatives of the other side of the conflict live there.
Gardaí say there have been incidents in Cork, Tralee and Rathmore in the past five days involving the two sides in the lead-up to the eruption of violent behaviour in St Martin’s Park and Mitchels Crescent in the town on Sunday night.
Violence has also broken out in Listowel. There were incidents during the races and again on Sunday night in what is believed to be a separate feud.
Meanwhile the director of housing services in the county council yesterday rejected a call for leniency in removing caravans from a green area in Castleisland.
The Irish Traveller Movement told John Breen that most of the families had left Tralee under extreme circumstances and many had feared for their lives and the lives of their children.