No doubt the Equality Industry thinks that all that is required to bring about love and harmony between those who live on wheels and those who don't is for it to be given more powers to punish whomever it chooses within the "settled community".
However, people who live near the river Dodder in Rathfarnham, Dublin, no doubt feel differently. After Travellers left their illegal halting site there, council workers found several cars beneath the surface of the river, never mind the usual ration of abandoned fridges, television sets, washing machines and heaps of domestic litter on the ground.
Of course, from those dolts in the Equality Industry, we hear only about the rights of Travellers, but never about their responsibilities; and on the issue of the Dodder - or any of the other despoliated sites where Travellers have illegally halted - we hear nothing at all.
Might I suggest that members of the Equality Industry, if they take their holidays in the English resort of Bournemouth, do not announce what they do for a living in Ireland? They might find they are not welcome there; and they might also find the locals might prove that they can move them on more easily than they did some other visitors to the town.
Holiday in Bournemouth
Over 3,000 Irish Travellers - as they are now known; the rest of us "settled people" must get by without capital letters - descended on Bournemouth for the entire recent holiday season. Hundreds of caravans were parked throughout the town, according to the Times of London. The indoor bowls club in Kings Park was forced to cancel both its New Year fixtures and its New Year's Eve party, because members were unable to get past the makeshift campsite in the club car-park.
English law being different to Irish law, some pubs placed signs on their windows declaring: "Local Residents Only". One publican erected a sign which said: "Private party from December 27th until further notice". Many other pubs and clubs shut down because of fighting and allegations of theft.
The manager of the Dolphin pub, adjoining one of the Travellers' sites, said: "It was just not worth opening on New Years's Eve. We were invaded on Christmas Eve and it took an hour-and-a-half to get them out at closing time. They order huge rounds of drinks and then disappear without paying. We have had to employ two doormen and lots of staff were too scared to work. Some places were open only to locals, but we thought that would be like a red rag to a bull." The Queen's Park pub closed over the Christmas period after 150 of the Irish visitors had entered it two days before Christmas. Some had consumed so much that they became ill, and others used the lavatories to wash themselves in.
"It's a fine town"
One of the travelling revellers was a John Carey who went to Bournemouth from Limerick with his wife, four children, two brothers, and sisters in law "and Lord knows how many" nephews and nieces. He liked what he found. "It's a fine town, and we have as much right to be here as anyone else." He denied that the visitors had been stealing. "Kids breaking windows? That's just high spirits."
As it happened, there wasn't a great deal of serious crime associated with the Travellers over the holiday weekend. Ten Travellers were arrested over the weekend, two for alleged assault, and eight because they were unable to provide a home address for a summons to be sent to after being caught driving without MOT certificates or insurance. (Now why does that not surprise me?) The Travellers left after the New Year arrived, but with a cheerful promise that they might be back, no doubt to the untrammelled joy of the boarding-house ladies.
"We love the place," announced a departing John Carey from his child-filled BMW. "Why would we want to stay away?" An enchanting vote of approval, and one the Bournemouth Tourist Board might well use in its publicity material: "Come to sunny Bournemouth, resort of choice for 3,000 Irish Travellers!"
Few issues reveal the moral cowardice in Irish life, and the failure to confront problems and discuss them honestly, as does this one. Whatever discussions occur do so at two different levels, and they may be as well related to each other as pond life is to the surface of Mars. There is the public discussion, conducted on RTÉ and in the columns of this newspaper in particular, which sees Travellers as victims only. This portrays the Government, local authorities and communities next to Traveller encampments as bigoted oppressors who are the sole reasons why Traveller communities do not produce as many heart surgeons and rocket scientists as they unquestionably would otherwise.
Dependency on State
And there is the private conversation, the one which doesn't find its way into the media, which centres on a passionate resentment towards a Traveller dependency on the State that is combined with an apparent immunity to its laws; and that conversation is spiced with an all-consuming dread that Travellers might move onto land next door.
I haven't got a clue about how to resolve the conflicts between the Travellers and the "settled community"; but I am certain of this. So long as as the issue is dominated by dishonesty, by pious platitudes from those who live in secure suburbs where Travellers can find no parking space, and by the politically correct agenda of the fools in the Equality Industry with their endless mantra about Traveller rights, but with their studied silence on Traveller responsibilities, we will continue to move towards social disaster.
KEVIN MYERS