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‘Alright in their own place’: Policing and the spatial regulation of Irish Travellers
Abstract
Recent efforts to improve relations between ethnic minority communities and the police have generally revolved around a ‘diversity’ agenda, through strategies to enhance consultation, increase recruitment levels and so on. However, for communities characterized by nomadism, a different set of issues arises. For the police, nomadism undermines the information work which is at the heart of their governance mandate. This article considers relations between Irish Travellers and the police, and highlights police recourse to strategies of spatial regulation in dealing with Travellers. The scale of the evident mistrust and hostility is such that efforts to improve this relationship through the policing diversity agenda alone are likely to have little success unless they also address the acute marginalization of Travellers, and the provision of adequate accommodation in particular.
... For Travellers, their distinct heritage and nomadic way of life has left them outside of spatial norms and traditions of the settled community. The prejudices long held by the settled community about the perceived immorality and backwardness of Travellers has contributed to this ethnic group (or class in Ireland) being ostracized and materially disadvantaged, a notable part of which is their continued 'overpolicing' and 'under-protection' by law enforcement (Mulcahy, 2012). In Death of a Traveller, we can, I think, witness sensemaking at play with the police treatment of Angelo's family signalling, in a deeply damaging way, the worthlessness of Travellers. ...
... 7 It is enough for an offence to be committed if damage is likely to be caused, including non-physical damage like excessive noise, smells, litter or deposits of waste. The popular trope of Travellers as a 'threatening minority', tainted by their dirt, vagrancy and petty crime (Mulcahy, 2012;Roosvall, 2017), finds expression in the government consultation responses which inspired Part 4 of the 2022 Act. Unlawful interim sites were described as a cause of 'distress and misery to those who live nearby as areas are blighted by problems such as excessive noise and littering' (Patel, 2021: 5). ...
... 114-5). These claims are supported by research elsewhere which traces hostile and disproportionate police operations against Travellers back to the social imagery of them as disorderly, deceitful and violent which police share with society (Mulcahy, 2012). Thinking about the culpability of the officer, should he or she be allowed to avoid criminal liability when they act on an honest but unreasonable mistake about the threat posed by an individual and that mistake is based on implicit racial biases which are widespread in society? ...
DIDIER FASSIN, Death of a Traveller: A Counter-Investigation. Cambridge: Policy Press, 2021, pp. 160, ISBN: 978-1-509-54740-1, $64.95 (hbk)
... This represents the paternalism embedded in my assumptions about helping. I also unintentionally maintained the dominant discourse around Travellers as a problematic part of Irish society (Allen & Adams, 2013;Fetzer, 2017;Mulcahy, 2012), perpetuating a construction of Traveller as other and thereby continuing perceptions of them as an isolated group (Allen & Adams, 2013;Fetzer, 2017;Mulcahy, 2012). I did not consider the multiple and contrasting Traveller identities and experiences prevalent within Ireland (Royall, 2010) and could have done so, for example, when the organisation told me the Traveller children's parents could not read or write. ...
... This represents the paternalism embedded in my assumptions about helping. I also unintentionally maintained the dominant discourse around Travellers as a problematic part of Irish society (Allen & Adams, 2013;Fetzer, 2017;Mulcahy, 2012), perpetuating a construction of Traveller as other and thereby continuing perceptions of them as an isolated group (Allen & Adams, 2013;Fetzer, 2017;Mulcahy, 2012). I did not consider the multiple and contrasting Traveller identities and experiences prevalent within Ireland (Royall, 2010) and could have done so, for example, when the organisation told me the Traveller children's parents could not read or write. ...
... Reconstruction considers new interpretations uncovered by the deconstruction process and devises ways to align espoused intentions and actual practice (Fook, 2016). Accepting that Traveller culture had its own solutions to the homework group's challenges leads me to consider other ways of engaging with Traveller children that subvert the ongoing power imbalances and cultural oppression they experience (Fetzer, 2017;Mulcahy, 2012). My reconstructed practice explicitly values the participation of Traveller people in the construction of problems and solutions. ...
INTRODUCTION: Western conceptualisations of social work are increasingly interestedin practices considered to be alternative or non-traditional to respond to oppression. While incorporating alternative methods into social work is frequently viewed as unproblematic, we suggest critical reflection is necessary to safeguard against inadvertent, culturally unsafe practice and the uncritical re-inscription of individualised solutions.APPROACH: In this article, we explore the application of group drumming practices within social work through examination of a critical incident. While the benefits of group drumming are well documented, we use critical reflection to explore ethical challenges of incorporating group drumming practices into social work.CONCLUSIONS: We highlight strategies for social workers using alternative or non- traditional practices that support cultural humility and critical practice goals. This research holds implications for social workers interested in the potential of alternative practices while remaining committed to critical practice and cultural safety.
... All participants from site 2 were members of the traveller community but were at the time living in 'settled' accommodation 2 . Troubled and mistrusting relationships between the traveller community and Gardaí have long been recognised (Mulcahy, 2011) and recent efforts to be more inclusive and understanding of those from ethnic minorities (including Travellers) have been made within An Garda Síochána (see O'Brien-Olinger, 2016 for research relating to immigrant populations) In addition all Garda recruits now undergo training in cultural competence. What impact this has on their day-to-day interactions with members of the traveller community however, has not been examined although Mulcahy (2011) has suggested there is a high level of mistrust and hostility between Travellers and the Gardaí. ...
... Troubled and mistrusting relationships between the traveller community and Gardaí have long been recognised (Mulcahy, 2011) and recent efforts to be more inclusive and understanding of those from ethnic minorities (including Travellers) have been made within An Garda Síochána (see O'Brien-Olinger, 2016 for research relating to immigrant populations) In addition all Garda recruits now undergo training in cultural competence. What impact this has on their day-to-day interactions with members of the traveller community however, has not been examined although Mulcahy (2011) has suggested there is a high level of mistrust and hostility between Travellers and the Gardaí. ...
... Half of the participants in the current study came from a marginalised community in Ireland (Travellers 2 ) that has had historically antagonistic relations with the police (Mulcahy, 2011). Their views however, were in line with those of the other half of participants from backgrounds who traditionally show positive views of the Gardaí in Ireland (Browne, 2008;Garda, 2017). ...
Growing autonomy coupled with legal restrictions in adolescence can often mean that relationships between young people and legal authorities are problematic. Traditional approaches to this research has tended to rely on quantitative research designs, which may mean that underlying influencing factors in attitude formation unique to adolescents are not being included in such studies. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the underlying theoretical factors that influence young people's attitudes to police that may be excluded from large scale quantitative study designs. Attitudes to police were not easily classified as positive or negative and were influenced by a range of factors including, feeling stereotyped by police, lacking control during interactions and a lack of voice in dealing with the police. How police were perceived to use their power and carry out their duties were also important factors in influencing stated attitudes .
... Irish Travellers are a traditionally mobile group, termed an ethnic minority in the UK while being viewed as a class in Ireland. The Dale Farm case was just a short chapter in a long history of hardships related to the regulation of settlement and mobility of this group, as well as of legal issues concerning nomadism more broadly (Houtman, 2011;James, 2007;Mac Laughlin, 1999;Mulcahy, 2012, more specifically discussed in the Background section). What was new was, however, the amount of media attention (Okely, in Houtman, 2011;Quarmby, 2013), the possibility of including multiple voices and perspectives in online media (Fenton, 2010), and particularly the possibility of extensive visualization and thereby inclusion of multiple motifs and themes offered in online media (Caple & Knox, 2012). ...
... James, 2007), mostly concerning the UK. In an article of policing in Ireland, Mulcahy (2012) studies the police's recourse to spatial regulation strategies concerning Travellers; mistrust and hostility signifies police-Traveller relationships with efforts to improve them deemed insufficient unless they address the acute marginalization of Travellers, particularly regarding accommodation. Lucassen (1998) furthermore concludes that migrant and travelling groups almost exclusively appear in the contexts of crime and poverty in European historiography, thus underlining not only policing but also class aspects. ...
... 'Law' is the second most common theme. It consists largely of policing, and thus connects to an area in which Travellers are often framed: policing and/of space (James, 2007;Mulcahy, 2012). Even the 'Everyday life … ' picture paragraphs appear in this larger setting, since all coverage is caused by the legal conflict. ...
This article discusses meanings of people–place relationships, relating to ethnicity–class–gender intersections. The case examined concerns the ‘contested place-making’ of Irish Travellers at Dale Farm (UK), where the Travellers were eventually evicted from a place they owned. The material consists mainly of online slideshows in the Guardian. Visuals and place share the role of concretizing news, situating them and underlining their truth claims. Hence, news visuals are well suited for discussions of relationships between places and peoples. The study comprises theories of media, place and identity, relating to mobility, minorities and globalization. Methodologically, compositional analysis, discourse-theoretical method and an intersectional approach are combined. The place conflict is rarely understood in terms of justice. Instead, ethnicity–class–gender intersections appear as significant in the imagery, countering certain old stereotypes, but also connecting to discourses of ‘threatening minorities’, and ‘bad mobility’. Manifested through excessive imagery of barricades/fences/walls/gates, ‘identity management’ meets ‘place management’, detaching some identities from some places. The Travellers thus appear as anomalies, separated from others. This is partly connected to the slideshow format, where linguistic elaboration on motifs is very limited, partly to the selection of certain themes and motifs in the slideshows, and partly to the societal politics surrounding the issue.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13504630.2016.1271738
... Racial and ethnic disparities are often evident at the initial point of contact with police officers. Ethnic minority communities tend to be 'over-policed', through high levels of harassment, confrontational policing styles and overt misconduct in various forms; and yet, 'under-protected', with their victimization accorded lesser significance by criminal justice agents (Mulcahy, 2011). The outcome of this is that internationally, relations between law enforcement and ethnic minority communities are often characterized by a lack of confidence, suspicion and hostility. ...
... As a result, it may be suggested that the inclusion of their sentences as 'Irish' has significantly decreased the disparities observed. This may be particularly relevant to motoring offences, wherein Travellers have expressed feeling targeted by the police (Mulcahy, 2011). Future research would benefit from isolating Traveller sentencing data for comparative analysis. ...
Ireland’s economic growth from the late 1990s prompted sustained and diverse inward migration, resulting in substantial changes in the population and reshaping the social and cultural landscape. These shifts have also been visible among those processed by the criminal justice system, with a marked increase in the number of non-Irish nationals committed to Irish prisons. International research suggests that racism is a significant issue within criminal justice systems, with ethnic minority groups often disadvantaged. Despite these findings and the growth in non-Irish national prisoners, little research has assessed the impact of racial bias on Irish sentencing outcomes. This exploratory study examines whether disparities exist between the sentencing of Irish and non-Irish defendants, using data from the Irish Prison Service.
... As a result of their mobility and thus their rejection of the norms of sedentary society and the territorial governance requirements of the nation state, Travellers were viewed as 'out of step' with the mores and practices that define modern society: sedentarism and predictability, wage-labour and private property, restraint and self-control, respectability and lawabidingness (Mulcahy, 2011). As a consequence of this, much policy related to Travellers after 1922 was assimilationist in that it focused on containing the mobility of Travellers (Mulcahy, 2011) and 'absorbing' them into the general population to solve the Traveller 'problem' (McVeigh, 2008: 92 …has this generated a discrete and integrated culture and politics -and associated state intervention. ...
... As a result of their mobility and thus their rejection of the norms of sedentary society and the territorial governance requirements of the nation state, Travellers were viewed as 'out of step' with the mores and practices that define modern society: sedentarism and predictability, wage-labour and private property, restraint and self-control, respectability and lawabidingness (Mulcahy, 2011). As a consequence of this, much policy related to Travellers after 1922 was assimilationist in that it focused on containing the mobility of Travellers (Mulcahy, 2011) and 'absorbing' them into the general population to solve the Traveller 'problem' (McVeigh, 2008: 92 …has this generated a discrete and integrated culture and politics -and associated state intervention. The state in Ireland, north and south, has routinely insisted that the existence of Irish travellers (or "tinkers" or "itinerants") -rather than anti-Traveller racism -is 'the problem'. ...
A qualitative study of the experience of homelessness for Travellers in County Offaly, Ireland. Research commissioned by the Offaly Traveller Movement with funding from St. Stephen's Green Trust.
... Similar findings have been shown in the case of school liaison officers in the UK (Hopkins, 1994) and in the case of officers working on targeted projects with young people 'at risk' of criminality in Ireland (Bowden & Higgins, 2000). However, there remains a lack of research around the relationships between young people and community officers, in particular in Ireland where a similar scarcity of research around all aspects of the criminal justice system can be seen (Kilkelly, 2011;Mulcahy, 2011;O'Donnell, 2005;Sozer & Merlo, 2013). In addition, research has yet to investigate the impact of community policing on young people's general views about the police and whether it can contribute to more positive attitudes overall. ...
... Before proceeding it is worth noting what previous research has reported about relations between the Gardaí and the travelling community. Public and academic discourse on interactions between Gardaí and members of the travelling community has generally outlined a tension filled and mistrustful relationship (James, 2007;Mulcahy, 2011). This has been partly explained within the context of the nomadic lifestyle of most Travellers leading them to be seen as sitting 'outside' mainstream society which incurs suspicion and misunderstanding. ...
2016) " " Some of them are alright " : The effects of experiences with community police officers on Irish young people's attitudes toward the police,
... Further, the continued conflicted existence of Irish Travellers and the suppression of their cultural heritage, and rights as a minority, has long cast a shadow on the provision of adequate state service support to their people (e.g. Mulcahy, 2012). A person who is included and empowered to participate in decisions affecting their treatment will be better informed and able to engage with, or give critical feedback to, the services provided. ...
Download from: https://explore.bps.org.uk/content/bpscpf/1/369
The Republic of Ireland is introducing major human rights-based reform to its mental health laws. This paper outlines the new legal landscape in which psychologists must operate against the backdrop of present-day effects of Ireland’s dark legacy of institutionalisation. A rights-based approach aims to positively transform mental health service delivery and we advocate for person-centred treatments as the ‘new normal’. We summarise the recent advocacy work undertaken by the Psychological Society of Ireland’s Special Interest Group in Human Rights & Psychology. Finally, we present an innovative best practice case promoting future rights-based delivery via the Socio-Ecological Model of Health – Kyrie Farm.
... 14. In an Irish context, it is important to note that "global" measurements of confidence/trust in police may well conceal stark disparities with particular groups experiencing much more negative relationships with Gardaí and holding correspondingly more negative opinions than is reflected in the survey findings (Ilan, 2016;Mulcahy, 2012). 15. ...
While levels of public confidence in the police have declined internationally, the Republic of Ireland appears to have bucked this trend with confidence levels that remain “strikingly and stubbornly high.” This situation appears all the more puzzling given the wave of scandals to have hit the force in recent decades, ranging from police corruption in Donegal in the late 1990s to a more recent whistleblower scandal that has resulted in the resignation of a slew of Ministers and high-ranking officials. Such developments beg important questions as to the factors sustaining public confidence over this tumultuous period. Drawing on international and domestic data, this article aims to probe this “paradox” of public confidence in the Irish police. It argues that although confidence is high, there is more to the dynamics of confidence in the police in Ireland than this initial appraisal suggests. Indeed, it advances the Irish case as an illustration both of the dimensionality of the public confidence concept and of the complexity of the pathways to trust in the police.
... 14. In an Irish context, it is important to note that 'global' measurements of confidence/trust in police may well conceal stark disparities with particular groups experiencing much more negative relationships with Gardaí and holding correspondingly more negative opinions than is reflected in the survey findings (Mulcahy, 2012;Ilan, 2016). 15. ...
While levels of public confidence in the police have declined internationally, the Republic of Ireland appears to have bucked this trend with confidence levels that remain ‘strikingly and stubbornly high’ ( Mulcahy, 2016 : 275). This situation appears all the more puzzling given the wave of scandals to have hit the force in recent decades, ranging from police corruption in Donegal in the late 1990s to a more recent whistleblower scandal that has resulted in the resignation of a slew of Ministers and high-ranking officials. Such developments beg important questions as to the factors sustaining public confidence over this tumultuous period. Drawing on international and domestic data, this article aims to probe this ‘paradox’ of public confidence in the Irish police. It argues that, although confidence is high, there is more to the dynamics of confidence in the police in Ireland than this initial appraisal suggests. Indeed, it advances the Irish case as an illustration both of the dimensionality of the public confidence concept and the complexity of the pathways to trust in the police.
... More contemporary research suggests that relations between the police and some sections of the public were decidedly more nuanced than this earlier characterisation might suggest (e.g. FAQs Research et al. 2001, Connolly 2002, Mulcahy 2012, Conway 2013, O'Brien-Olinger 2016, Ilan 2018). Yet overall, public attitudes towards the police seemed remarkably high and resilient in the face of any controversies that emerged. ...
While police scandals are often assumed to arise from major forms of misconduct, here I argue that minor or banal events can also precipitate scandals and mobilise significant reform initiatives. My argument is based on a case-study analysis of two scandals surrounding allegations of misconduct in relation to road traffic policing in Ireland. The first case involved allegations that ‘fixed charges notices’ (issued for various driving offences) were cancelled inappropriately. The second case emerged from disclosures surrounding the vast over-counting of the number of roadside breath-tests conducted by police officers. Although these events may appear banal at first glance, they had an enormous effect on the policing landscape. Drawing on analysis of the numerous inquiries and investigations into these events, I suggest that the impact of scandal is amplified when two factors are present. First, the scandal surrounding an issue grows when it serves as a catalyst, adding to the momentum of other concerns. Second, a scandal is also magnified when it raises systemic concerns that extend beyond any individual misconduct and call into question basic features of organisational competence and legitimacy.
... Recent data have shown that they are at increased risk of poor mental health as a result of physical health impairments and experiences of discrimination ( McGorrian et al. 2013;Watson, Kenny, and McGinnity 2017). Citing data from the All Ireland Traveller Health Study Team (2010) Mulcahy (2012 reported that 'life expectancy for Traveller men and women is, respectively, 15 and 11.5 years less than for the general population'. Revealing a very different population pyramidal structure than in the general population, data from the 2016 Census enumerates just 451 Traveller men and 481 Traveller women aged over 65, with a broad base occurring at the younger ages (almost 60% aged under 25, double that of the general population) (Census 2017). ...
The Wonder Project was a collaborative early-years music and visual arts project developed in partnership with Traveller children and their mothers, involving artists, Fingal County Childcare Committee, Fingal Travellers’ Organisation and the Arts Education Research Group in Trinity College Dublin. This qualitative study aimed to create an artistic space for young children (aged 0–5 years) and mothers from the Traveller community. Accounting for less than 1% of the population, Irish Travellers are a small indigenous ethnic group who are recognised for their shared history, rich cultural and arts traditions, and distinct language [Murray, C., and M. Urban. 2012. Diversity & Equality in Early Childhood. An Irish Perspective. Dublin: Gill Education.]. Facing severe discrimination for centuries, the Irish Traveller community were officially recognised as an ethnic minority in Ireland in 2017. The area of arts engagement with ethnic minorities is under-researched [DiMaggio, P., and P. Fernández-Kelly. 2015. “Immigration and the Arts: a Theoretical Inquiry.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 38 (8): 1236–1244.], with little evidence pertaining to the early years. At the social, cultural, political, economic and policy levels, the relevance of arts engagement and participation for ethnicized minorities has been hypothesised [Vertovec, S. 2009. Conceiving and Researching Diversity. Göttingen: Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, MMG Working Paper 09-01.], but greater research is needed to better understand how artistic expressions play a role in the assertion of local identities and protect against the assimilating forces of the dominant social, cultural and political order [Martiniello, M. 2015. “Immigrants, Ethnicized Minorities and the Arts: A Relatively Neglected Research Area.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 38 (8): 1229–1235.]. Working within a Freirean and participatory and collaborative arts framework, this study aimed to examine the potential of arts education to impact on the relationship between Traveller mothers and their young children, and its potential to facilitate artistic exchanges between artists, mothers and children. Increased access to the arts, outdoor play and well-being between Traveller children and mothers was documented through audio recordings, still photographs, artists’ evaluations and semi-structured interviews. The success of The Wonder Project illustrates the importance of non-mainstreamed arts interventions for marginalised minority groups.
... Dies ist nicht die erste Arbeit, die den territorialen Charakter von policing ins Zentrum einer empirischen Untersuchung stellt (vgl. prägend Herbert 1997;im Anschluss daran Bass 2001;James 2006;Mulcahy 2012). Jedoch wurde hier ein alternativer theoretischer Rahmen vorgeschlagen, um den konstitutiven Zusammenhang von policing und Raum zu konzeptualisieren und empirisch zu untersuchen. ...
Zusammenfassung
Wie in vielen lateinamerikanischen Metropolen wird städtische ‚Unsicherheit‘ in Buenos Aires seit mehr als 20 Jahren als eines der drängendsten politischen und gesellschaftlichen Probleme diskutiert. In der Debatte ist die Polizei traditionell zentraler Bezugspunkt. Die Stadtbewohner*innen erwarten von ihr, dass sie auf den Straßen und Plätzen präsent ist und diese effektiv kontrolliert. Gleichzeitig sprechen sie ihr den Willen und die Fähigkeit dazu häufig ab und machen die Polizei für das Unsicherheitsproblem mit verantwortlich. Vor diesem Hintergrund untersuche ich in meinem Beitrag am Beispiel von Buenos Aires, wie urbaner Raum durch alltägliche polizeiliche Praktiken als staatlich-urbaner bzw. territorialer Raum hergestellt wird. Anhand der Präventivfestnahme und des Zugriffs auf die Straßenprostitution – als zwei miteinander verbundenen, aber kontrastierenden Beispielen der urbanen Raumkontrolle – zeige ich, dass es sich um einen konflikthaften, selektiven, informellen und widersprüchlichen Prozess handelt, in dessen Rahmen die Polizei institutionellen, politischen und ökonomischen Interessen folgt. Theoretisch eingebettet ist die Analyse in Henri Lefebvres Verständnis von Raum als soziales Produkt und des Urbanen als einer gesellschaftlichen Vermittlungsinstanz. In Anlehnung daran begreife ich die Polizei und policing als Scharniere, die im Prozess der staatlich-urbanen Raumproduktion zwischen abstrakter staatlicher Ordnung und konkretem Alltagsleben vermitteln.
... Recent data have shown that they are at increased risk of poor mental health as a result of physical health impairments and experiences of discrimination ( McGorrian et al. 2013;Watson, Kenny, and McGinnity 2017). Citing data from the All Ireland Traveller Health Study Team (2010) Mulcahy (2012 reported that 'life expectancy for Traveller men and women is, respectively, 15 and 11.5 years less than for the general population'. Revealing a very different population pyramidal structure than in the general population, data from the 2016 Census enumerates just 451 Traveller men and 481 Traveller women aged over 65, with a broad base occurring at the younger ages (almost 60% aged under 25, double that of the general population) (Census 2017). ...
Artful Dodgers is an arts education project developed by two artists and delivered in two early years settings located in two areas of urban disadvantage. It is a music and visual arts programme designed and implemented with early years teachers of children aged 3–5 years. It explored whether the provision of high-quality arts experiences could enhance children’s emerging literacy and numeracy. A novel ‘artist in(formed) residency’ model was developed within a unique arts education research design. Piloting a tripartite relationship between researchers, artists and early years teachers, this study was situated within a qualitative action research paradigm, with both artists located in both services weekly over a 12-week period. The evaluation of the programme indicates changes in pedagogical planning and style in the early years teachers over the period of the artists’ residency. Their language became more reflective and their practice incorporated a wider and richer range of materials; there was greater evidence of more child-led activities and unstructured play opportunities over the duration of the study. The data suggest that children’s social, cooperative and communication skills were enhanced. Recommendations have implications for the professional development of artists and teachers working in early years settings.
... They were increasingly problematised and controlled and repressed within nation-states intent on the centralisation and consolidation of power and surveillance. (1997, pp 17-18) The current period, he continues, represents the triumph of 'sedentarist hegemony' which, while not reducible to either racial or class based explanations is shaped by both, a theme explored by Mulcahy (2012) in his study of the governance of nomadic Travellers in Ireland and the impact of public hostility on policing practices. In the case of principles of 'public and national order', increasingly this takes the form of a categorisation and racialised treatment of English Gypsies, Irish Travellers and more recently of East and Central European Roma. ...
This original and timely text is the first published research from the UK to address the neglected topic of the increasing (and largely enforced) settlement of Gypsies and Travellers in conventional housing. It highlights the complex and emergent tensions and dynamics inherent when policy and popular discourse combine to frame ethnic populations within a narrative of movement. The authors have extensive knowledge of the communities and experience as policy practitioners and researchers and consider the changing culture and dynamics experienced by ethnic Gypsies and Travellers. They explore the gendered social, health and economic impacts of settlement and demonstrate the tenacity of cultural formations and their adaptability in the face of policy-driven constraints that are antithetical to traditional lifestyles. The groundbreaking book is essential reading for policy makers; professionals and practitioners working with housed Gypsies and Travellers. It will also be of interest to sociologists, anthropologists, social policy and housing specialists and anybody interested in the experiences and responses of marginalized communities in urban and rural settings. Royalties for this book are to be divided equally between the Gypsy Council and Travellers Aid Trust.
... National citizenship has been constructed through claims on land since the establishment of the Republic, and this further casts those making new (and irregular) claims on land as out of place in the nation (Mulcahy 2011). Immigration, particularly asylum seeking, but also the normal claims of citizenship, counter this narrative of nation and place. ...
In 2013, the United Nations established the International Decade for People of African Descent (resolution 68/237) to provide a framework within which the United Nations, Member States, civil society and other relevant actors can work with people identified as Black to identify and address problems of recognition, justice and development. The emerging policy literature around this approach has adopted the term ‘Afrophobia’ to cover all forms of anti-blackness, meaning hostility and discrimination towards people identified as Black, including in housing, education, healthcare, policy, as well as characterising experiences of violence and harassment1. Hate crimes are a key concern within the justice strand of intergovernmental organisations’ activities, with significantly different institutional responses by country. OSCE and EU Fundamental Rights Agency data has repeatedly shown that rates of hate crime victimisation were significantly higher for people identified as Black than for most other groups (Thompson, 2015). These correspond to widespread discrimination against this group (Michael, 2015; ENAR, 2016). This chapter describes and explores the experiences of hostility faced by people of African descent in the Republic of Ireland today, drawing particular attention to their experiences of hate crimes, policing and police responses to racist victimisation, and the roles of perpetrators and bystanders insofar as they are documented in racist incident reports.
... They were increasingly problematised and controlled and repressed within nation-states intent on the centralisation and consolidation of power and surveillance. (1997, pp 17-18) The current period, he continues, represents the triumph of 'sedentarist hegemony' which, while not reducible to either racial or class based explanations is shaped by both, a theme explored by Mulcahy (2012) in his study of the governance of nomadic Travellers in Ireland and the impact of public hostility on policing practices. In the case of principles of 'public and national order', increasingly this takes the form of a categorisation and racialised treatment of English Gypsies, Irish Travellers and more recently of East and Central European Roma. ...
Greenfields, Ryder and Smith examine the potential of the Traveller Economy but also the potential of new innovations including mutualism and social enterprise preserving the core features of Gypsy and Traveller economic practices in a modern context that can reverse economic and social exclusion. The ‘Traveller economy’ has traditionally been at the heart of Gypsy and Traveller bonding social capital and self help networks based on self employment and entrepreneurialism and in-family training. However, it has been deemed by some commentators to be undergoing decline and stagnation yet has been neglected in terms of public debates.
... They were increasingly problematised and controlled and repressed within nation-states intent on the centralisation and consolidation of power and surveillance. (1997, pp 17-18) The current period, he continues, represents the triumph of 'sedentarist hegemony' which, while not reducible to either racial or class based explanations is shaped by both, a theme explored by Mulcahy (2012) in his study of the governance of nomadic Travellers in Ireland and the impact of public hostility on policing practices. In the case of principles of 'public and national order', increasingly this takes the form of a categorisation and racialised treatment of English Gypsies, Irish Travellers and more recently of East and Central European Roma. ...
The structure and nature of social relations between housed Gypsies and Travellers and their non Gypsy neighbours is examined in this chapter. The function of mutual stereotypes and prejudice in generating hostility and suspicion between different co-resident groups is examined and respondents’ experiences of verbal and physical attacks. The material then turns to the varied responses of housed Gypsies and Travellers to prejudice and hostility from the wider society and the range of culturally grounded strategies which may range from avoidance, conscious residential segregation and aggressively violent strategies. Through close observation and qualitative data the study is able to delineate the role of social relations that transcend their own kin and community networks to encompass relations with non Gypsy neighbours. These intergroup relations are based on processes of categorization between ‘locals’ on one hand and ‘newcomers’ on the other. Such distinctions recognise the similar structural location and social status of the former compared to the latter groups and a tacit awareness of parallel values and orientations to life in addition to length of attachment to locality.
... Within the political context of Ireland's initial decades of focus on national ideology, the ethnicity debate featured little in practice. From the 1990s onwards, however, an economically prospering Ireland became more active on the international political scene as well as becoming for the first time a nation of immigration rather than mass emigration (Mulcahy 2012). In this political climate, one can identify the culture-ethnicity discourse surrounding Travellers moving into the forefront of the state's interaction with the Traveller Community, being harnessed as a political tool as part of the Irish state's participation in a globalising world. ...
The Irish Traveller Community represents an indigenous minority group defined largely by its supposedly 'traditional' lifestyle of mobility within the Irish state. By considering the perception of mobility as a cultural trait, this paper traces the development of discursive themes regarding Irish Travellers from the 1950s through to the present day, categorising these into a class-poverty and a culture-ethnicity paradigm. It is illustrated how such discursive categories in turn informed the state's practical interaction with the Traveller community, shaping political action, policy and legislative developments. This analysis highlights the simultaneous maintenance and marginalisation of the Traveller Community, creating a definitional 'other' in the process of constructing an Irish national identity.
Ireland is oft held aloft as one of the few examples of a Western police service that is unarmed. In this chapter we examine the realities of gun use among the Irish police, An Garda Síochána (Irish for ‘Guardians of the Peace’). We start by looking at the historic decisions to ‘disarm’ the gardaí and explore the extent to which this label can be accurately applied to the Irish police. Looking at current figures around use of force, we argue that the concept of the unarmed police in Ireland is more mythical than real. We then move to examine the consequences of that myth: that there has been a lack of transparency, oversight, professionalism and accountability for gun use by police in Ireland. We explore this primarily through a human rights lens, arguing that by clinging to the ‘unarmed’ myth, Ireland is not living up to its human rights obligations. Finally, we explore what the Irish experience of being ‘unarmed’ can tell us for the broader question of whether police should routinely carry guns.KeywordsAn Garda SíochánaUnarmed policeHuman rightsPolice accountabilityUse of forceIreland
This chapter presents the policy, practice, and societal contexts of initial teacher education in Ireland as a backdrop to the TOBAR programme. Primary teaching in Ireland is a high status and high demand profession, yet the teaching body is predominately white, female, and Catholic. In recent years, in response to changes in Irish society, and in initial teacher education and higher education policy, new initiatives have been introduced to diversify the teaching body. In the second section of this chapter, the authors present an overview of one such initiative: the TOBAR programme. The TOBAR programme supports Irish travellers to participate in initial teacher education programmes. Drawing on a series on interviews with students on the TOBAR programme, the authors report that the programme is having a positive impact on the students but that many challenges and barriers still exist.
This article provides the first comprehensive examination of the phenomenon of unequal access to procedural justice for older victims of crime. It analyses quantitative and qualitative data exploring the interactions of older people with the criminal justice system of Northern Ireland. It identifies that older victims of crime are less likely to have a successful crime outcome (known as ‘detection’ or ‘clear-up’ in other jurisdictions) to their case when compared to other adults. The results provide evidence of a system failing to adequately take into account additional vulnerabilities that disproportionately impact on older victims’ ability to engage with the justice process. There is an analysis of the relationships between vulnerability, resilience and access to justice. The current conceptual understanding of vulnerability as applied to older people within the justice system is challenged. The findings are relevant for researchers and policy-makers in the United Kingdom, Ireland and further afield concerned with the treatment of older and vulnerable victims by the justice system.
Gypsy and Traveller sites are precarious and liminal spaces to live. Insufficient in number and below standard in management and maintenance, the impact can result in poorer health and education outcomes, but also reduced community cohesion in society where conflicts occur over perceived values of spaces and of people. This article explores the precarious lives of Gypsies and Travellers who pursue a nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyle and seeks to show how neglected or insufficient accommodation impacts on their perceived identity and exclusion. It examines the problems created by the neglect of the Gypsy–Traveller site and attempts to develop a framework for better understanding the precarity of such groups, who are seen to be different because of the spaces they inhabit. In developing a more nuanced framework of precariousness, particularly focusing on the overlap of relative and perceived precarity in liminal spaces, the article highlights the marginal position of Gypsies and Travellers resident on sites and suggests that control is still exercised by the state over these ‘ghetto-like’ spaces, sometimes through neglect and sometimes through a move towards ‘mainstreaming’ management. The article helps to develop an understanding of Gypsy–Traveller site management, marginalisation and control, through the lens of precarity and within a frame of emerging theoretical concepts of the ghetto.
This article makes the case for the empirical study of the causative role of culture and ethnicity in offending and criminality. It advocates considering that racist subordination and structural exclusion may produce adaptive cultural practices which in turn contribute to negative outcomes such as crime. This article tentatively uses a case study of ‘doorstep fraud’, commonly associated with Gypsy/Traveller ‘rogue traders’ and ‘cowboy builders’ to engage with this idea. Drawing on conceptual and theoretical developments in anthropology, sociology and criminology, and using data from offender interviews with ‘doorstep fraudsters’, I examine the opportunities provided by nomadism and family self-employment for crime commission. The article speculates that Gypsy/Travellers’ cultures, structurally framed by economic insecurity, political marginalization and hostile social relations with sedentarist society are nonetheless dynamic rather than fixed, often sharing the aspirations and motivations of other ethno-cultural groups.
The interactions between young, disadvantaged, urban men and the rank-and-file officers who police them should be understood as layered structural, cultural and emotional phenomena. Using data from a multi-dimensional ethnographic project, this paper demonstrates that structural issues manifest in cultural scripts which place both groups in confrontation with each other. Within a tightly bound geographic district, competitiveness between them can be animated by intense emotionality. Frustration, humiliation, disdain and the potential for elation push both parties into behaviours that cannot be understood through discretion and confidence models of decision-making alone. Ultimately, through recognising how questions of inclusion/exclusion play out in simultaneously structural, cultural and emotive ways, the problems generated by negative interactions between the two groups might be meaningfully understood.
This paper explores the relationship between genomic accounts of ethnic origins and distinctiveness and genealogical models of ethnic and national similarity and difference. It does so by focusing on genetic investigations of Irish Traveller origins in the context of ongoing campaigns for state recognition of Irish Travellers as an ethnic group, and in relation to the politics of national belonging. The ostensibly ethical practice of liberal genomics is entangled with the fraught politics of the Irish state’s commitments to addressing ethnic minority rights, insistence on differentiating between Travellers and other ethnic groups on the basis of genealogical difference, and the genealogical incorporation of Travellers within the national community of shared descent. Though ideas of ancestral relatedness across social or cultural boundaries are often figured as politically progressive, locating groups within a national family tree on the basis of genealogical relatedness can simultaneously deny ethnic difference and naturalize exclusive models of nationhood.
As the Irish Government introduces a selection of changes to home defence law, through the Criminal Law (Defence and Dwelling) Act 2011, the Traveller Community, and the Ward-Nally case in particular, are regrettable reference points propelling public support for the use of force in home protection. The national broadcaster, Raidió Teilifis Éireann (RTÉ), has proved to be a central player in the constitution of difference; however, it is often an overlooked and under-researched arena. This article focuses on the use of the elite televisual forum of current affairs programming on RTÉ television to unveil the complex and multiple ways in which discourses of belonging are mobilised with respect to the Irish Traveller Community. It draws on one emotive event involving the Traveller and settled communities, the Ward-Nally case, and looks at the ways in which this forum interpellates the viewer, solidifying rituals of representation that remain within the viewers' consciousness long after a programme has been broadcast.
In this essay two photographs taken during the events (2011) at Dale Farm and at Meriden—both involving issues of gypsy and traveller settlement in rural areas—are analysed and interpreted in some depth. Use is thereby made of Izaak Walton’s The Compleat Angler (1653). This book, as is argued in this contribution, includes, in embryonic form, a whole imaginary of forms of sovereignty which, it could be said, is still to a significant extent structuring conflicts between gypsy and traveller communities on the one hand, and rural residents on the other. The exploration of Walton’s imaginary in which supposed compleat contemplators are pitched against intransigent, dogmatic, pertinacious schismaticks, enables us to tease out images of nomadism and sovereignty and allows us to argue how the clash of imaginary sovereignties both at Dale Farm and at Meriden is, at the core, a clash of irreconcilable forms of life which, each, rest upon what existentialists would call an original, radical choice. We conclude with some notes on the need to acknowledge but also to interrogate, in and during conflicts between gypsies and travellers and rural residents, the radical nature of the existential choices that underpin such conflicts. Without any such acknowledgement, and without any meta-communicative interrogation of the choices that underpin imaginary forms of life, one may not hope to be able bridge the chasm between radically chosen, diametrically opposed forms of life.
Howard Rahtz joined the Cincinnati Police Department in 1988, after a career in alcohol and drug rehabilitation, and served for nineteen years, retiring with the rank of captain. He has published four books, the first two in-service and the third – Drugs, Crime and Violence: From Trafficking to Treatment – in 2012. Race, Riots, and the Police is an analysis of one hundred years of race riots in America as a symptom of the ‘fissure between the police and the African American community’ and advances a selection of methods to bridge that fissure (p.1). This is an ambitious aim to achieve with a slim volume and my main criticism of Rahtz’s often compelling writing is the lack of structure that is evident from the very beginning and continues all the way to the end, inhibiting the solutions selected from coalescing into a coherent strategy.
With urban poverty rising and affordable housing disappearing, the homeless and other "disorderly" people continue to occupy public space in many American cities. Concerned about the alleged ill effects their presence inflicts on property values and public safety, many cities have wholeheartedly embraced "zero-tolerance" or "broken window" policing efforts to clear the streets of unwanted people. Through an almost completely unnoticed set of practices, these people are banned from occupying certain spaces. Once zoned out, they are subject to arrest if they return-effectively banished from public places. This book offers an exploration of these new tactics that dramatically enhance the power of the police to monitor and arrest thousands of city dwellers. Drawing upon an extensive body of data, the chapters chart the rise of banishment in Seattle, a city on the leading edge of this emerging trend, to establish how it works and explore its ramifications. They demonstrate that, although the practice allows police and public officials to appear responsive to concerns about urban disorder, it is a highly questionable policy-it is expensive, does not reduce crime, and does not address the underlying conditions that generate urban poverty. Moreover, interviews with the banished themselves reveal that exclusion makes their lives and their path to self-sufficiency immeasurably more difficult. At a time when ever more cities and governments in the U.S. and Europe resort to the criminal justice system to solve complex social problems, the book provides a challenge to exclusionary strategies that diminish the life circumstances and the rights of those it targets.
https://www.academia.edu/332823/Acton_Thomas_Ed._2006_._Cultural_Denigration_Media_Representation_of_Irish_Travellers_As_Criminal_
This paper draws upon data from two research projects following two distinct groups of young people: youth activists and homeless
or street-involved youth. Although these two groups differ in many ways—the former largely white and middle-class, the latter
more ethnically diverse and entirely working-class—each describes encounters with the police that are strikingly similar.
The paper explores two such similarities: (1) the role played by cultural discourses of the ‘good and legitimate citizen’
and (2) the role of spatiality, or, more specifically, the importance of being an appropriate body in the appropriate space.
The paper explores how the above two dimensions nuance and complicate the relationship between youth and police, in the context
of governmentality studies.
Irish Travelers are frequently equated with crime. This culture-of-crime stereotype is reproduced through media culture. In this article I will analyze the 1997 film Traveller and the first season of the 2007 television series The Riches to see how the criminal stigma is repeatedly (re)ascribed to Irish Travelers. I identify two cultural discourses in Traveller. First, the “culture as practice†discourse grants admission to a cultural group based on what one does. Second, the “culture as nature†discourse views cultural belonging in a biologically deterministic fashion. These two discourses overlap, and Irish Traveler culture is still depicted as a culture of crime. The Riches reproduces this stereotype, as the only way Irish Travelers can lead a “normal†life is too steal a buffer’s identity. Both of these examples lead to questioning whether invisibility or visibility solely as criminals is preferable.
Community policing initiatives that aim to address diversity are increasingly required to engage with Gypsies and Travellers. In this article the policing of Gypsies and Travellers is outlined through analysis of empirical research in the south-west of England. The research shows that the police work with multiple public and private agencies to control the movement and settlement of Gypsies and Travellers, but the engagement of Gypsies and Travellers in community policing initiatives is limited. The police primarily engage with Gypsies and Travellers through enforcement practice. Gypsies and Travellers are shown here to respond to their experiences of policing in a number of ways that attempt to place them beyond the gaze of formal agencies. In conclusion the article questions the degree to which policing agencies can reach Gypsies and Travellers via community policing approaches.
Attempts by governments to control unwanted border crossings are a defining feature of late modernity; but the suppression of cross-border mobility is not new. In pre-industrial England the `masterless men' and `valiant beggars' were subjected to harsh measures designed to curtail their mobility. In this article, we observe that border control intensifies at times of tumultuous structural change when institutions capable of preserving the emerging economic and social order are largely absent. In a globally mobile society, we argue that `flawed consumers' and `suspect citizens' are the most likely to be earmarked for exclusion. This designation links historical conceptions of `the other' with the tropes of race, class and foreignness to underpin contemporary xeno-racism.
Resonating with Frankenberg, this article explores the role of the individual stranger/outsider. The non-Gypsy (gorgio) individual or system is often used to settle internal disputes among Traveller-Gypsies, although rarely in the relatively benign role, as in Frankenberg's study. The outsider's system, while representing centuries of sedentarist and racist persecution, may also be open to manipulation. While popular discourse represents the Gypsies’ non-literate system as an isolate in some potential evolution, the few studies of Gypsies’ resolution of conflict have attracted attention in other disciplines because they raise questions about alternative controls and local cooperation in post-industrialist societies.
Rather than any classical contrast and comparison, the article demonstrates inter relations of differences with emphasis on agency and institutions of law enforcement as a resource. My ethnographic material emerges not from former colonies but the once centre of the British Empire. The Traveller-Gypsies also have relatively independent, appropriate means of settling conflicts. Hitherto, this detailed material from localized fieldwork rather than from afar, has been withheld for a safe passage of time. It may have become even more relevant.
Starting a decade ago, property crimes by Eastern European crime gangs have gained attention of Belgian law enforcement agencies.
Due to the mobile nature of these groups, the term ‘itinerant crime groups’ has been used. The aim of this article is to explore
what is incorporated in this term. By analyzing 27 case files, a large degree of variation is revealed. Groups differ in size,
organizational structure, offender characteristics, the crimes in which they are involved and the methods they use. Following
these features, two main types of itinerant crime groups can be distinguished, each with their own diversity. As such, the
observed heterogeneity is larger than we might suspect by looking at the policy definition of the phenomenon.
KeywordsCase file analysis-Eastern European crime-Itinerant crime groups-Organized crime-Property crime
Using a detailed case study of an area of East London, this book documents the everyday abuse, assault and intimidation that is suffered by ethnic minorities in Great Britain. The author explains and analyses the process through which violence is targeted at these minorities, along with the role that the ideas and language of racial exclusion take in this process. The apparent failure of the police and "multi-agency initiatives" to respond effectively to this problem is then looked at in depth. This book is based on detailed analysis of official documents, a victimisation survey, interviews and direct observation, seen in the overall context of the history of race relations in Britain. It describes some of the many thousands of racist attacks that have occurred in recent years and the events in the last two decades that have shaped English racism and the political and policy responses to it.
The research reported here arose out of a comparison between different types of police harassment directed against groups of young people in the city centre and on council estates in the inner city. I had, of course, experienced the sharp end of city centre policing at 144 Piccadilly. Subsequent experience of working with young people in North Islington (described in the previous chapter) made it clear that a very different set of protocols and procedures were being applied in this case.
This chapter seeks to provide a sociological analysis of feuding in the Irish context and compare the structure of Limerick 'gangland' and Traveller feuds. There is relatively little scholarly analysis available on contemporary feuds in Ireland despite the growing intensity of feuding during the last fifteen years. Tw o studies were undertaken in response to Traveller feuding in the Midlands,1 but no sociological research has been conducted on how feuding interweaves with the particular criminal justice challenges which exist in Limerick city.
Over recent years race has become one of the most important issues faced by the police. This book seeks to analyse the context and background to these changes, to assess the impact of the Lawrence Inquiry and the MacPherson Report, and to trace the growing emphasis on policing as an 'antiracist' activity, proactively confronting racism in both crime and non-crime situations. Whilst this change has not been wholly or consistently applied, it does represent an important change in the discourse that surrounds police relations with the public since it changes the traditional role of the police as 'neutral arbiters of the law'. This book shows why race has become the most significant issue facing the British police, and argues that the police response to race has led to a consideration of fundamental issues about the relation of the police to society as a whole and not just minority groups who might be most directly affected.
In this book, Anthony A. Braga and David L. Weisburd make the case that hot spots policing is an effective approach to crime prevention that should be engaged by police departments in the United States and other countries. There is a strong and growing body of rigorous scientific evidence that the police can control crime hot spots without simply displacing crime problems to other places. Indeed, putting police officers in high crime locations is an old and well established idea. However, the age and popularity of this idea does not necessarily mean that it is being done properly. Police officers should strive to use problem oriented policing and situational crime prevention techniques to address the place dynamics, situations, and characteristics that cause a "spot" to be "hot." Braga and Weisburd further suggest that the strategies used to police problem places can have more or less desirable effects on police community relations. Particularly in minority neighborhoods where residents have long suffered from elevated crime problems and historically poor police service, police officers should make an effort to develop positive and collaborative relationships with residents and not engage strategies that will undermine the legitimacy of police agencies, such as indiscriminant enforcement tactics. This book argues that it is time for police departments to shift away from a focus on catching criminal offenders and move towards dealing with crime at problem places as a central crime prevention strategy.
The Traveller community is popularly perceived to be disproportionately involved in crime in Ireland. At the same time claims are also made that this group suffer disproportionately at the hands of an unsympathetic judiciary and police. This article examines these assertions by studying
incidents of violent crime in which Travellers were involved in the Ireland of the 1940s, 50s and 60s. Overall it concludes that Travellers were not particularly prominent amongst such offenders, and that rather than reacting especially severely to Traveller violence the police and the courts
tended to deal with such incidents with relative leniency. This was due in part to a predisposition to identify the locations in which Traveller violence typically occurred as public rather than domestic, and hence to interpret fatalities as acts of manslaughter rather than murder.
This paper reviews the concept of police culture and its utility for analysing the impact of police reform. The persistence
of police culture has been considered a serious obstacle to reform, but the concept itself has been poorly defined and is
of little analytic value. Drawing on Bourdieu's concepts of ‘field’ and ‘habitus’ and adopting a framework developed by Sackmann,
this paper suggests a new way of conceptualizing police culture, one which recognizes its interpretive and creative aspects,
as well as the legal and political context of police work. Thus, police culture results from an interaction between the ‘field’
of policing and the various dimensions of police organizational knowledge. The utility of this framework is discussed in relation
to a case study of reforming police/minorities relations in Australia.
This paper examines relations between `tinkers', or `Travellers', and settled society in Ireland since the late nineteenth century. It argues that the racialisation and defamation of Travellers then reached new heights with the development of a rural fundamentalist nationalism which fused with Social Darwinism and caused Travellers to be treated as social anachronisms in an increasingly settled and sanitised society. This in turn meant that Travellers were located outside the moral and political structures of the Irish state and placed at the `hostile' end of a continuum running from tradition to modernity. As a result of renewed modernisation through industrialisation in the 1970s through to the 1990s, new strategies of social closure have emerged which are causing Travellers to be located at the outer edges of Irish society. The paper finally suggests that the constant structuring and restructuring of economy and space in Ireland have fostered `fortress' mentalities here. This is aggravating divisions, both at national and local level, between subaltern Travellers and hegemonic sectors in Irish society.
White ethnicity is generally invisible and unexamined in racism, crime and justice debates. Serving mostly as a default comparator to describe visible minority experiences of crime and criminal justice processes, white ethnicity is seen as unproblematic as an ethnicity except as a potential source of racism. This article draws on aspects of `whiteness studies' in the USA and UK—focusing on marginalized white ethnicities—to explore racialized `white' ethnicity, both historically and today. Designations such as white `underclass', `new' migrants, `white trash' are offered to show that some whites are seen as `less white' than others within a hierarchy of `whiteness'. The article concludes that racism and classism towards marginalized white working-class ethnicities have criminalized these groups in ways not too dissimilar from the criminalization of visible working-class minorities.
This paper explores the policing of New Travellers: a nomadic community who have existed since the 1970s. They have been presented
by the British mass media as ‘folk devils’ and they are treated by the police as a public order problem. The paper will discuss
the methods used by the police to manage New Travellers, applying a spatial analysis to understand police practice. The empirical
evidence shows that the ability of policing agencies to manage nomadic people is determined by their notion of space and who
can legitimately occupy it. The paper therefore explores the policing of nomadism which incorporates a discussion of the need
to develop conceptions of public order policing that recognize the use of ‘guerrilla tactics’.
This article charts the changing conceptualization of Travellers in relevant Irish central government policy statements since the 1960s, together with the accommodation policy initiatives devised on this basis. It interprets developments in this regard as a movement from assimilationism to integrationism to (weak) multiculturalism. The article also reveals a significant “policy implementation deficit”, which is manifested in two ways. Firstly, accommodation output has generally failed to meet central government targets and has consistently failed to reduce the numbers of Travellers living in unofficial encampments. Secondly, the type of accommodation provided has often been at variance with central government recommendations. Thus, an assimilationist policy statement has effected multicultural policy outcomes, while a multiculturalist policy statement has effected assimilationist policy outcomes. These patterns of accommodation output are related to various implementation variables—some long-standing, others new—which have impeded the implementation of national policy by actors on the ground.
Recent criminological literature, mainly based on experiences in the United States and the United Kingdom, suggests that Western
societies have witnessed a shift from rehabilitation to repression and from inclusion to exclusion. However, in a socio-historical
case study of national and local policies dealing with Travellers in the Netherlands—a group regarded as highly deviant—we
found that rehabilitation remains the primary aim, albeit that the policy of rehabilitation recently has taken on a much more
compulsory character. This policy can be conceived of as a practice of ‘repressive inclusion’. Only detailed and empirical
research on policies directed at strategically chosen groups in different institutional settings can decide whether this policy
of repressive inclusion is a specific Dutch experience or has a more general application.
Sumario: Policing as risk communications -- Policing, risk and law -- Community policing and risk communications -- Risk discourse -- Risk institutions -- Risk and social change -- Tracing territories -- Mobilizing territories -- Territorial communities -- Securities -- Careers -- Identities -- Knowledge risk management -- Communication rules -- Communication formats -- Communication technologies Bibliografía: P. 453-470
Gardai struggling to contain Traveller feud', Irish Independent
- See
See, for example: 'Killing sparks traveller feud fear', Irish Independent, 11 May 1999; 'Gardai
struggling to contain Traveller feud', Irish Independent, 18 October 2009; 'Travellers vow
to end feuding after judge lets 65 walk free', Irish Times, 21 February 2010; and 'Horse fair
violence linked to feud', Irish Times, 8 March 2011.
Bhreatnach (2007: 62) argued that guards historically were less likely to bring prosecutions against Travellers as, if they moved on, a conviction was unlikely and this lowered the police clearance rate. For discussion of police measures to move on Travellers in
By contrast, Bhreatnach (2007: 62) argued that guards historically were less likely to bring
prosecutions against Travellers as, if they moved on, a conviction was unlikely and this lowered the police clearance rate. For discussion of police measures to move on Travellers in
Britain, see James (2006, 2007) and Power (2004).
Intercultural Ireland: Identifying the Challenges for the Police Service
- An Garda Síochána
An Garda Síochána (2001) Intercultural Ireland: Identifying the Challenges for the Police Service.
Dublin: An Garda Síochána.
Diversity Strategy and Implementation Plan 2009-2012. Dublin: An Garda Síochána
- An Garda Síochána
An Garda Síochána (2009) Diversity Strategy and Implementation Plan 2009-2012. Dublin: An
Garda Síochána.
Becoming Conspicuous: Irish Travellers, Society and the State 1922-70
- A Bhreatnach
Bhreatnach A (2006) Becoming Conspicuous: Irish Travellers, Society and the State 1922-70.
Dublin: University College Dublin Press.
Garda Public Attitudes Survey
- C Browne
Browne C (2008) Garda Public Attitudes Survey 2008. Research Report No. 1/08. Dublin: An
Garda Síochána.
The Blue Wall of Silence: The Morris Tribunal and Police Accountability in Ireland
- V Conway
Conway V (2010) The Blue Wall of Silence: The Morris Tribunal and Police Accountability in
Ireland. Dublin: Irish Academic Press.
The Last Bastion of Racism? Gypsies, Travellers and Policing
- J Coxhead
Coxhead J (2007) The Last Bastion of Racism? Gypsies, Travellers and Policing. Stoke on Trent:
Trentham Books.
The Outsiders: Exposing the Secretive World of Ireland's Travellers
- E Dillon
Dillon E (2006) The Outsiders: Exposing the Secretive World of Ireland's Travellers. Merlin:
Dublin.