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SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY Council has voted to recognise Travellers as an ethnic minority.
The motion was put forward by Independent councillor Francis Timmons, who said recognising Travellers as an ethnic minority is one “one of Ireland’s biggest human rights issues”.
Timmons told the council that Travellers suffer “exclusion, restriction and discrimination based on their ethnic origin”.
“The Travelling community has a rich culture that should be cherished and shared.”
He called on the Government to act quickly on its promise of introducing Traveller ethnicity.
In November, Aodhán Ó Riordáin, the Minister of State for Equality, said it would become a reality in the coming months.
At the time, he said Travellers “satisfy the standard legal and sociological criteria for recognition as an ethnic group and have received such recognition in the UK”.
The reality is that a Traveller in Dundalk has no ethnic recognition, whereas a Traveller in Newry does despite being mere minutes apart from each other. Granting ethnicity status to Irish Travellers will provide legal clarity on the issue and is in line with various requests made by National Traveller Organisations over the last two decades.
According to the 2011 Census, there are about 30,000 Travellers in Ireland.
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Travellers as an ethnic minority, what next free travel..!
They will now be known as
Culture club……
How does this change anything? So Pa and Jon-jo now have “ethnic recognition?” What happens now?
It will look good on the CV’s. ….
You will now be branded a racist for criticising their crimes.
I think the native Irish traveller community would be demoralised if they go ahead with the vote, that’s my opinion and I know it might sound bizarre, but I am an ethnic minority, because I wasn’t born in Ireland but I am Irish, someone born in Ireland with roots traced back trough generations shouldn’t be considered a minority but just plain Irish, independently if they are travellers or not.
Could we get a list of YES/NO/Abstain with the article?
They’ll be out celebrating this great news late into the night #wearedifferent
A sensible decision I think. Whatever personal feelings about travellers might be, there is no doubt they are at a big disadvantage when it comes to life opportunities settled people take for granted
That’s their choice in fairness and settled people work hard for what they have.
Many settled people don’t though!
Right. Well if you don’t have education and hard work featuring in your set of values, your life opportunities will be somewhat limited. And the solution for that is that you are recognised as n ‘ethnic minority’.
Don’t agree with this at all. The word “ethnic” comes from the Greek word “ethnos” meaning a race of people. The travel let’s are Irish as proved by the recent genetic studies which showed conclusively that they share the same origins as other Irish people
have your say