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Travellers and Roma in Ireland: Understanding Hate Crime Data through the Lens of Structural Inequality

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Critical Perspectives on Hate Crime

Part of the book series: Palgrave Hate Studies ((PAHS))

Abstract

Ireland’s Traveller and Roma populations, although distinct, face a number of shared challenges, the most concerning of which is deep-rooted and widespread racism. At the same time however, there is little documented evidence of hate crime against these two communities. This chapter addresses the paucity of data on anti-Traveller and anti-Roma hate crime with specific reference to the Republic of Ireland. Following a profile of the two communities and a discussion of anti-Traveller and anti-Roma racism in Irish society, we focus on examining the possibilities for Traveller and Roma visibility offered by official and civil society hate crime recording mechanisms. The remainder of the chapter discusses the particular relevance of a number of recognised and less acknowledged obstacles to reporting for Traveller and Roma communities in Ireland. The chapter concludes that the paucity of documentation of anti-Traveller and anti-Roma hate crime in Ireland is both a function of, and contributes to, extreme structural inequality.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Travellers often refer to the majority population as ‘settled people’. Many problematise the use of the term ‘settled Traveller’ to refer to Travellers who are not actively nomadic, arguing that it is a divisive oxymoron; as Liégeois, J.P. (1994, p. 79) argues, ‘Nomadism is more a state of mind than a state of fact’.

  2. 2.

    ‘Report on the Commission on Itinerancy’ (Dublin, 1963).

  3. 3.

    Concerns remain about the accuracy of the census figures for the Traveller population. Traveller organisations contend that the numbers identifying as Traveller in the national census represent a significant undercount (Pavee Point 2015).

  4. 4.

    See, for example, TV programmes such as Bogus Beggars and Traveller Feuds.

  5. 5.

    Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are Ireland’s two most prominent mainstream parliamentary parties.

  6. 6.

    A highly offensive racial slur deployed against Travellers.

  7. 7.

    See, for example, newspaper headlines such as ‘First pictures of Gypsy couple “who snatched little Maria” as they…face up to 20 years in prison’ (Spencer et al. 2013).

  8. 8.

    The child’s blonde hair, green eyes and pale skin complexion were considered sufficient evidence to allow Greek police arrest a Roma couple for her abduction. When subsequent DNA testing found Maria to be the biological daughter of a Roma family living in Bulgaria, who had willingly given her up for adoption, the media quickly lost interest.

  9. 9.

    As the Garda Inspectorate (2014) did not specifically recommend the introduction of an anti-Roma motivation marker, this inclusion signifies a growing awareness of the potential for anti-Roma crime on the part of An Garda Síochána which is to be welcomed and which may reflect an assimilation of lessons from the events recounted in Logan (2014b).

  10. 10.

    Some training did continue in this period, including at least one training session specifically addressing Roma culture.

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Correspondence to Sindy Joyce .

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Joyce, S., Kennedy, M., Haynes, A. (2017). Travellers and Roma in Ireland: Understanding Hate Crime Data through the Lens of Structural Inequality. In: Haynes, A., Schweppe, J., Taylor, S. (eds) Critical Perspectives on Hate Crime. Palgrave Hate Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52667-0_18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52667-0_18

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-52666-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-52667-0

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