Irish Travellers to finally get formal recognition as an ethnic minority

A report, brought before cabinet last week by the Minister for Equality David Stanton, outlined that the recognition of Travellers as an ethnic minority would neither confer new rights on the community nor mean any extra costs, but would be a symbolic gesture that recognises their place in Irish society.

An ESRI report released in January highlighted the “extreme disadvantage” suffered by Travellers across a range of areas, including health, housing, education, employment and mortality.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, former director of the Irish Traveller Movement Brigid Quilligan said the 40,000-strong community was overjoyed at the development and it would mean that their identity will be valued.

She said currently in Ireland, Travellers were seen as a failed set of people, and their history, language and culture was not valued.

Ms Quilligan said while Traveller ethnicity was recognised by the settled population, it was considered a negative rather than a positive thing.

She said she believed that today's State recognition would change that.

"We want every Traveller in Ireland to be proud of who they are and to say that we're not a failed set of people," said Ms Quilligan. "We have our own unique identity and we shouldn't take on all of the negative aspects of what people think about us.

"We should be able to be proud and for that to happen our State needed to acknowledge our identity and our ethnicity and they're doing that today."

The news will be welcomed by Irish traveller and actor John Connors, who has campaigned for ethnicity recognition for a long time. You can read our interview between John Connors and fellow Irish Traveller Finbar Furey here.