Travellers' Rest

Now two tragedies in Texas:
Five young Irish Traveller boys were killed in a truck collision on January 2, 2000 in the Ft. Worth area. That city's Star-Telegram covered that accident, of course. That's their business, facts.

One of the highest compliments one Traveller can pay to others, especially to country people, is: "They know how to mind their own business." That sounds kind of snotty, I know, but when it's said, it is said sincerely and Travellers really value that sort of dignified reserve in others very highly. But this newspaper crossed the line when it published a "follow-up" story on February 20, 2000 that pictured Travellers in Texas as walking cash-stations (ATMs) and then did everything but draw maps to their homes and the business establishments that they frequented. I wish I could say that the Star-Telegram failed to live up to the accepted "Standards of Journalism," but I personally judge those standards to be quite sorry indeed.

What if I, a private citizen just as those reporters and editors are, did a bit of digging and then published their home addresses, hangouts and probable net worth "on the hoof?" I'd be quickly arrested for harassment at the very least, that's "what," and God help me if anything actually happened to one of them.

On February 21, an Irish Traveller was killed for no readily apparent motive. If the young man actually possessed "wads of $100 bills," as the Star-Telegram only one day earlier had reported to be a Traveller "hallmark," they must have been stolen during or after the killing. If not, the tragedy is further compounded by the possibility that the victim was killed merely because some murderer had an entirely misplaced faith in the accuracy of Ft. Worth's premier newspaper.

I sent the e-mail copied below to its editors but I doubt whether it will ever be printed in their newspaper [I was incorrect there; it was printed Feb. 26, 2000, substantially unmodified]. To those who might say that it is none of my personal business, living way up north as I do, I say that I have been a Winter Texan myself more than once in the past and might well be again. It is also entirely true that it was the Star-Telegram itself that originally brought my name up in connection with this, and not any of my doing. The background support for that statement can be found on the previous edition of this page: What's New 02/25/00.

Reckless indifference?
First let me state that this is the opinion of one man only and not an "official statement released by the Irish Travellers." That was how your paper so erroneously termed a simple prayer intention taken from my personal web site without permission (your article on Travellers, Feb. 20, 2000). Since this misstatement occurred after weeks of repeated refusals on my part to provide your Mr. Kennedy and Ms. McDonald with any information about Travellers in Texas, I cannot believe that it was so cited in ignorance. That was reckless indifference to the truth.

But that offense pales in comparison to the reckless indifference to public safety demonstrated by the rest of your article. There is a reason why my web site does not specify family names or residential locations for Travellers, a very good reason. There are also good reasons why it doesn't announce to the world that Traveller "hallmarks are wads of $100 bills, expensive cars and elegant clothes." In light of the murder of a Traveller in your area only one day or so after that article appeared, would you care to speculate about those reasons? They are called "common decency" and "common sense." (Take the time to look the terms up if you have to.)

In order to fill up blank paper with unsubstantiated rumor and "facts" irrelevant to any reasonable discussion of a vehicular accident, the Star-Telegram has virtually pinned a target to the back of thousands of innocent people and provided a motive, method and opportunity (everything short of an actual weapon) for every violent felon at large in the State of Texas to seize onto.

A Friend of all Travelling Peoples:
A friend of mine, Matt Salo, is well known in academic circles as an expert on Travelling People of all sorts from Finnish Gypsies to English Travellers. He recently sent me a copy (shown below) of his e-mailed response to a reporter's repeated requests to name "inside sources" to be interviewed about Irish Travellers. When I asked him how he would wish to be credited ("Dr. Matt Salo" or "Matt Salo, PhD" or "noted anthropologist"), Matt opted for something simpler and just as true. And that's how this paragraph got its heading.

[To: Mary Rogers (a reporter)]
It would not be proper for me, as an outsider, to put you in touch with a Traveler [source], since I can't evaluate the impact of the whole publicity angle from their perspective. The host of Traveller's Rest has also declined to volunteer contacts from what I understand.

Although I think that the lack of positive publicity to counteract the solely negative press may hurt the people over the long run, I respect their judgment to refrain from exposing their culture any more than they have been forced to due to pressure of events. I believe it's a matter of feelings more than of reason, but then I'm not in their shoes. They have been vilified for so long that the withdrawal is a very natural and an understandable reaction.

What bothers me more than anything else are the continuing public attacks on them by the law enforcement who come in contact only with a small fraction of the Traveller population. Why do they need to generalize and vilify all Travellers, when everyone who knows even a little more about the people agree that most of them are perfectly law-abiding and the percentage of law breakers among them is probably no greater than in the majority population? The lack of any appreciable number of convictions for serious crimes would even indicate that their crime rate may be lower than that of the mainstream population. I know it's common for the police to say that they are very clever at avoiding prosecution, but this I believe is a cop out (no pun intended). If the courts fail to prosecute them time after time, when the police haul them in for alleged misdemeanors, it says something is wrong with the police tactics, not with the Travellers.

I think police on the whole pre-judge many minority populations and as long as theirs is the only voice heard the preconceptions will remain (by the way this is not just a generalization about the police on my part; there are dozens of studies showing such attitudes are prevalent among them). Currently Blacks and Hispanics are combating labeling, stereotyping, profiling and targeting of their people in a very public and effective way. Their actions have shown police to be acting on the basis of irrational prejudice rather than merely the incidence of crime among these minorities. If the Travellers had as effective spokespersons perhaps they could stop the attacks against them as well.

An article that you might also consider writing is an exposé of the concerted effort by police to show all Traveling populations (three Traveller and about a dozen Gypsy groups) in the worst possible light. For this you would not lack evidence. There are dozens of booklets, reports, newsletters, memoranda, etc circulating among law enforcement people aimed at Traveling people. Some of the language, prejudicial statements and unfounded claims would give the ACLU nightmares if they only knew about them. This widespread and copious literature, which is the only source of instruction received by neophyte policemen, is completely inbred, one-sided and not subject to any criticism or correction because it's hidden from public scrutiny.

The best I can do is to send your plea to couple of Travellers, but I cannot guarantee that you will even get a response. I believe you are trying to do the right thing, but it will be a difficult task; fear and suspicion generated by hundreds of years of discrimination cannot be overcome easily.

Controversy:
The current edition of Controversy is an examination of the plight of Travellers in Ireland (borrowing freely from others' expertise) and how some of the best intentioned people who are academics and social workers may or may not be helping. It is still under construction and probably will be for several months

Another future edition of Controversy is in the planning stage, that will be mostly devoted to the nomadic character of the Traveller as a source of conflict with the settled or "country" people of Ireland and the USA.

Music:
The information on Irish Traveller music presented here last month has been archived in What's New 12/27/99 and also copied to a Travellers' Music page linked to the main Travellers Page.

Shelta:
One way to say "Happy St. Patrick's Day" in Shelta (the oldest known form of the Irish Travellers' Cant) would have been: Buri talosk a krishena Thom-Swudal-Koonya Stofrik. I have to admit that this expression is entirely my own modern construction based on recorded Cant words from the last century. Probably my ancestors would eventually have recognized what I was getting at, even with my stilted construction ("Happy day of the ancient Archbishop, Patrick"). Yes, "Stofirt" and "Stofrik" were apparently old Traveller nicknames for "Patrick," odd as that might sound to the modern ear. But almost certainly they had a shorter and more graceful expression for the purpose that was unfortunately never recorded.

By the way, there are four words in that language which offer tantalizing hints of a possible solution to the mysterious origins question: Where and when do the Irish Travellers come from? Surprise! In my humble opinion, it's very likely not anywhere or anywhen you might expect. More to come. Oh yes; the words are shoru, shrish, shrittel and shrug, if you would like to get started without me.

Coming Attractions:
I am still planning to expand Fiction3 and, additionally, expound in mostly fictional or speculative form on a mythical history for the Travelling People of Ireland. Again: more to come.