{"id":21012,"date":"2018-10-25T13:44:46","date_gmt":"2018-10-25T12:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/?p=21012"},"modified":"2018-11-02T14:51:31","modified_gmt":"2018-11-02T14:51:31","slug":"response-to-peter-casey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/response-to-peter-casey\/","title":{"rendered":"Response to Peter Casey"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I first heard presidential candidate Peter Casey\u2019s comments on the Traveller community I was disappointed, but not surprised.<\/span><\/p>\n

I am a young Traveller man from Ballinasloe, Co. Galway. Ballinasloe is renowned for having a strong Traveller population. I have witnessed both discrimination of Travellers by the settled community and the exploitation of the settled community by the Travelling community first hand.<\/span><\/p>\n

One quote from Mr. Casey\u2019s derogatory rant that stood out to me instantly was: \u201cThey are encouraged to think that they are different, they are not. They should think and act as Irish people, not necessarily as different to everyone else, then their children end up thinking that they are different and it\u2019s harder for their children to fit into society.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

My response to this is simply- it is an uphill task to merge into society when you feel that you will not be accepted.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t believe my words, I present statistics from a survey conducted by Miche\u00e1l Mac Gr\u00e9il S.J., of NUI Maynooth in 2010 among the settled community.<\/span><\/p>\n