traveller crime in ireland

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Home » Europe » Travel Safety

Is Ireland Safe for Travel? (Insider Tips)

Ireland isn’t called the Emerald Isle for no reason. It’s packed with greenery, offers more hiking opportunities than you could discover in one trip, boasts castle ruins, charming villages, ancient monasteries, plenty of pubs and more. You’ve got yourself a dreamy destination.

But there is a little bit of a reputation for Ireland regarding recent history. Gun crime is actually a big problem too. Petty theft isn’t unheard of and though drinking and nights out can be fun, here they can really end badly in a wrong place, wrong time sort of way.

It’s definitely fair to ask, “Is Ireland safe?” and we’re going to be answering in the form of this epic insider’s guide all about staying safe in Ireland. It may be a developed European nation, but there’s still things you should know about Ireland.

We’re going to be covering a huge amount of topics in this guide from whether or not it’s safe to drive in Ireland to travel to Ireland as solo female travellers, and a whole lot more!

You may be concerned about taking your family to Ireland, or you may be thinking of taking the plunge and you’re wondering whether or not it’s safe to live in Ireland. Whatever your worries are, we’ve got you covered with our Ireland safety guide.

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How Safe is Ireland (Our take)

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Beautiful landscapes, ancient history, folklore and amazing hospitality await you in Ireland. We’re pretty much certain that you’re going to love it and glad you’ve added Ireland to your backpacking trips!

In fact, Ireland is really safe.

But you can’t have the Ireland of today without its long and complicated history. This small island has faced many troubles, which basically goes all the way back to 1170 AD when the Anglo-Normans invaded Ireland. The rest is, like we said, history…

Violent crime is fairly low. But opportunist thieves do exist – especially in tourist areas. You’ll definitely have to watch out for pickpocketing, especially around the famous attractions. But then again, that’s a simple caution that you have to take no matter where you are in the world.

Other than that, Irish people are passionate and welcome people with open arms.

There is no such thing as a perfect safety guide, and this article is no different. The question of “Is Ireland Safe?” will ALWAYS have a different answer depending on the parties involved. But this article is written for savvy travellers from the perspective of savvy travellers.

The information present in this safety guide was accurate at the time of writing, however, the world is a changeable place, now more than ever. Between the pandemic, ever-worsening cultural division, and a click-hungry media, it can be hard to maintain what is truth and what is sensationalism.

Here, you will find safety knowledge and advice for travelling Ireland. It won’t be down to the wire cutting edge info on the most current events, but it is layered in the expertise of veteran travellers. If you use our guide, do your own research, and practise common sense, you will have a safe trip to Ireland.

If you see any outdated information in this guide, we would really appreciate it if you could reach out in the comments below. We strive to provide the most relevant travel information on the web and always appreciate input from our readers (nicely, please!). Otherwise, thanks for your ear and stay safe!

It’s a wild world out there. But it’s pretty damn special too. 🙂

Ireland is definitely safe to visit, and loads of people think so too.

Tourism is one of the biggest moneymakers for Ireland, which means that it’s a pretty safe place to go. In 2011,  Frommer’s made it their “favourite holiday destination in the world” – a huge claim.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that things are completely safe. In fact, crime has been on the rise.

Gang-related crime, as well as drug abuse and gun crime,   have all increased in recent years. Theft and public order offences have also been rising recently, often related to excessive drinking (and drugs).

But this doesn’t mean it’s not safe. Most offences are small, like petty theft, and if you look at our favourite the Global Peace Index, their 2021 list put them in at a super safe 8 out of 163 countries , between Switzerland and the Czech Republic!

Most of the ‘bad stuff’ that still happens, happens in Northern Ireland , which is part of the  UK. 

The Republic of Ireland  makes up around 80% of the island,  Northern Ireland  is the rest. It was politically divided during the  Irish War of Independence  (1919 to 1921).

Basically, some sensitivity around things like the IRA is required and it’s best not to mention anything as people nowadays just want to get on with their lives. For now, Ireland (Republic of Ireland) is a thing, Northern Ireland is another.

All in all, though, Ireland is safe to visit right now.

When choosing where you’ll be staying in Ireland, a bit of research and caution is essential. You don’t want to end up in a sketchy area and ruin your trip. To help you out, we’ve listed the safest areas to visit in Ireland below.

There’s something truly magical about Galway that really earns it the number one spot – on top of that, it’s pretty safe as well! Also, it is known as the Cultural Heart of Ireland, which means that traditional Irish music, dance, and song all thrive there! If you are visiting Ireland you should definitely come to stay in Galway .

Galway is actually the sixth most populous city in Ireland and is home to some awesome neighborhoods. Kinvara is the best area to stay in Galway for nightlife and Salthill is the best for staying on a budget. Because it is such a popular city, you’ll have to watch your belongings, especially on public transport or around attractions since pickpocketing crimes do happen here.

Dublin isn’t just a great place to explore, it’s also ideal for budget travellers that want to stay safe. As the country’s capital, and as a major international transportation hub, getting to and from Dublin is usually pretty cheap. At least when you’re comparing it to renting a car and taking tons of trains to get to more remote areas of Ireland…

That being said, it’s also filled with tourists which makes it a haven for pickpocketing thieves. As long as you keep your eyes open and stay aware of your surroundings, you won’t face any issues in Dublin. 

As Ireland’s second-largest city, Cork resides on the coastlines of southwest Ireland and is sliced by the meandering River Lee. Cork is known for being the perfect mix of relaxed yet lively. Make sure to note that the locals like to say that the city of Cork is the real capital of Ireland. The locals sure have abundant city love and pride.

This cosmopolitan city is filled with hip, new things as well as traditional pubs and historic gems. There are however some sketchy areas that you should avoid, but we’ll come to that in a bit. Just like Galway and Dublin, Cork is very popular, so watch out for your valuables when exploring the city!

Places to avoid in Ireland

Unfortunately, not all places in Ireland are safe. You need to be careful and aware of your surroundings pretty much anywhere you go in the world, and the same goes for visiting Ireland. To help you have a safe trip, we’ve listed the areas you need to be more careful of below: 

• Anderson’s Quay in Cork 
• Fitton Street in Cork 

These places can get pretty rowdy; Fitton Street for example is known for its prostitution. So there are sketchy areas that you need to be aware of, but you most likely won’t even end up in one of those places anyway. Not walking into any dark side streets is, of course, not advised either. Use your common sense and you’ll be perfectly fine.

It’s important to know that Ireland is pretty safe, but a bit of caution and research before you start your travels will go a long way. If you want to increase your safety during your stay, read on for our insider travel tips. Stick to those and you won’t have a single issue in Ireland.

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Ireland is known for its sheer drama when it comes to landscapes. Beautiful coastlines, rolling valleys, cosy pubs, and a whole load of outdoors activities to enjoy. But safety is a separate issue.

It may be seen as ‘safe’, but the drinking culture here plays a big part in the crime levels of Ireland, for real. So to help you stay as safe as can be, we’ve rounded up our best travel tips for staying safe on your holiday to Ireland.

• Secure your belongings  – bag snatching and petty theft is a bit of a thing, so make sure they’re not easily steal-able. Wear a money belt.
• Don’t leave your valuables out in the open at restaurants  – bag hanging on a chair, phone on the table – not a good idea.
• Or on display in your rental car  – if people want to steal it, they won’t think twice if they can see it.
• Park in a secure place – vandalism and theft of vehicles is a thing, so be careful.
• Don’t walk around looking super-rich – this will just make you more of a target, so forget designer gear and jewellery.
• Careful in city centres on weekend nights  – drinking is good craic ,  of course, but also brings fights, crime, assaults, etc.
• If someone wants to rob you, let them  – fighting back just isn’t a good idea, you’re just going to get hurt.
• Keep a cool head  – the best thing to do is to not get heated with people, get into arguments, that sort of thing. Trouble starts here.
• Steer clear of demonstrations – these occasionally occur. They’re mostly peaceful but can turn violent.
• Be careful in the sea around Ireland  – it’s an island. There’s a lot of seas. The currents can be strong!
• Heed warnings  – they’re there for a reason. For example,  Cliffs of Moher  and also Howth Walk  = strong winds. Don’t go too near the edge!
• Be vigilant around train stations, transport hubs, popular tourist sights  – there can be pickpockets.
• Avoid housing projects known as council estates  – these are rough neighbourhoods. Dublin ‘s got a few of these. Gang activity has got so bad in some of these places that the gardai  (police) have told people to move out.
• It’s basic, but practise safe sex  – people are pretty frisky it seems but contraception is largely ignored. STIs are big news.

There you have it. Ireland is generally a pretty safe country though gangs exist and alcohol-fuelled violence can be an issue. Avoid rougher neighbourhoods and try not to get caught up in all the drinking yourself (if you can help it) and you should be fine.

After all, the thing about Ireland is that it’s safe on the whole. It’s not 100% safe ; so travel smart , as you would anywhere else.

Ireland is an awesome place to travel alone. This country is not only amazing but it’s also a safe place to travel by yourself. You heard it here: Ireland is safe for solo travellers. But like all solo travel, no matter where you, it comes with a bit of a warning.

Being by yourself is definitely cool: you get to challenge yourself, learn new skills, grow your confidence and more. But it does have bad sides. It’s easy to get jaded, for example, and you’re more at risk by yourself, too. So here are some tips for solo travellers in Ireland…

• If you’re heading out hiking think about wearing some distinctive clothes. This way, if anything happens to you, you’re going to be easily recognisable. What we’re saying is, camouflage is definitely a no-no.
• Let people know where you are.  If something does happen to you, there’ll be more of a chance of you being rescued (or whatever) if people know where you are. Tell your hostel staff, your parents, your friends, put it on Facebook.
• To keep in touch with people, buy a sim card – if you don’t have one. This will enable you to keep in touch with people and use things like Google Maps. Definitely good when you’re trying to find your way around a new place.
• Although you can – and should – head out for a few drinks, don’t get crazy drunk. Being super drunk isn’t conducive to staying safe, especially when you need to know your way home.
• Remember: you’re more of a target if you’re by yourself. This isn’t meant to spook you. Instead, you should just stay vigilant at all times, especially in city centres.
• Try to blend in. Don’t stick like a tourist wearing activewear the whole time. Equally, don’t wear Aran jumpers everywhere.
• Beware of your drinks when you’re out. Drink spiking can definitely happen, and it happens to men as well as women, so you’ll just have to be extra careful not to take your eye off your drink.
• Stay somewhere like a local social hostel or a family-run B&B. This is a good way to get chatting to actual Irish people and get some local knowledge and tips of things to do in the area. This is an awesome way to discover Ireland.
• Don’t be afraid to start conversations with people.  Generally, Irish people will be up for a chat.
• If you’re worried about eating by yourself, don’t be! Just head down the local pub, order something hearty and get chatting to someone after a beer or two. Even if it’s just the bar staff – they’ll be happy to chat.
• Travel light.  Seriously here, it’s long to have to lug around way too much stuff.
• Don’t push yourself. Especially when you’re hiking. There’ll be no one to help you if you get into trouble, so take it easy. Plus, when it comes to sightseeing – don’t rush around the country.

Ireland is pretty much the perfect place for a solo trip. It’s not stressful, everything’s in English, and everyone’s very charming and fun and will have a genuine interest in chatting with you.

As a female, Ireland shouldn’t be too tricky. In fact, a lot of females travel alone through Ireland. But whilst sexual harassment, and generally being a woman, comes with its own set of concerns, Ireland is definitely one of the safer places out there.

Unfortunately, there are sexually motivated attacks against women in Ireland. Well, there will pretty much always be a risk to an extent, but no more than any Western European country. To help you have an amazing time, we’re sharing our tips for solo female travellers in Ireland.

• Irish men can be quite full on when it comes to flirting. What some might consider charming, others might just think it’s too much. Most of the time it’s friendly, but it can be very forward. And if somebody’s being too much, tell them, be firm and move away.
• You don’t have to tell people everything. If someone’s asking too many questions about your exact travel plans, or the location of where you’re staying, your marital status, don’t tell them the truth.
• Go for a few drinks! It would be a shame not too. But don’t get so drunk that you don’t know what you’re doing. This is a good way to get into sketchy situations that you would otherwise not find yourself in.
• Meet up with local women.  Or hire a tour guide who can show you around places. Of course, if you do, make sure you get plenty of research in about the guide you’ll be using. Read reviews and make sure female travellers have been happy with the service.
• Make sure you book yourself into accommodation that’s been favourably reviewed by fellow female travellers. Especially solo and female ones. And if you want to make some friends to drink with, travel with or generally chat and mingle with, book yourself into a sociable hostel.
• Let people back home know what you’re doing. It’s easy to quickly go off-grid when you embark on a solo travel trip, but it’s not a smart move. Keep your friends and family informed of where you are and what you’re up to.
• Avoid walking at night down deserted quiet streets and alleyways. Similarly, don’t spend time by yourself with someone you don’t know very well.

Unlike a lot of countries in the world, Ireland is pretty safe for solo female travellers. There’s nothing overly dangerous that will keep you away from visiting the Emerald Isle. What you will have to look out for, however, is all the usual stuff.

We’ve covered the main safety concerns already, but there are a few more things to know. Read on for more detailed information on how to have a safe trip to Ireland.

Is Ireland safe to travel for families?

You might be thinking of Ireland as somewhere that’s just all pubs and Guinness, but it’s actually also great for families. There’s a lot going on here for kids of all ages.

You’ll be able to explore ancient castles, wander beautiful parks, soak up stunning scenery, and discover the buzzing cities of Ireland with all their family-friendly accommodation.

But of course, there will be some things that can cause you trouble when you’re travelling to Ireland with children.

Whilst pubs have become more family-friendly, they’re still old school with things like age restrictions in the bar area. That being said, kids are always welcome in pub gardens, making for a super nice place for a spot of lunch in summer.

If you go in summer, pack for all weathers. The weather is very changeable in Ireland. Hot one day; chilly with downpours the next. If it’s sunny, take sunhats and suncream out. Children are more affected by the sun than adults.

Last but not least, Irish people tend to swear quite a bit. It’s not intended to be rude!

You’ll have a literally magical time in Ireland with your kids. Ireland is a safe place to travel for families.

Is it safe to drive in Ireland?

It’s safe to drive in Ireland. The roads are well maintained, and the country as a whole has a good reputation for safe roads.

Driving the countryside in Ireland is actually epic, too. However, if you’ve never driven somewhere like this, you’ll need some pointers.

First things first, don’t forget to drive on the left.

Rural roads can be ultra-narrow, you’ll really need Satnav or Google Maps or to be ready to reverse for another car to pass.

Also, watch out for potholes on country roads. These can get full of water and look like any other puddles, so go slow – if you hit one you could really damage the car. Make sure you arm yourself with solid rental car insurance.

Basically, it’s so, so safe to drive in Ireland as long as you take these basic safety precautions, and it can really open up the country.

Is Uber safe in Ireland?

There is Uber in Ireland, but it’s a bit of a contentious issue.

It’s only available in  Dublin.  Only licensed taxis can sign up as Uber drivers in Ireland.

But there are taxi apps that work like Uber and that are basically the same. For example, a lot of people use MyTaxi .

Uber is safe in Ireland, but it’s not straightforward, and there won’t always be one anyway.

Which leaves you with taxis…

Are taxis safe in Ireland?

Taxis in Ireland are safe. There are thousands of registered cabs all over the country. In fact, there are so many that they even have a strong union (hence why there’s no Uber).

There are over 12,000 cabs in  Dublin  alone . It’s easy to spot them; they’ve got yellow and blue signs on the top. You can get them at taxi ranks.

There are also  Hackney cabs, however, unlike the other ones, these don’t run by the meter. You can call these from taxi offices.

The best way to get a taxi anywhere in Ireland is to hail one on the street. Obviously, in rural areas, they will be harder to come by, and you’ll probably have to phone for one. You’ll most likely have to call a local company instead.

Generally, though, taxis are safe in Ireland.

Is public transportation in Ireland safe?

The public transport in Ireland is safe. Dublin  has a bus network serving the city; no metro here. It’s pretty safe. Just make sure your valuables are well stashed away.

There’s also the  Dublin DART,  a light railway that ferries people around the city. These are pretty much commuter trains that go between the capital, suburbs, beach towns and neighbouring counties.

You’ll also find  Luas. This is a tram system. It’s clean and there’s no traffic to stop it, making it a quick way to get around the city centre and the suburbs.

If you’re stuck in the city at nighttime, you can catch the  Nitelink . This is a night bus that runs till 4 am – just be aware that drunk people can be pretty crazy.

Elsewhere in Ireland, many towns and cities are connected by bus. You’ll be able to get between different tourist spots. Make sure you put your hand out to stop the bus otherwise it won’t stop!

You can get long distance buses too to travel across the country. They’re fast, but be sure to book ahead. They can get packed up during busy times of the year.

Irish Rail is a series of intercity trains. This really does make travelling around Ireland super quick – especially since it’s a pretty small country anyway.

And if you want to get to any of the offshore islands, just use the local boats that everyone else uses.

Basically, public transport is safe in Ireland, just watch out for drunk people on weekend nights.

Is the food in Ireland safe?

Though Ireland isn’t particularly famous for its cuisine, there are a few things that you may have heard of. There’s Irish stew:  a warming stew filled with hearty meat and potatoes. Then you can get  Galway oysters and the world-famous, well-loved soda bread.

With these dishes and more besides, Ireland’s gastronomic credentials begin to open up. In order to properly eat your way around the country like a pro, we’ve got together a few foodie tips for Ireland so you can get the best meals possible… and avoid getting ill, too!

• Though Ireland has the same hygiene standards as any other country, you should still be careful where you eat. If somewhere looks run down, or if it’s got bad reviews, or if there’s no one eating in it – or a combination of all three – you should probably avoid.
• Make sure the food you do get is cooked through properly.  A good way to get ill is by eating food that hasn’t been prepared correctly, which includes not being cooked.
• Be careful after a night out of going for something normal like a kebab or the infamous 4 in 1:  a concoction of chicken, rice, curry and chips (fries). Delicious and disgusting all at once, it’s a great drunk meal.
• Seafood is the worst to get ill from. We’re talking proper food poisoning level stuff here. So when you do want to sample what Ireland has to offer in terms of seafood, you should make sure it’s fresh. The best way to do this is to eat it on the coast.
• If you’re not used to heavy, stodgy food, don’t go too crazy on it. Especially if your stomach is particularly delicate –  it could easily not agree with you…
• Don’t be afraid to eat in pubs! It’s pretty normal and a great way to sample some local fare. So head in, grab a menu, order at the bar (key point – there’s no table service) and await your pub classic with a pint of whatever you fancy!
• Guinness is actually pretty healthy, believe it or not. It’s full of antioxidants and – like yoghurt- it boasts prebiotics, too. So have a pint and see if that doesn’t settle your stomach.
• Stay away from tourist traps. Likely to be a combo of expensive, not tasty and potentially not have food hygiene very high on its list of priorities.
• Wash your hands. Having dirty mitts and not actually washing them before you eat is a really good way to potentially give yourself some bad germs, and maybe a bad stomach.

Because of the general levels of food hygiene, chances are you’ll be just fine. The food is safe to eat in Ireland and there shouldn’t be much cause for concern. If you really are concerned though, just do some research and stick to recommended joints.

Can you drink the water in Ireland?

Like any other developed Western country, the water is safe to drink in Ireland.

Save on plastic and don’t buy bottled water: bring a refillable bottle. If you don’t have one yet, we have compared different travel water bottles in this article to help you decide which one is the best for you.

Is Ireland safe to live?

It’s definitely safe to live in Ireland .

International cities like  Dublin  and charming towns such as  Westport  (just a few thousand residents) means there’s a lot of choices when it comes to deciding just where you’re going to live in Ireland.

Ireland’s got a rich culture and friendly people. Depending on where you live, you’re unlikely to run into much crime.

For safety,  Ballymun  in  Dublin  is a good bet. And crime will be pretty much nonexistent unless you get yourself into drugs or annoy drunk people .

You’ll also have to get used to a semi-traditional lifestyle. Even in  Dublin,  things close early (or don’t open at all) on Sundays. And in smaller villages, don’t expect anything to be open, except for the pubs.

But you’ll love living in Ireland and you’ll find it safe. It’s all the comfort of an English-speaking country with the charm of something completely different.

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Is it safe to rent an Airbnb in Ireland?

Renting an Airbnb in Ireland is a great idea. And it’s perfectly safe, as long as you read the reviews. Staying at an Airbnb during your trip will also open up new possibilities and options to experience the country. The local hosts are known to take great care of their guests and give the absolute best recommendations of what to do and what to see. Local knowledge always goes a long way, so be sure to reach out to your hosts if you’re unsure about how to fill up your Ireland itinerary!

On top of that, you’ll stay safe with the reliable Airbnb booking system. Both hosts and guests can rate each other which creates a very respectful and trustworthy interaction. 

Is Ireland LGBTQ+ friendly? 

With plenty of rights for members of the LGBTQ+ community, a gay Prime Minister and legalized gay marriage, you can be 100% sure that Ireland is a great country to visit for gay travellers. 

There are plenty of events and entertainment venues in Ireland that are targeted towards the community. You can even find Irish websites for the LGBTQ+ community that provide great tips and timelines of what’s going on in the city.

Here are some quick answers to common questions about safety in Ireland.

What should I avoid in Ireland?

Avoid these things in Ireland: – Don’t leave your valuables out in the open – Don’t walk around looking super-rich – Steer clear of demonstrations – Don’t be careless around train stations, transport hubs and popular tourist sights

Is Ireland safer than England?

England and Ireland are pretty much on the same safety level. You’re 9% more likely to get murdered in Ireland. On the other hand, you’re 50% more likely to get robbed in England. Overall crime statistics are pretty much the same.

What is the most dangerous city in Ireland?

Limerick, Cork and Waterford have the highest crime rates in Ireland. That being said, those are still low and visiting these cities is perfectly safe if you stay aware of your surroundings and use your common sense.

Is Dublin Ireland a safe place to visit?

Just like any other popular European city, Dublin is as safe as it gets. Since it sees a lot of visitors during the year, you’ll have to expect pockpocketing and petty theft, but these threats can easily be avoided with a bit of precautions.

Yup, Ireland is definitelt safe. Facts sometimes speak for themselves, and when a country is listed as the tenth safest country in the world, it’s difficult not to just go along with it.

And for the most part, Ireland is completely safe. With the country’s border at threat with Brexit looming, and people worried about North-South tensions rising, however, there may actually be something to worry about.

But in all honesty, we doubt it. The most unsafe thing about Ireland right now is probably the weird amount of gun crime that goes on here. Criminals get their hands on guns and often don’t think twice about shooting at police. However, being a traveller it’s pretty unlikely that you’ll be caught up with gangs, or be caught wandering in a dodgy neighbourhood.

That leaves you with a beautiful country to explore. Countless villages to visit, where you can enjoy pub lunches and rambling hikes; smart cities like global Dublin or creative Drogheda (check out  Funtasia! ) and actual mountains to properly trek up; even craggy islands off the coast to explore. Tie it up in a bow of awesome hospitality and Ireland is ready and waiting for you.

Disclaimer: Safety conditions change all over the world on a daily basis. We do our best to advise but this info may already be out of date. Do your own research. Enjoy your travels!

And for transparency’s sake, please know that some of the links in our content are affiliate links . That means that if you book your accommodation, buy your gear, or sort your insurance through our link, we earn a small commission (at no extra cost to you). That said, we only link to the gear we trust and never recommend services we don’t believe are up to scratch. Again, thank you!

Sophie Steinebach

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Good article. Have lived my whole life here (40 years old). Growing up, my family never locked our door to our house. Would be shocked if it was locked. no risk of any crime. The biggest event in the news would be if a farmer lost a sheep or if there was a small flood in some part of Ireland. Due to huge levels of immigration to Ireland from poorer countries in the last few years, crime is increasing as these people dont have much, unfortunately and have had traumatic pasts in their countries.

Good blog mostly right except for the bit about criminals shooting police, in the last 10 years 3 Irish police have been shot while on duty and in its history of nearly 100 years 89 Guards have lost their lives in the line of duty a large share of those were by drowning of in car accidents while trying to help people.If you google An Garda Siochana that’s the official name of the Irish police you’ll get all the data. Keep up the good reviews about Ireland !! We are going to open up-the country in August of September to tourists from the States who are vaccinated so all are welcome. Regards Pat Lonergan

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The Oireachtas Committee on Key Issues Affecting the Traveller Community heard calls  for a move away from custodial sentences for minor offences which are creating “a revolving door” of re-offending among Traveller women.

• Read more here on how you can support a major Noteworthy project to investigate if Travellers experience harsher interactions with the Irish law and prison system.

Anne Costello, coordinator at the Travellers in Prison Initiative (TPI), told the committee that their research found many Traveller women in prison were there for minor crimes.

“It was for driving offences, shoplifting, a number of crimes linked to addiction,” she said.

“Women described their stories of trauma around close family members and suicide, or other bereavements, and then moving on to prescribed drugs, and then that leading into harder drugs. That was the kind of the story that we got generally from the women.”

Maria Joyce, coordinator with the National Traveller Women’s Forum, told the committee that she has worked with women in the Dóchas Centre who are there because they were caught driving without tax or insurance.

“Sometimes these are first offences and some felt a non-custodial sentence would have addressed the level of crime,” she said.

She said there was a strong perception that “it’s one option for a Traveller in the criminal justice system and another outcome for a non-Traveller” for similar crimes and that a different approach involving community supports could help to prevent re-offending. 

Fíona Ní Chinnéide, executive director of the Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT), told the committee that specific data on recidivism among Travellers is not available.

However general data shows “people sentenced to prison for between three and six months had the highest probability of re-offending within one year of release”.

“The highest rates of early re-offending are among those in prison for short sentences, which by definition are less serious offences,” she said.

Speakers at the committee meeting today also raised concerns about the impact on Traveller children of having a parent in prison.

“People say ‘expose young people to prison and they won’t go there’, but so many Travellers in prison have been to prison to visit their fathers and now they’re in prison,” Costello said.

“That doesn’t work, with that inter-generational [factor] you’re much more likely to end up in prison if your parents have been in prison.

Maria Joyce said leaving their families and their children is a significant issue for Traveller women in prison and can create problems with access on their release.

“When you have children who may already be in care, there are additional barriers that will be created on their [the women's] release in trying to engage with their children, or if they’ve gone into care as a direct result of them going into prison,” she explained. “It’s not about ensuring the care of children but it is about ensuring contact with parents.”

Ní Chinnéide of the IPRT said the imprisonment of a parent should not be seen as “a predictor” of a child’s outcome as they will all have different responses to these types of situations.

What is common, she said, is their “experience of trauma, of separation, stigma, poverty”. Ní Chinnéide added: “We need to support those children, support them to have better outcomes in the long run.”

The committee was covered as part of an investigation called TOUGH START Noteworthy and The Journal  over the past number of months into supports – and the lack of them – for Traveller children. We can now reveal

• Young Travellers are significantly over-represented in youth detention , making up 26% of Oberstown detainees last year, but just 1.2% of the under-18 population as a whole
• Travellers detained in Oberstown jumped by almost 40% in 2020   
• An Oireachtas committee heard concerns about the impact on children of having a parent in prison , particularly in relation to Traveller mothers who received prison sentences for first-time and minor offences
• Department of Justice officials noted Travellers were “a particular challenge that requires additional action” in regards to the Youth Justice Strategy at a meeting two months prior to its publication, yet there are no Traveller-specific actions in the strategy
• Traveller children reported experiencing discrimination from members of the gardaí and being falsely accused of crimes by members of the public
• Children who spoke to Noteworthy also said they felt fear and anxiety around interactions with gardaí and that they believed people expect them to engage in criminal activity

In part one , Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman told Noteworthy that “there’s ingrained institutional racism against the Traveller community” and part two  found Traveller health is ‘not being prioritised’ despite ‘shocking’ outcomes for children.  Part three revealed that ‘misuse’ of reduced school days is leaving a generation of Traveller children ‘lost’.

Increase of young Travellers in detention

There is already a disproportionate number of young Travellers in detention in Ireland and this jumped by almost 40% in 2020. 

Young people under 18 who have been sentenced or remanded by the Irish courts system are detained in Oberstown Children Detention Campus in north county Dublin. The majority detained there are boys, with only three girls (2.5%) detained last year. 

There were 24 young Travellers in Oberstown  in 2019  which made up 19% of the total number of young people detailed there. However, this increased to 32 in 2020 or 26% of the total, according to  Oberstown’s annual report . 

This is also an increase on figures reported by the snapshot reports – published with figures from the first quarter of  2017 ,  2018  and  2019 . These reported young Travellers made up 23%, 22% and 19% of the population during these respective quarters.

This is significantly higher than it should be in proportion to the number of Travellers under 18, making up just 1.2% of the general population in the last Census in 2016. 

This is also an over-representation of Travellers in the adult prison population, where it was estimated in 2017 by the Irish Prison Service and the Probation Service that Travellers accounted for 10% of the male and 22% of the female prison population. 

Speaking at the Joint Oireachtas Committee, Mark Wilson, director of the Probation Service, said that Travellers represent 11.3% of people seen by the Probation Service which he said were the latest ethnicity statistics available.

Fergal Black, Director of Care and Rehabilitation in the Irish Prison Service, gave the committee figures from the last ethnicity survey. He reported that Castlerea Prison in Co Roscommon had 95 people who identified as Travellers – 31% of that prison’s population, “which is an indictment of the over-representation [of Travellers] in our criminal justice system”.

Though already high, these prison system figures are most likely an under-representation “due to the lack of consistent and accurate data collection” – including ethnicity – by the Irish Prison Services, according to Pavee Point. 

Representatives from both the Irish Prison Service and the Probation Service mentioned work to improve on the existing efforts at the Joint Oireachtas Committee, with Wilson stating that they have worked extensively with the Travellers in Prison Initiative “in the area of ethnic data collection” to its improve accuracy and consistency.

Experts have said a number of factors contribute to the over-representation of the Traveller community in the criminal justice system, besides the possibility of overly-punitive sentencing, including poverty, exclusion, discrimination, a lack of access to housing and educational disadvantages. These issues start for Travellers at a very early age, they said, and early intervention is needed to prevent the ongoing cycle.

A poor relationship and lack of trust between Travellers – including children – and those working in the criminal justice system is also a factor. 

‘They dislike us, I don’t know why’

Traveller children, aged 12-14, who spoke to Noteworthy reported feeling fear around interactions with gardaí and that they believe gardaí assume they will do something criminal. 

When asked what they believe gardaí think about Travellers, three of the children said “bad” at the same time.

“They dislike us, I don’t know why,” one of the girls said.

“I think most people expect us to do bad things, or make us out as bad people,” another girl said.

“The guards think, if someone robbed something, most likely it’s Travellers,” another told us. 

The children also gave several examples of being wrongfully accused of shoplifting by security guards. One boy said:

One of the girls said she was with her mother at a shop when two gardaí stopped them and asked them to empty their pockets.

“It was scary,” she said. “There was nothing in our pockets. I started crying.”

She said they apologised after she became upset.

All of the children said they were afraid of gardaí and that they also notice their parents’ anxiety when they see gardaí.

“My daddy, if we’re driving past guards, he’ll turn around really quick even though we all have our belts on and he’ll say ‘put on your belts in case the guards pull us over’,” one of the boys told us.

A community worker with the group said two gardaí had come to give a talk to the children at their community centre and this had been a positive experience. However she said one of these gardaí was later called to an incident at the halting site and when the children recognised him and tried to talk to him, he “ignored them”.

The only positive example they could think of came from one of the boys, who said if he sees a garda he sometimes give them a thumbs up and “they would actually do it back 99.9% of the time”.

When asked whether they felt like the gardaí would help them if something bad happened to them or their families all of the children in the group replied “no”. They would be reluctant to even call for help, they said.

“People can be arguing and if anyone gets physical you need to call the guards so they don’t hurt each other very badly,” one girl said. “And sometimes they don’t come at all until the whole thing’s over and everyone’s back in their houses. They take their time coming anyways.”

John Paul Collins, drug and alcohol community development worker at Pavee Point, said the negative relationship between Travellers and gardaí “starts at a very young age”. 

“It has always been a negative relationship with guards back to the very start, in terms of them coming on site and incidents being overpoliced, being heavy-handed,” he said.

“It’s usually the case that they’d come in fives or tens, cars and vans, sometimes dressed in riot gear and that’s the sort of stuff young kids are seeing. That puts a block straight away to develop any relationship.

Kids are around and listening and absorbing what the guards say and what their parents and other Travellers say. What the children are seeing is only negative behaviour, the only time they see a guard on site is when incidents happen, they’re not seeing a community guard on site trying to build relationships with them.

As mentioned by the children who spoke to Noteworthy , Collins said the response can be at the other end of the spectrum with gardaí arriving late or not at all when they are called to an incident at a halting site.

An Garda Síochána has made a number of policy and resourcing changes in recent years to ensure a more sensitive and considered approach to violence against women in the home. However Collins said there is “no notion of this” in responses to domestic violence calls from the Traveller community.

He said there is a genuine fear that the gardaí will “make things worse”.

“Unfortunately that has been the experience, they come in all booted up and don’t handle the situation in a positive way,” he said.

“Some have even said at incidents that it’s just part of our culture – violence and domestic violence. It’s ridiculous for someone in that profession to say something like that.”

‘Housing, poverty, mental health and trauma’

Speaking to the Oireachtas committee yesterday, Anne Costello of TPI said some of the causes of Travellers’ over-representation in prison are historic.

International research on minority ethnic groups, she said, identified causes such as the disruption of culture and traditions and a denial of identity as well as the process of stripping minorities of land, culture, language, laws and customs.

In Ireland these issues date back to the report of the Commission on Itinerancy in 1963 which stated that there was a “problem of the presence of itinerants in considerable numbers”. This report stated that “itinerants as a class would disappear within a generation”.

Since then, there have been many laws and policies introduced, which have had a negative impact on Travellers’ way of life and legitimate ways to make a living. And it wasn’t until 2017 that the government formally recognised travellers as an ethnic minority.

Costello also spoke of other causes such as the effects of poverty and exclusion, noting that the unemployment rate among Travellers is 80%, and 39% of Travellers are homeless or living in very overcrowded conditions

Noteworthy has extensively covered the stark outcomes facing Travellers children in health and education in the other parts of this investigative series – and will be examining housing next week. 

Women, she said, face particular issues:

“Before imprisonment they have issues with housing, poverty, mental health and trauma. We did some research with Traveller women in prison and they all faced those issues.”

Discrimination, both by State services and in the criminal justice system, is also contributing to the issue, Costello told the committee.

An ESRI report in 2017 found that Travellers are over 22 times more likely to experience discrimination in access to private services than white settled people.

An internal garda survey conducted between 2012 and 2014 found not one frontline garda had a favourable view of the Traveller community.

Discrimination was also evident among garda ethnic liaison officers – now known as diversity officers – with just 32% saying they had a good opinion of Travellers after joining the force. Before joining, 45% of these ethnic liaison officers said they had a poor or very poor opinion of the community.

An Garda Síochána did not respond to a number of questions from Noteworthy on specific measures in the Garda Youth Diversion Programme targeted at young Travellers, allegations of over-policing, and cultural awareness training provided to gardaí.

‘More work to do to prevent discrimination’

For advocates, one solution to these high detention rates in young Travellers was the State’s Youth Justice Strategy. In their submission as part of consultation last year, Pavee Point wrote that the strategy “should seek to support the families of Travellers and Roma to divert young people away from crime”. It continued:  

“Research shows strong links between youth offending and child and family welfare issues and therefore offending behaviour should not be considered in isolation.” 

Their submission called on “specific measures and initiatives for Travellers and Roma” to be included. It also quoted a European Commission Assessment of Ireland in 2016 that stated:

Antiracism and cultural competency training was one action Pavee Point called for in their submission, according to Corrine Doyle, Drug and Alcohol Programme Coordinator at Pavee Point. This is important “for people working with Travellers in diversion programmes or detention centres so they have an understanding of Traveller culture and barriers faced and the additional work needed”.  

In his opening statement yesterday, Fergal Black of the Irish Prison Service told the Joint Committee of “the introduction of awareness training for new prison staff on the issues arising for Travellers and areas of discrimination” over the past six years through the prison service’s partnership with the Travellers in Prison Initiative.

In the youth justice system, Pavee Point has completed some information sessions at Oberstown but Doyle said the organisation was given no additional resources for this. Given the high turnover of both staff and residents at the centre, she said this type of information programme would have to operate on a more regular basis to be effective.

“Challenging some of the bias and even unconscious bias and trying to work through that, that can’t just be done in information sessions.” 

John Paul Collins, the community development worker, said that their organisation has also delivered “anti racism and cultural competency training to garda recruits” over the years.

He said that Pavee Point has had ongoing discussions with the garda training college at Templemore and with senior gardaí, including the current Commissioner, and has stressed the need for this training to be a credited module for recruits, rather than a once-off discussion.

They should be marked on it and it should be delivered either by Traveller organisations or we’d do a training course for senior gardai to deliver it. A once-off [class] for 250 recruits doesn’t do it.

He said this type of training should be part of continuous professional development for gardaí, particularly when it comes to promotions.

Seamus Beirne, Equality, Inclusion and Diversity Lead at the Irish Prison Service, told the committee that measuring the impact of this training “can be difficult”. He added they intend to conduct a survey and monitor attitudes to help measure the impact, though this was delayed due to Covid. He added:

“There is a certain culture in Ireland, and a prison is a microcosm of the country. So, changing a culture takes a while.”

On this, Fergal Black said: “We have more work to do to prevent discrimination – that’s the honest answer.”

On training, the Travellers in Prison Initiative’s Costello concluded at the committee that it “works with some people” and they had success with probation staff. She continued:

“With other staff and other organisations, where you’ve got deeply embedded racist attitudes, the only response is zero tolerance. The prison is a very hierarchical organisation – I think it needs to come from the very top – that there will be consequences for racist behaviour. And I think that’s where you’ll see real change.”

Department aware of ‘additional action’ required

Noteworthy  sought correspondence and memos within the Department of Justice that mentioned Travellers in relation to the Youth Justice Strategy in the months leading up to its publication in April.

Just five records were found through the freedom of information (FOI) request, but from these it is clear that DOJ officials knew of the extra challenges facing young Travellers.  

In February 2021, at a meeting and presentation between DOJ officials and a person from the School of Law in UL, it was noted that “the Youth Justice Strategy will ensure a greater focus on such groups (Traveller, Roma and migrant groups), with Travellers being a particular challenge that requires additional action”.  

Yet, when the Youth Justice Strategy was published two months later, Travellers only received two mentions – both alongside a number of other groups  – and there were no Traveller-specific actions listed. 

In the ‘Disadvantage and Diversity’ section, Travellers were included in a wide-ranging group that the strategy emphasised “the need for State and State-funded services to engage effectively with”. This is the list as it is written:  

Poverty, Children and Young People in State Care, Travellers and other Ethnic Communities, Mental Health, Neuro-Diversity, Homelessness, Children of Prisoners, Childhood Trauma, Coercive Control, Addiction, Gender Differences, Disability, Differences in Maturity and Individual Learning abilities.

The only action Travellers are mentioned in, is in relation to the continued development of Garda Youth Diversion Projects, with an action to ensure these projects “reach all relevant young people in the community, including those from minority and hard-to-reach groups (such as young people of migrant background, Traveller and Roma communities)”. 

Strategy ‘quite weak in the context of Travellers’

Pavee Point’s Doyle said it was “frustrating” that the Youth Justice Strategy was “quite weak in the context of Travellers” as it did not include any initiatives targeted specifically at Travellers.  

She said that the organisation spent time on a detailed submission that called for targeted initiatives and said there is “nothing specific” in the strategy “for young Travellers, to address reoffending”. 

In prisons, she said there are Traveller liaison officers and other Traveller-targeted initiatives but this is not happening in youth detention. 

“It’s seen as a one-size-fits-all,” she said, and added that Travellers often do not engage with mainstream services and programmes due to a lack of trust.  

“There are community programmes and youth services and garda youth diversion projects but within those there needs to be Traveller specific initiatives.”

Collins said Pavee Point does not want to see a segregation of services, but he said Traveller-specific initiatives should be put in place to act as “a bridge into mainstream services”. He said this would help to address poor engagement with general youth services and programmes. 

When asked why the DOJ did not include Traveller-specific actions, a spokesperson told Noteworthy that there is a specific action within the strategy “to ensure that the existing network of  Youth Diversion Projects reach all relevant young people in the community”. They added: 

There is a specific focus on minority and hard-to-reach groups including those from the Traveller Community.

The spokesperson said that “as part of a public consultation process, a number of submissions from individuals and groups, including from representatives of the Traveller Community, were received” which shaped its content. 

The team also asked if the DOJ has plans for any Traveller-specific youth justice programmes. The spokesperson said that “the immediate priority within the Strategy is the enhancement of engagement with children and young people who are most at risk of involvement in criminal activity, principally through strengthening the services available through the existing network of 105 Youth Diversion Projects.”

Youth Diversion Projects received an extra €6.7m in Budget 2022. The DOJ stated that these services will be enhanced to provide early intervention and engagement with more challenging children and young people as well as other supports. 

Pavee Point is one of the organisations to be invited to attend the Youth Justice Advisory Group, which according to one of the DOJ emails Noteworthy received through FOI “makes up part of the oversight structures” for the new strategy. The email stated:  

“The Advisory Group will include a range of state, community and expert stakeholders similar to the steering Group which has informed the development of the Strategy.” 

Other groups that the DOJ included in their list in this email were the Children’s Rights Alliance, Irish Penal Reform Trust, National Disability Authority and a representative from the Drugs Task Force.  

Doyle welcomed the fact that Pavee Point had been invited onto this group, as she is hopeful that they can lobby for some of the initiatives they suggested in their submission. However the lack of commitments in the strategy to Traveller-targeted programmes mean they will be “competing with other groups” within the wider ‘migrant and hard to reach’ group cited in the strategy. 

“It doesn’t mean these things won’t be brought in under other actions but it does dilute Traveller actions.” 

Noteworthy would like to take an in-depth look at the experience of Travellers in the wider justice system as part of our  BLIND JUSTICE project – currently over 70% funded. Find out how you can  help get it over the line >>

This article is part of our  TOUGH START  investigation which is being led  by  Maria Delaney  of Noteworthy and  Michelle Hennessy  of The Journal. 

This Noteworthy investigation was done in collaboration with The Journal. It was funded by you, our readers, with support from The Journal as well as the Noteworthy  general fund  to cover additional costs.  

You can support our work by submitting  an idea , funding for a particular  proposal  or setting up a monthly contribution to our general investigative fund  HERE>>

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Irish Travellers’ Access to Justice Launch Landmark Report

A groundbreaking new study by researchers at University of Limerick has examined for the first time the relationship between Travellers and the Irish criminal justice system.

The Irish Travellers’ Access to Justice (ITAJ)  report by the research team at University of Limerick  was officially launched this Thursday morning.

Funded by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and the Irish Research Council under the COALESCE programme, the research documents for the first time Travellers’ perceptions and experiences of the criminal justice process in Ireland – particularly with the judiciary and An Garda Síochána.

The report is the culmination of an 18-month long project that Chief Commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Sinead Gibney has said is a ‘landmark study’ in both its conduct and findings.

It is an authoritative analysis and makes evidence based recommendations for measures to address Travellers’ ability to use the tools of the criminal justice system to protect their rights. Among the key barriers to accessing justice is institutional racism towards Travellers found to be prevalent in the criminal justice system.

The report utilised a mixed methodology, including a survey, interviews and focus groups. During the course of conducting the research, the UL researchers spoke with one in every 100 Travellers in Ireland from 25 of the 26 counties.

The research findings reflect a need for radical changes in the way in which criminal justice institutions engage with, perceive, and address Travellers.

The research finds that Travellers’ trust in the Irish criminal justice system is extremely low and that fears of wrongful arrest, excessive use of force, wrongful conviction, disproportionately high sentences and wrongful imprisonment frame the way Travellers engage with and experience the criminal justice system.

The report meticulously documents Travellers’ perceptions and experiences of criminal justice institutions as suspects, victims, and those who are the accused in criminal cases.

Sinead Gibney, Chief Commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, said: “This report breaks new ground in speaking with a huge diversity of Travellers nationally about their personal experiences with our criminal justice system as victims of crime or as those accused. It is abundantly clear that the relationship between Travellers and our criminal justice system too often starts from a point of mistrust, developed over decades.

“This report needs to be read and shared widely and to be used as an evidential grounding for reforms, to make our criminal justice system accessible by all.”

Speaking about the research, Professor Amanda Haynes, Department of Sociology, UL said: “To be able to use the legal process to protect your rights, you must first trust that system enough to engage with it. This report shows that Travellers do not trust the Irish criminal justice system to treat them fairly, and that their mistrust in grounded in personal and shared experiences of unsatisfactory and sometimes biased treatment at the hands of criminal justice professionals, as victims and suspects.

“While Travellers participating in this research identified examples of excellence among police and judges, these experiences were described as the exception rather than the rule.”

Professor Jennifer Schweppe, UL’s School of Law, said: “Our research shows that Travellers are simultaneously over policed as suspects and under policed as victims. Our research findings, which mirror key findings of the European Union Fundamental Rights Agency Roma and Travellers in Six Countries, evidences significant human rights concerns within and across the criminal process with respect to Travellers.

“Justice is not seen to be done in Irish courtrooms by members of the Traveller community.”

Dr Sindy Joyce, Lecturer in Traveller Studies in UL’s Department of Sociology, said: “The results of this research will come as no surprise to members of the Traveller community, whose experiences and perceptions of the criminal justice process are unequivocally linked to both their identity as a historically traditionally nomadic community, and their present day status as a racialised indigenous ethnic group in Irish society.

“It is of paramount importance that this research is used for the benefit of Travellers, and to guide the criminal justice system in bringing out the meaningful change it shows is required.”

Supreme Court Judge, Mr Justice John Mac Menamin; Chief Commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, Sinead Gibney; Superintendent Michael Corbett of the Garda National Diversity and Integration Unit; and Maria Joyce of the National Traveller Women’s Forum attended the launch of the report this Thursday morning along with UL President Professor Kerstin Mey. Minister for Justice Helen McEntee TD presented a pre-recorded statement.

The research was advised by representatives of the National Traveller Women’s Forum, The Irish Traveller Movement, Pavee Point, Minceirs Whiden, The Traveller Mediation Service, An Garda Síochána, the Department of Justice, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and the Irish Research Council.

Key findings from the research include:

Experiences:

• Half of the Travellers responding to the ITAJ survey were victims of criminal offences in the five years prior to the survey; only one-fifth had been arrested in that time period;  
• Half of those surveyed had been present in a home that gardaí entered without permission; when asked about the last case in which that happened, in only 11% of those cases was a search warrant shown to someone present in that home;
• Travellers report hearing expressions of overt racism by gardaí and judges; 
• In the context of stop and search, Travellers recounted experiences of garda harassment, threats to abuse power, garda provocation, gardaí deliberately escalating conflict and degrading treatment;
• 64% of Travellers who were in garda custody in the five years prior to the survey did not feel safe the last time they were in custody; 
• Travellers described positive experiences with criminal justice professionals as characterised by the professional treating them respectfully - listening to them, being compassionate, vocally defending their rights and dignity and being responsive. However, positive experience with one individual from a criminal justice institution, being for most respondents the exception rather than the rule, did not alter respondents’ perceptions of the institution as a whole;
• When asked about the last time they were stopped by a garda in the five years prior to the ITAJ survey, 59% stated that they believed they were stopped because they are a Traveller. Of those who believed that they were racially profiled: 
• 78% explained that the Garda who stopped them knew that they were a Traveller; 
• 53% stated that the particular Garda who stopped them has a reputation for stopping Travellers; 
• 46% stated that the location of the police stop contributed to their conviction that they were ethnically profiled;
• 23% stated that the Garda who stopped them said something about their Traveller identity or about Travellers generally;

Perceptions:

• The levels of trust that Travellers have in the gardaí is approximately half that of the general population; trust levels in the police are lower again among those who have been victims of crime;
• Travellers have a significantly lower level of trust in judges than the general population has in the legal system;
• The Garda Public Attitudes Survey 2019 (GPAS) measures general population attitudes towards the gardaí. When comparing GPAS findings to those of the ITAJ survey with Travellers, we see inverted patterns: 
• 71% of the general population agree that with the statement “the gardaí in this area treat everyone fairly regardless of who they are, while 84% of Travellers disagree; 
• 95% of the general population agree with the statement that the gardaí would treat you with respect; while 91% of Travellers do not believe that gardaí treat Travellers with respect; 75% of Travellers believe that judges do not treat Travellers with respect;
• 89% of Travellers believe that the gardaí are more strict in dealing with Travellers compared to settled people; 82% of Travellers believe that judges are more strict in dealing with Travellers compared to settled people.

Key Recommendations 

Drawing on the findings, the research makes extensive evidence-based recommendations, including:

• The introduction of an ethnic identifier throughout the criminal process from the point of reporting to the point of sentencing, including entry and search of homes and stops and searches which must be recorded. A commitment to make the resultant data available to independent researchers. The publication of an annual report on ethnic minorities in the criminal process.  
• The development, publication, funding and implementation of a criminal justice strategy for the Traveller community, with a remit within and across each branch of the criminal process to address gaps in trust, legitimacy and accountability impacting the Traveller community. This strategy should include the development of an independent Traveller justice advisory group to provide advice on justice related issues and to monitor implementation of the strategy.  
• The establishment of a robust and effective independent complaints body operating across the criminal legal process and staffed by a dedicated team of investigators with no continuing connection to any of the criminal justice agencies. This body should be able to accept and respond to complaints regarding any criminal justice agency or professional including customs officers and judges.
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UL: Irish Travellers' Access to Justice

23rd June 2022

Researchers at University of Limerick (UL) have published Irish Travellers’ Access to Justice , examining the relationship between Travellers and the Irish criminal justice system. The research was conducted over an 18-month period, funded by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) and the Irish Research Council, and explored the perceptions and experiences of Irish Travellers with the criminal justice process, focusing on relations between the Travelling community, An Garda Siochana, and the judiciary. 

The report used an authoritative analysis and made evidence-based recommendations which highlighted the need for radical change. A mixed method approach was implemented with surveys, interviews and focus groups used to capture the lived experience, with a sample size of 1 in every 100 Travellers from 25 out of 26 counties. 

Lack of Trust

A key barrier for Travellers to access the criminal justice system in a way which protects their human rights was the lack of trust between the Travelling community, An Garda Siochana, and members of the judiciary . The report showed that Travellers do not trust the Irish criminal justice system to treat them fairly, and that their mistrust is grounded in personal and shared experiences of unsatisfactory and sometimes biased treatment at the hands of criminal justice professionals, as victims and suspects.  

Respondents from the Travelling Community explained how ethnic profiling, experiences of garda harassment, threats to abuse power, garda provocation, gardaí deliberately escalating conflict and degrading treatment resulted in damaged relationships between the two parties. The report also noted that Travellers have recounted feeling unsafe when being held in Garda custody. The report finds that the levels of trust that Travellers have in the gardaí is approximately half that of the general population, with these trust levels lower again among Travellers who have been victims of crime.

Engaging with the Criminal Justice Process

The report found that Travellers were vastly overrepresented in prisons in 2021, where they made up of 7.3 per cent of the prison population, but just 0.7% of the general population according to CSO 2016 Census data. Ethnic profiling and derogatory, antagonising behavior have been shown to be some of the reasons that Travellers feel they cannot trust the criminal justice system and the report found that this behaviour commonly occurred when Travellers presented in court. Respondents recounted hearing police, members of the judiciary and judges using discriminatory language at proceedings, which they believed was intended to be degrading. The report also reflected that Travellers felt that prejudice could prevail in criminal proceedings based on the power of the police, and that police had the most power to influence the judge regarding sentencing.

Although most respondents did feel they experienced discrimination within the criminal justice system, there were some respondents who spoke about the support they received from Judges and members of An Garda Siochana when they were found to be experiencing difficult circumstances. One respondent recounted a Judge ruling for the accused to be committed to a rehabilitation facility instead of being remanded in order to address the mental health needs of the defendant. Other respondents also recalled guards pleading their case to the judge, where they were not a ‘menace’ to society. While the report found that Travellers are overrepresented in prisons and are perceived to receive harsher sentences, it was concluded that further research is required to explore the impact of Traveller ethnicity on sentencing practices and imprisonment.  

Findings and Recommendations  

Drawing on the findings, the research makes extensive evidence-based recommendations, including: 

• The introduction of an ethnic identifier throughout the criminal process from the point of reporting to the point of sentencing, with a commitment to make the resultant data available to independent researchers. The publication of an annual report on ethnic minorities in the criminal process.  
• The development, publication, funding, and implementation of a criminal justice strategy for the Traveller community , with a remit within and across each branch of the criminal process to address gaps in trust, legitimacy and accountability impacting the Traveller community. 
• The establishment of a robust and effective independent complaints body operating across the criminal legal process and staffed by a dedicated team of investigators with no continuing connection to any of the criminal justice agencies.  

Read the full report on the University of Limerick website here . 

Related items:

• Round-up: Prison Law Seminar: Sentencing - Alternatives to Imprisonment
• Ireland’s sentencing system
• IPRT Resources on Sentencing
• Explainer: Life sentences
• Explainer: Suspended sentences

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New research shows Irish Travellers were racially abused and marginalised following controversial Channel 4 Dispatches programme

New research by charity the Traveller Movement, shows Gypsies and Irish Travellers were racially abused and criminally stereotyped following a Channel 4 programme which first aired in April of last year.  

Dispatches: the Truth about Traveller Crime first aired on the 16th of April 2020 and was roundly condemned by activists and leading anti-racism campaigners as racist and  dehumanising . Ofcom, the broadcast regulator received nearly a thousand complaints, including a  statement  from the Equality and Human Rights Commission.  

The report published Wednesday the 12th of May aims to highlight some of the damage caused to Gypsies and Irish Travellers in the aftermath of the programme. The report entitled Travellers and Crime? Reflections on the Channel 4 documentary and criminal stereotyping aims to centre the voices of those directly impacted by the Channel 4 programme and by anti-Traveller stereotyping more widely.  

The report provides ample evidence of the pervasive discrimination Gypsies, Roma and Travellers face and the ways in which this discrimination is created and perpetuated by the media. 68 responses in total were received and explored everything from the immediate fall out to the programme, the everyday experience of anti-Traveller racism, as well as Travellers’ experiences of reporting crime to the police.  

Of the 74% of respondents who watched the programme, many expressed disbelief, feelings of unfairness, and fear.  

‘Quite worrying that a mainstream TV channel can get away with awful stereotyping of the most marginalised and vulnerable communities in the country. Total sensationalism and racist.’ 

Another respondent remarked on the direct harmful impact the show had on their relationship with a neighbour:   

‘Since the filming my neighbour’s have started giving me abuse again, and my windows have been smashed in.’ 

When discussing the criminal stereotypes forced upon Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people most respondents discussed scapegoating and the negative portrayal of Travellers in the media. 

‘They hear bad stories in local press and spread rumors. Folks love a bogey man!’ 

The report makes wide ranging recommendations for the media, the police and for Ofcom.  

Ofcom’s ongoing investigation    

Despite Ofcom receiving nearly a thousand complaints, including a letter signed nearly 8,000 times, it has yet to publish the findings from its investigation.  

 In response to a parliamentary question about what was causing the delay, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport John Whittingdale MP stated "Ofcom is the UK’s independent regulator of television. Decisions on broadcasting regulation, including the duration of their investigations, are a matter for Ofcom" 

 Commenting on the report, CEO of the Traveller Movement Yvonne MacNamara said: t his report shows the immense distress and hurt caused by the Dispatches programme to Gypsies and Travellers. Ofcom opened its investigation on the 29th of May 2020, yet here we are twelve months later and still without a clear indication of when that investigation will end. Where’s Ofcom? We are losing faith in our broadcast regulator and its ability to do its job.  

Prejudice against travellers is the ‘last acceptable racism’

A moment of history was made in Ireland at the end of last month. Eileen Flynn became the first ever individual from the travelling community to sit in the Seanad, which is the upper house of the Irish Parliament. Growing up on a travellers’ halting site in Dublin, she pledged to use her newfound power to break barriers and assist marginalised communities. As a rights activist, she has campaigned on many issues including same sex marriage, homelessness, and abortion.  

During her opening speech to the Seanad, she raised her struggles growing up: her family potentially going without heating for a week and difficulties at school following the death of her mother when she was only 10. After attending an access course at Trinity College Dublin, she was one of 11 seats in the Parliament filled via a nominee. Both the Women’s Council of Ireland and travellers’ rights group Pavee Point deemed her appointment ‘historic’. With over 30,000 travellers in Ireland as of 2016, they were finally declared an indigenous ethnic minority by the Irish government in 2017.

However, the situation for travellers isn’t quite as brilliant as this achievement. A report by the Seanad found that travellers were still experiencing “stigma, longstanding prejudice, discrimination, racism, social exclusion, and identity erosion ”. This is certainly the case within the UK, as debates that take place in the UK Parliament often focus on separating the traveller community from the rest of society.

Treatment like this forces all individuals to suffer discrimination from the actions of a few

Labour MP Tony Lloyd deviated from this trend by recognising that the traveller community often face the “biggest levels of racism and discrimination”. This was linked to a YouGov poll from 2017 that found more than 40% of British parents would be uncomfortable if their child formed a close relationship with a traveller. The survey also found a third of parents would be unhappy for their child to go on a playdate at the home of a traveller.

That a minority of travellers commit crimes, (just as all humans have the ability to commit crimes), has meant that prejudice has formed against the community as a whole. This hasn’t been helped by some newspaper publications judging all travellers as a homogenous group. Treatment like this forces all individuals to suffer discrimination due to the actions of a few. In schools, travellers experienced severe discrimination and bullying , which has often meant keeping their ethnicity a secret. Instead of being themselves, travellers have to risk drip-feeding information about their past to others or saying nothing at all. Neither should be the case in a civilised society.

The broadcasting media can also fuel these prejudices. A Channel 4 Dispatches documentary about travellers was found to be using misleading data in its analysis. For example, the documentary investigated rates of crime within a one mile radius of traveller sites. In 56% of cases across the 237 chosen sites, the rate of crime was lower than the national average. However, the documentary was found to overly focus on the 27% of cases where the rate of crime is higher than the national average.

Jim Davies, founder of the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Police Association, stated the data “would crumble under the slightest scrutiny” and that an increase in prejudice against the traveller community had already been witnessed following the documentary. All crime, in whatever form, must be opposed. What travellers oppose is the assumption they will commit crimes, like theft, simply because they are travellers.

The tactic of demonising travellers has been used shamefully in election campaigns. The OpenDemocracy website found the Conservatives had used discriminatory statements about travellers within their election material. For example, the website found a candidate in Crewe and Nantwich led a campaign against the Romani community, while another in South West Bedfordshire backed proposals which could have amounted to ‘forced assimilation’.

Despite Romani individuals being the largest ethnic minority within the EU they are still receiving discrimination

This came after Home Secretary Priti Patel announced a consultation into powers that would allow the police to confiscate traveller property last year. The human rights group Friends, Families, and Travellers told OpenDemocracy that the proposals “focus on the behaviour of a minority, yet tar all Gypsies and Travellers with the same brush ”. A complete lack of political representation from travellers has allowed such actions to go unchallenged.

A Guardian article reports how prejudice has been historic. Half a million Roma people were killed during the Holocaust and despite being the largest ethnic minority within the EU, the group are still receiving discrimination in contemporary society. The article reports unequal treatment, separation and, in 2010, French president Nicolas Sarkozy paying Roma €300 to leave France . Illegal sites exist often due to inadequate housing, a problem facing the whole country. A mixture of structural responses- liberalising the green belt and extending council housing- is essential.

But transforming the hearts and minds of citizens will also be necessary. Negative stereotypes of travellers lead to negative attitudes towards them as a whole. A report entitled ‘The Last Acceptable Racism’ found 7 0% of gypsies had experienced educational discrimination . When education is the key for leading a successful, worthwhile life, how can society allow this to go unchallenged? The problems have been identified. It is up to politicians, campaigners and humanity to find the solutions.

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Working Notes 93: Unheard Voices: Irish Travellers and the Struggle for Social Justice

Irish travellers and prison: discrimination, education, and lateral violence.

Posted on September 18, 2023 by Martina Madden - Education   Penal Reform   Poverty & Inequality  

by Martina Madden

Martina Madden is Communications and Social Policy Advocate of the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice.

INTRODUCTION

Irish Travellers are underrepresented in all of the categories we associate with status and success in our society. They are barely visible in positions of power, (despite the appointment of Eileen Flynn, an Irish Traveller, to the Seanad in 2020 [1] ) and their education rates are dismally low, with the majority of Traveller men having just received primary-level schooling. [2]

One area where they are overrepresented is in our prisons. Travellers comprise less than 0.7 per cent of the population of the Republic of Ireland but make up 10 per cent of the general prison population and 15 per cent of the female prisoner population. [3] We, as a society, should be deeply concerned about these figures, and about the contributory factors involved.

The framing of Travellers as disruptive criminals, in our media and in our collective consciousness provides us with an excuse to justify their exclusion from society and the discrimination they endure. It scapegoats a vulnerable group who are trying to survive in a system where the odds are stacked against them and blames the entirety of that cohort for the actions of a few. When we examine the historical and existing barriers to full participation in society that exist for Travellers and the injustice of their exclusion, it is our mainstream, settled, majority population that emerges as culpable of wrongdoing, which is resulting in grievous harms being inflicted on the lives of members of the Traveller community.

A COMMUNITY COMING UNDONE

Travellers are loose threads in the fabric of Irish society. They exist at the edges rather than being interwoven into the whole. This is often excused by settled people as being their choice, and even their fault. We have all heard about, and read about in the media, Travellers’ propensity to crime and disruption. But what we don’t hear about is Travellers’ struggles to exist and find their place in a society that was designed for a settled lifestyle. We also don’t hear much about the loss of their unique culture and heritage, including traditional modes of making a living.

The unpalatable fact, which many of us in mainstream society struggle to accept, is that Travellers are the victims of grave systemic injustices, and the effects of these prevail. Decades of institutional discrimination, and social exclusion, have resulted in disproportionately high rates of poverty, unemployment, homelessness and ill health (both physical and mental), as well as low levels of educational achievement. The experience of Irish Travellers starkly contrasts with the broader narrative of Irish prosperity and social progression since Independence in 1922, and they remain one of the most socially and economically disadvantaged groups in Ireland. The impact of this on their lives is stark: suicide rates among this community are six times higher than in the general population and their life expectancy remains much lower. [4]

NARRATIVES OF TWO TRAVELLER MEN

For this essay I spoke to two Traveller men in their 40s, Patrick* and William*, both of whom were sent to prison in their twenties. They both have overcome significant challenges and today have rewarding careers in the social care sector, where they provide guidance and support to young Traveller men. Their personal narratives help to illuminate the level of injustice this group faces, how high the barriers to inclusion in our society are, and the impossibility – as a member of a marginalised group – of breaching them, without adequate and sustained assistance. The overrepresentation of Travellers in our prison and crime statistics indicate an issue that is broader and more complex than it is represented by our media and by the establishment. It reveals the personal and societal impact of poverty and exclusion and the inherent injustice in our policing [5] and penal system, [6] as well as a community that is visibly in need of understanding and support.

ETHNIC IDENTITY, DISCRIMINATION AND LOSS OF LIFESTYLE

Irish Travellers were formally recognised as a distinct ethnic group by the State in March 2017. [7]   This was the result of years of campaigning for their unique cultural identity to be acknowledged and was welcomed by Traveller advocacy groups. It was an event that had huge symbolic importance, but it did little to reverse the harms that had been done before.

The Irish State’s discrimination against Travellers is longstanding. The Commission on Itinerancy Report 1963, identified “the problem arising from the presence in the country of itinerants” [as Travellers were then called]. It not only failed to acknowledge Traveller ethnicity and nomadism but threatened to assimilate and absorb them into wider society as the “final solution” to everyone’s problems. This inherently racist and misguided strategy failed on many counts but it provided a precedent that “established policy relating to Travellers for the next twenty years”. This included criminalising their nomadic way of life (by outlawing the ability to park their trailers on agricultural land), and began a process of legitimising hostility and discrimination against Travellers from the settled community. [8]

Travellers have for centuries supported themselves through their traditional occupations of tin smithing, seasonal agricultural work, and horse trading. But the rapid modernisation and urbanisation of Ireland, with its shift towards a service-based, high-tech economy has made many of these occupations obsolete. The need for a formal education to access opportunities in this modern system has been a challenge for Travellers, whose rates of literacy and educational attainment are low, in part due to a peripatetic lifestyle and their experience of prejudice and bullying in the school system. Entrenched social prejudice towards them effectively excludes Travellers from obtaining any job in the mainstream workforce, leaving them disproportionately affected by unemployment, poverty, mental health issues and homelessness.

PATRICK’S NARRATIVE

Patrick is a 40-year-old Traveller man who was born in Ireland but lived with his family in England until his mid-teens, when he left school. He showed promise as a boxer, making it to the all-Ireland finals twice, at age 17 and 18. Unfortunately he did not win the title at either match. A loss at this level was hard on his self-esteem, which was already shaky. Leaving school early had left him with no qualifications. This, and the blatant discrimination he experienced from employers who did not want a Traveller working for them, made finding a job impossible. After a row with his mother, Patrick moved to a halting site where he began to hang out with other young men who were also unemployed, bored and disillusioned by the discrimination they endured and the social inequality they witnessed. He began to take drugs and to get involved in crime. The breakup of his marriage which resulted in his wife and children moving to England exacerbated his drug use and depression. In and out of prison, he was at a loss to find a way to move forward and change his life. Thanks to his own determination, and to organisations that provided him with the mental health and addiction supports as well as secure housing, he is now about to complete a BA in Community Youth Work and is hoping that his story will be an inspiration for other young Travellers who are struggling. [9]

WILLIAM’S NARRATIVE

William is a Traveller in his late 30s. His family moved between Ireland and the UK for most of his childhood and he continued to move between both places in early adulthood. He left school at 11 without being able to read or write, only much later being diagnosed as dyslexic. He began to earn money by washing car windows at traffic lights and moved onto trading from stalls on the street, but was in trouble with the police for minor offences. In his late teens he got pulled into a long-standing family feud which escalated over a period of years into serious violence, which resulted in him being imprisoned for 14 years. While imprisoned, he learned to read and write. In addition to his determination to learn, William also volunteered for the Samaritans, providing a listening ear to other prisoners. He also became involved in the Red Cross and got a job in the mess kitchen as a chef. William is grateful to the teachers in Mountjoy for their encouragement and support. Since leaving prison he has found employment providing support for younger Travellers, something that he could not have done without an education. [10]

EDUCATION AND TRAVELLERS

Higher education is a prerequisite for almost every job these days. Applicants are expected to have a Leaving Certificate at least, and increasingly to have a degree, even if its subject matter does not relate to the job itself. This is challenging for the Traveller population, who often leave school early. This can be because the family is moving but often it is because of bullying and exclusion within the school system. The bullying can come from teachers, or from other students. Both men I spoke to for this essay had their own experiences with this.

William recounted his experience of not being supported at school:

“Well, I never really got in to school. I was, was always getting suspended. Like I was dyslexic. So I spent most of my time in Mr Golden’s office looking at a wall [laughs] for obviously disrupting class and things like that. Which I did because I didn’t know what I was doing. I hadn’t got a clue and I couldn’t read and write. And then you had kids… kind of… you had a bit of racism and [in England] it wasn’t as bad as here, but there was still some.” [11]

Patrick agreed that racism against Travellers was not as bad in English schools as in Ireland; his schooling ended when the family moved back to Ireland in his early teens. He explained that one often overlooked reason why Traveller children leave school early is that their parents are afraid that they are being treated as badly as they were during their own schooldays.

“Their mothers probably know what’s going on in the schools and they know that they’re not getting cared for. They probably remember back when they were going to school, the mothers, and thinking what it was like for them … And they’re thinking … my daughter’s better off out of there now. Maybe … she’s getting bullied in the class, so maybe we’re better off taking her out.” [12]

Unfortunately, those mothers are probably right. In Irish schools, shunning Travellers is not something that is consigned to the past. William said of his 15-year-old daughter:

“My daughter’s friends in the school are all foreign. The foreign girls have no problem talking to her … but the Irish girls mostly don’t talk to her. So, she doesn’t make much of an effort herself. She’ll admit that’s because she just has that fear. She expects it. You know what I mean?” [13]

The phenomenon of early school-leaving affects the treatment of Travellers while they are in school. Patrick said: “The teachers don’t really give a hundred percent to Travellers because they assume that Travellers are going to leave school early, because that’s the history of Travellers … So the teachers don’t really put a lot of attention into them.” [14]

This is an injustice for every Traveller child, but it is particularly hard on the ones who need additional supports, as William did. Children who struggle in to learn foundational skills of reading and writing in primary education, are at a huge disadvantage in secondary school. William reports that in his work as he hears of many Traveller children who are “completely lost”. This is an experience that resonates with him as it is what he went through himself as a dyslexic child. [15]

EMPLOYMENT AND TRAVELLERS

The lack of qualifications or higher education among Travellers is an obvious disadvantage in the job market. But they also face discrimination when seeking employment, which is unrelated to their education levels. Patrick recalls going for several jobs in his youth, only to be rebuffed when he arrived at the interview. He said “You could tell by them when you’d walk in. You’d know. You’re a Traveller… you’re not getting a job. [And you would be] right about it. So when you’re going through that for a while, you just, you know… [give up], and then you’re just at home.” [16]

Patrick reflected on how the lack of a job or anything meaningful to do affected his confidence and left him at a loose end and made it extremely difficult to keep his drinking and drug-taking under control. He said: “[E]ven when you’d want to stop taking, when you’d want to stop drinking and when you’d take a break, there’d be absolutely nothing else to do. There was no work. There’s no other options. I mean, I could be bored. You’d be bored … Because there’s not… there was nothing to do, you know?” [17]

This lack of direction, as well as a sense of hopelessness about his own options led him down a path of joining in with others from the site he lived on in petty theft and burglary. “There doesn’t seem to be any kind of… nothing going forward for you. No development in your life. You’re looking at fellows coming in the odd time driving a really nice car, a really nice van. And you want to get that van, you know, and you say, how am I going to, get money? How am I going to survive? Like how am I going to improve my life? You know? So a few of my cousins broke off, going off robbing and that, and they were coming back sometimes with some money and they driving nice cars and… So I just decided, I wouldn’t mind a bit of that as well, you know?” [18]

It shouldn’t come as a shock that when we as a society treat people as if they don’t matter and consign them to lives of poverty and exclusion, they sometimes react by taking something from us. If the game is rigged anyway, there’s little to gain by playing by the rules. But despite the initial rewards, Patrick’s new direction didn’t end well for him and he ended up in and out of prison.

His addictions spiralled out of control too when, a few years later, his marriage broke up and his wife left Ireland for the UK, taking their children with her. He said: “I’d follow her back and forth a few times, but it wasn’t working out. And I, I kept coming back on my own and then when I come back I’m really depressed, you know. And then I started taking prescription tablets and I ended up getting strung out on them.” [19]

As someone who couldn’t read or write, it was difficult for William to find a regular job, but he tried to earn a living using his wits. He washed car windows at traffic lights and was a street trader. He recalls police discrimination against Travellers and how he – like other Travellers – was singled out by the police/Gardaí for checks on his vehicle, to be fingerprinted (illegally) and to be questioned about his actions while just going about his day.

His work with Traveller youth has shown him that it is still very difficult for a Traveller to find a job in Ireland today:

“What I’m hearing back from these groups I’m working with discrimination is the biggest thing. A little bit less for the young group in Dublin seemingly, compared to everyone else. But in the smaller towns [they] can’t get jobs… all jobs they’re getting is cleaning jobs or if they’re hiding their identity. And then when they’re hiding it, they hear all this negative stuff about Travellers. Especially if they’re working in public, like say public service shops or things like that. So they might not realise they’re Traveller, but if they’ve a kind of distinctive Traveller name…  they’re in a bit more trouble.” [20]

LATERAL VIOLENCE AND TRAVELLERS

The sociological concept of lateral violence refers to acts of aggression, harassment, or harm inflicted by members of a marginalised or oppressed group on each other, rather than on their oppressors. It has been observed and studied in various contexts, including among indigenous communities including the Aboriginal people of Australia, as well as other racial and ethnic minorities and in certain socioeconomic groups. [21]

Lateral violence, in the context of Irish Travellers, can be viewed as a manifestation of the trauma experienced as a result of losing their traditional identity and way of life, as well as their alienation from mainstream society. The frustration, anger, and despair that arise from being oppressed are redirected towards peers or individuals within their own community, rather than towards the larger systems or structures of power that are the sources of oppression, e.g. the government, the education system, the Gardaí and the criminal justice system.

William said of the lateral violence theory: “I think it’s very relevant to Travellers. So like the group who’s kind of marginalised and isolated from the rest of society and then I think obviously they internalised that anger and that kind of feud with each other.” [22]

He also demonstrated how the laws which made nomadism illegal as well as the futility of depending on the Gardaí for justice contribute to the problem:   “I think as well since Travellers are not allowed to move around the way they used to. So if you were on the receiving end of something, you could move away and you could, that’s a good place. Try and escape and now you can’t… Because Guards don’t do nothing. Guards will tear you out of your car for having no insurance, no license or that. But if your house is smashed up or your car smashed up or some of your family’s being caught up, what did you do? They’re more interested. What did you do to escalate? What did you do? Didn’t happen for nothing. So if you’re a victim of crime, they want to know what you’ve done to provoke that aside. That’s more their concern.” [23]

The intransigence of the Gardaí as well as a lack of faith in fair treatment by the wider justice system make it feel inevitable that Travellers will be forced to take matters into their own hands, despite a reluctance to do so. William said: “… sometimes people in in families, it just might be totally against their nature to be get involved in violence or be involved in that type of thing. But they can’t get away from it because they feel like they’ve nowhere to turn. Do you know what I mean?” He added that it can be a “no win” situation where a refusal to be involved in defending your own family can leave you isolated and vulnerable. [24]

It should be noted that violence in the Traveller community is an issue that receives a disproportionate amount of media attention, and is not typical of the vast majority of Travellers. William was clear that although the circumstances surrounding him in his youth were not great, he takes responsibility for his actions. What we are exploring here are the reasons why it occurs. Addressing the systemic oppression that Travellers experience, as well as improving access to education, health supports, and the restoration of their cultural identity and pride would help to provide the community with the tools needed to foster unity.

SUPPORT SYSTEMS IN AND AFTER PRISON – HOUSING AND EDUCATION

Both Patrick and William have been through a lot, not least by enduring imprisonment, but their stories are ones with happy endings. They are both employed in meaningful jobs, helping to create a better future for younger Travellers and are living stable fulfilling lives. But their success is not just due to their own determination and hard work. It is also because of the supports they received along the way – supports that they should have had access to in the first place.

During William’s time in prison, he finally got the educational support he needed. It’s hard to disagree with his statement:  “It’s sad I had to go to prison to get an education.” Had he been given the help he needed in school, his life might have turned out differently. Patrick also found stability and treatment for addiction after his time in prison, when housing with supports was provided by an NGO, giving him the foundation he needed to rebuild his life. What would his story have been had he been helped to find rewarding employment, somewhere safe to live and mental health supports when he was a teenager?

Of course, no amount of support and guidance can help Travellers to overcome the brutality of living with the stigma and discrimination that is still endemic in Ireland. It is the systems, institutions and society that needs to change, not the groups which are enduring harms because of them. Travellers can and do campaign for these changes but it is the mainstream, settled majority which must take action to implement them.

In scapegoating Irish Travellers for problems which are the effect of decades of exclusion and oppression, we harm ourselves as a society as well as continuing to harm them. The exclusion of this indigenous minority also deprives us of the richness that their unique culture and history can contribute to our collective Irish heritage. The Traveller community provides us with a mirror reflecting back to us what is happening in wider society. The problems of exclusion, inequality and injustice apply to us all, but they are most acute at the margins, where our policymakers and our society has kept Travellers. We must stop blaming the mirror – the Irish Traveller community – for what it shows and start facing the realities we’ve been too willing to ignore.

By embracing diversity, demanding fairness in allocation of resources and tackling the inherent racism against Travellers that we are still far too willing to participate in or turn a blind eye to, we can create an actual inclusive society where everyone can thrive.

*For reasons of privacy William and Patrick have asked that their surnames be omitted.

[1] ‘eileen flynn’ (oireachtas, 29 june 2020), https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/member/eileen-flynn.s.2020-06-29/., [2] ‘census of population 2016 – profile 8 irish travellers, ethnicity and religion’ (central statistics office of ireland, 2016), https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-cp8iter/p8iter/p8itseah/., [3] conor gallager, ‘travellers significantly over-represented in irish prisons, un committee told’, the irish times , accessed 13 may 2023, https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/2022/07/05/travellers-significantly-over-represented-in-irish-prisons-un-committee-told/., [4] ‘travellers and suicide: facts and figures’ (pavee point, 2010), https://www.paveepoint.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/suicide-facts-figures-a0.pdf., [5] conor gallager, ‘gardaí have negative view of travellers, survey finds’, the irish times , 20 august 2023, https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/gardai-have-negative-view-of-travellers-survey-finds-1.4334274., [6] michelle hennessy, ‘blind justice: how prison is leaving travellers isolated and traumatised’, the journal , 31 october 2022, https://www.thejournal.ie/blind-justice-prison-5890179-oct2022/#:~:text=once%20in%20prison%2c%20travellers%20have,because%20of%20who%20she%20was., [7] marie o’halloran and michael o’regan, ‘travellers formally recognised as an ethnic minority’, the irish times , 1 march 2017, https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/oireachtas/travellers-formally-recognised-as-an-ethnic-minority-1.2994309., [8] https://itmtrav.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/itm-review-of-the-1963-commission-on-itinerancy.pdf, [9] martina madden, interview with patrick*, in-person, 14 october 2022., [10] martina madden, interview with william*, in-person, 21 october 2022., [11] madden., [12] madden, interview with patrick*., [13] madden, interview with william*., [14] madden, interview with patrick*., [15] madden, interview with william*., [16] madden, interview with patrick*., [17] madden., [18] madden., [19] madden., [20] madden, interview with william*., [21] theoni whyman et al., ‘lateral violence in indigenous peoples’, australian psychologist 56, no. 1 (2021): 1–14, https://doi.org/10.1080/00050067.2021.1893595., [22] madden, interview with william*., [23] madden., [24] madden..

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A Civil Society Perspective on Anti-Traveller and Anti-Roma Hate: Connecting Online to On the Street

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The absence of hate crime legislation in Ireland is a glaring anomaly. Without it, Ireland stands virtually alone in its silence with respect to protecting vulnerable communities from the harms of this particular form of violence. Perry (cited in Schweppe et al. 2014) ‘Roma’ is an umbrella term, used across European institutions to refer to many ethnic minority groups, which share a nomadic history, including Roma, Irish Travellers, Dom, Sinti and others (United Nations 2013). According to the 2011 Census, there are 29,573 Travellers in the Republic of Ireland; Travellers account for just 0.6% of the total population (Central Statistics Office 2012). Travellers are indigenous to Ireland and have been documented as part of Irish history for centuries (Ní Shúinéir 1994).

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The absence of hate crime legislation in Ireland is a glaring anomaly. Without it, Ireland stands virtually alone in its silence with respect to protecting vulnerable communities from the harms of this particular form of violence.

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Acknowledgement

With sincere thanks to Martin Collins and Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre.

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Aisling Twomey

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Twomey, A. (2017). A Civil Society Perspective on Anti-Traveller and Anti-Roma Hate: Connecting Online to On the Street. 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_19

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Census 2022 Profile 5 - Diversity, Migration, Ethnicity, Irish Travellers & Religion

• Irish Travellers

Census 2022 Results

This publication is part of a  series of results  from Census 2022. More thematic publications will be published throughout 2023 as outlined in the Census 2022  Publication Schedule .

The number of Irish Travellers living in the State and counted in Census 2022 was 32,949, an increase of 6% from 30,987 in the 2016 census. Irish Travellers make up less than 1% of the population so, for comparison purposes, it can be helpful to use rates per 1,000 of the population. This shows that in Census 2022, six out of 1,000 people in the State were Irish Travellers. The proportion of Irish Travellers in the population varied from county to county.

In Galway City, 21 out of every 1,000 people were Irish Travellers, in Longford, the rate was 20 per 1,000 of the population and in Offaly, it was 14 per 1,000.

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown had the lowest number of Irish Travellers per 1,000 of the population with just under two Irish Travellers for every 1,000 people.

In Kildare and Dublin City, there were just under four Irish Travellers for every 1,000 people.

The Irish Traveller population increased in most counties, the largest rise being recorded in Offaly, up 30% to 1,174.

The Traveller population also increased by more than 200 in Cork (up 11% to 2,376), Fingal (up 17% to 1,545) and Tipperary (up 17% to 1,434).

There were drops in the number of Irish Travellers in some counties; the largest were recorded in Longford (down 13% to 913) and South Dublin (down 12% to 1,943).

Note: The analysis of Irish travellers is based on the usually resident population. The corresponding de facto figures in 2022 and 2016 were 33,033 and 31,075, respectively.

The figure for Irish Travellers has a pyramid shape as opposed to the hourglass shape of the figure for the total population. This reflects higher fertility rates and lower average life expectancy among the Irish Traveller population than in the overall population.

Children under the age of 15 made up 36% of Irish Travellers compared with 20% of the total population. At a national level, 15% of the total population was aged 65 years and over while for Irish Travellers, the equivalent figure was just 5%.

Marital Status of Irish Travellers

Overall, 45% of Irish Travellers aged 15 years and over were single, up from 40% in 2016. The proportion of married Travellers dropped from 49% in 2016 to 44% in 2022.

Irish Traveller men were more likely to be either single (47%) or married (46%) than Irish Traveller women (42% single and 42% married).

Around 10% of Irish Traveller women were separated or divorced compared with 5% of Irish Traveller men.

Irish Traveller women were also more likely to be widowed (5%) than Irish Traveller men (2%).

Over 85% of Irish Travellers aged 15 to 24 years were single while 13% were married.

The proportion that were married increased to 49% for 25 to 34 year olds.

Among Irish Travellers aged 55 to 64 years, 14% were separated or divorced compared with 8% of Travellers aged 65 and over.

Overall, 25% of Irish Travellers aged 65 and over were widowed; the figure for Traveller women aged 65 and over was 35% and 15% for Traveller men.

Long-Lasting Conditions and Difficulties

There were 8,577 Irish Travellers who reported experiencing at least one long-lasting condition or difficulty to any extent, accounting for 26% of the Traveller population. In comparison, 22% of the total population living in the State reported experiencing at least one long-lasting condition or difficulty to any extent.

Breaking this down further, 15% of Irish Travellers (4,952 people) reported experiencing at least one long-lasting condition or difficulty to a great extent or a lot compared with 8% of all people living in Ireland.

Another 11% of Irish Travellers (3,625 people) reported experiencing at least one long-lasting condition or difficulty to some extent or a little while the comparable figure for the total population was 14%.

The overall proportion of Irish Travellers experiencing a long-lasting condition or difficulty to any extent was slightly higher for men (27%) than women (25%). Looking at the total population, women (22%) were more likely to experience a long-lasting condition or difficulty to any extent than men (21%).

Of all children under the age of 15 living in the State, 4% reported experiencing at least one long-lasting condition or difficulty to a great extent compared with 7% of Traveller children.

The proportion of 15 to 29 year old Irish Travellers experiencing at least one long-lasting condition or difficulty to a great extent (13%) was more than twice that of all people in the same age cohort (6%).

Between the ages of 30 and 59, the proportion of the population experiencing at least one long-lasting condition or difficulty to a great extent was over three times higher for Irish Travellers (21%) than the total population (6%).

Among the older age cohorts, the differences were less pronounced, and Irish Travellers over the age of 80 were slightly less likely to experience a long-lasting condition or difficulty to any extent than would be expected in the overall population.

General Health

The question on general health shows that 22,050 Irish Travellers reported their general health as being good or very good (67%) while a further 3,899 Irish Travellers reported fair health status (12%).

There were 1,350 Irish Travellers reporting their health as bad or very bad, 4% of the Traveller population. This is twice as high as the proportion of the total population who reported their health as bad or very bad (2%).

The level of non-response in this question was quite high for Irish Travellers, at 17%, compared with 7% for the total population.

In the overall population, the proportion of people with good or very good health decreased slowly with age, up until the age of 70 when the decrease rate started to accelerate.

In the Irish Traveller population, the proportion of people with good or very good health decreased steadily with age up until the age of 70 at which point, the rate of decrease slowed down.

There were 5,427 Irish Travellers who were daily smokers in Census 2022, or 16% of the Traveller population compared with 9% of the total population.

Just under half of Irish Travellers had never smoked compared with 60% of the total population.

Some 9% of Travellers had given up smoking, compared with 19% for the total population.

Looking at smoking by age shows that one in three Irish Travellers between the ages of 25 and 54 were daily smokers.

Irish Traveller Households

There were 29,900 Irish Travellers living in private households in Census 2022. The majority were living in permanent housing, while 2,286 people were living in temporary housing units such as caravans and mobile homes.

The proportion of Irish Travellers living in private households who were living in caravans, mobile homes or other temporary accommodation was 8% in 2022, down from 12% in 2016.

In Fingal, 18% of Travellers were living in temporary accommodation, the highest proportion in the country in Census 2022.

In Dublin City, Kilkenny and Tipperary, 14% of Irish Travellers were living in temporary housing.

Household Size

There were 9,448 private households containing Irish Travellers. These households had an average size of 4 persons per household compared to an average size of 2.7 for the total population.

Irish Traveller households were largest in Leitrim, Roscommon and Kildare with an average size of 4.6 persons, followed by Clare with 4.5 persons per household.

The counties where the average size of Irish Traveller households was smallest were Dublin City with 3.5 persons per household and Louth, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown and Donegal (all with 3.6 persons per household).

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Oldenburg Winner ‘The Black Guelph' Gets U.S. Release (Exclusive)

The Black Guelph , a dark Irish crime thriller centered on Ireland's Travellers community, has secured a U.S. release.

John Connors' directorial debut premiered at the Oldenburg Film Festival in 2022, where it won both best film honor and the best actor for star Graham Earley. It is billed as the first film from an Irish Travellers' director to depict the indigenous ethnocultural group, also known as Minceir, which is among the most disadvantaged and discriminated against in Western Europe.

Online film packaging and financing platform Slated.Com has acquired worldwide rights, outside Ireland, to The Black Guelph and has partnered with Entertainment Squad to release the film. Following a limited U.S. theatrical release, which kicked off Friday, March 22, the film will roll out on digital and VOD on June 25.

Earley plays Kanto, a small-time drug dealer from Dublin's Travellers community desperate to put his life back together and to reconnect with his mother of his young daughter, who is caught short by a visit from his long-absent father Cormac (Paul Roe), a survivor of abuse in Ireland's industrial schools' program, a nationwide system of reform schools mainly run by the Catholic Church that often separated Travellers children from their families. Connors has a small on-screen role as a corrupt undercover cop.

The film's title is a reference to 14th-century Italy when two groups: The White Guelphs and the Black Guephs battled for the hearts and minds of society in Florence. The Black Guelphs supported the influence of the Papacy over the economy and society. Connors is connecting that group to those in Ireland who supported the Catholic Church over the Travellers when the sexual abuse scandals surrounding the industrial school system first broke.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter , Connors spoke about his own struggles with depression and despair in making the film and how working on The Black Guelph "saved my life."

Check out the trailer for The Black Guelph below.

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Ireland to Intervene in South Africa’s Genocide Case Against Israel at the World Court

Ireland did not outline the argument it planned to advance at the court, but the country’s lawmakers have made repeated calls to prioritize the protection of civilians in Gaza.

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Ireland plans to file an argument in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, according to the Irish government, making the move as the country has strongly condemned Israel’s actions against civilians in Gaza.

South Africa has brought a case against Israel in the I.C.J., the United Nations’ highest court, arguing that Israel is committing genocide, a claim Israel has denied. Ireland did not outline the argument it planned to advance, but the country’s lawmakers have made repeated calls to prioritize the protection of civilians in Gaza.

The United Nations allows countries to “intervene” in proceedings if they are parties to the United Nations’ 1948 Genocide Convention. Micheál Martin, the Republic of Ireland’s foreign minister and deputy leader, said that officials were working on a “declaration of intervention” in the case that, if approved by the Irish government, would be filed with the court, in The Hague.

“It is for the court to determine whether genocide is being committed,” Mr. Martin said on Wednesday. “But I want to be clear in reiterating what I have said many times in the last few months: What we saw on 7 October in Israel, and what we are seeing in Gaza now, represents the blatant violation of international humanitarian law on a mass scale.”

He urged Israel to call a cease-fire, and then listed a number of pressing issues, including “the purposeful withholding of humanitarian assistance to civilians,” “the targeting of civilians and of civilian infrastructure” and “the collective punishment of an entire population.”

“The list goes on,” he said. “It has to stop. The view of the international community is clear. Enough is enough.”

Irish lawmakers were among the first in Europe to call for the protection of people in Gaza last year, a reflection of Ireland’s longstanding support for Palestinian civilians , rooted in part in a shared history of British colonialism. Ireland’s own experience with a seemingly intractable and traumatic sectarian conflict — The Troubles, which came to a close with the 1998 Good Friday Agreement — has also driven that affinity.

The decision to file a declaration of intervention was made in consultation with several partners, including South Africa, Mr. Martin said. The Irish government does not plan to take a side in the dispute, the government told several Irish news outlets.

Germany in January became the first country to announce that it would intervene in the case, saying that there was “no basis whatsoever” to South Africa’s claim that Israel was committing genocide in the war. The United States has called the case meritless, and several European countries have rejected it, too.

Irish politicians have made repeated calls for Israel to prioritize the protection of civilians in Gaza over their military aims. Mr. Martin said that the intention is that its declaration would be filed once South Africa has filed its written arguments, a process that is likely to take months.

The allegation that Israel has carried out genocide in Gaza — one of the most serious crimes a country can be accused of — is particularly significant in Israel, which was founded after millions of Jewish people were murdered during the Holocaust.

The U.N. genocide convention , to which Israel is a signatory, defines the crime as one with a proven intent on the part of perpetrators to physically destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.

The South African government maintains that it is pursuing its case to stop a genocide, but analysts say it is also motivated by longstanding domestic support for the Palestinian cause. Israeli leaders have said that South Africa’s allegations pervert the meaning of genocide and the purpose of the 1948 genocide convention.

Megan Specia reports on Britain, Ireland and the Ukraine war for The Times. She is based in London. More about Megan Specia

Our Coverage of the Israel-Hamas War

News and Analysis

A deadly Israeli strike  on an aid convoy run by World Central Kitchen  in Gaza is already setting back attempts  to address a hunger crisis in the territory, with aid agencies saying they are being more cautious and at least two suspending operations.

​​The Biden administration is pressing Congress to approve a plan to  sell $18 billion worth of F-15 fighter jets to Israel , as President Biden resists calls to limit U.S. arms sales to Israel over its military offensive in Gaza.

The Israeli police clashed with antigovernment protesters  outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in Jerusalem, on the third day of demonstrations  calling for early elections.

Internal Roil at TikTok: TikTok has been dogged for months by accusations that its app has shown a disproportionate amount of pro-Palestinian and antisemitic content to users. Some of the same tensions  have also played out inside the company.

Palestinian Detainees: Israel has imprisoned more than 9,000 Palestinians suspected of militant activity . Rights groups say that some have been abused or held without charges.

A Hostage’s Account: Amit Soussana, an Israeli lawyer, is the first former hostage to speak publicly about being sexually assaulted  during captivity in Gaza.

A Power Vacuum: Since the start of the war, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has done little to address the power vacuum that would appear after Israeli forces leave Gaza. The risks of inaction are already apparent in Gaza City .

Palm Beach Gardens man extradited from Northern Ireland on murder charge, appears in court

Jonah horne will face a second-degree murder charge in the 2016 death of jacob walsh of jupiter after fighting extradition for the past seven years..

Seven years after being taken into custody in Northern Ireland and fighting extradition to the United States, a Palm Beach Gardens man accused of murder in a 2016 homicide has returned home and appeared before a Palm Beach County judge.

Jonah Horne made his initial appearance on a second-degree murder charge on Friday, March 29, in the death of Jacob Walsh of Jupiter . Authorities had booked him into the Palm Beach County Jail shortly before midnight after his transfer from the top-security Maghaberry prison near Belfast, where he had been in custody since March 2017.

During the hearing at the Palm Beach County Jail, Circuit Judge Samantha Schosberg Feuer denied Horne bail and assigned him a public defender. As a matter of policy, the county Public Defender's Office does not comment on active cases.

Horne, now 29, is one of two men accused in the June 7, 2016, slaying of Walsh at an apartment complex in Boca Raton . Police allege Horne and Matthew Lewis of Jensen Beach fatally shot Walsh, then 25, as the three men scuffled during a drug deal at the San Marco at Broken Sound complex.

Lewis, 30, has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, but the court has delayed his sentencing. He is a potential witness in Horne's case and has been awaiting a resolution to the extradition appeal, his attorney, Tracy Ann Nemerofsky, told The Palm Beach Post this month.

The courts have scheduled Horne's initial conference before Circuit Judge Jeffrey Gillen for May 23. Gillen also is the judge for Lewis' case.

From The Post's 2016 archives: Friends recall slain Jupiter man as Boca police seek gunman

European court rejected Horne's application to stay in Northern Ireland

Horne lost his final appeal to remain in Northern Ireland March 7, when the European Court of Human Rights dismissed his application under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits the use of torture or subjecting prisoners to "inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

Horne was initially was taken into custody March 13, 2017, at the Northern Ireland home of a woman he met while she was working in the United States. His custody status has been the subject of an international debate over the U.S. penal system, with Horne and his attorneys in Northern Ireland arguing that he could be subjected to inhumane treatment if returned to Florida.

They argued in the Northern Ireland courts that if convicted in Florida, Horne could face a penalty of life without parole, or possibly the death penalty, which is outlawed in most of Europe. Under Florida law, second-degree murder is punishable by up to life in prison.

The Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office sent communications, including a formal diplomatic note, to Northern Ireland stating that the office would seek a penalty of no longer than 40 years if Horne is convicted. However, the county Public Defender's Office provided Horne and his attorneys in the United Kingdom with an affidavit stating that judges in Florida are not bound by sentencing recommendations from prosecutors.

In rendering their decision, a panel of eight judges on the human rights court, based in Strasbourg, France, noted a "long history of cooperation between the United States and the United Kingdom on law-enforcement issues related to extradition."

The court also wrote that "the applicant has not pointed to a single occasion where the United States failed to comply with an assurance given to the United Kingdom."

'It was in his DNA': Prosecutor, veteran found dead in preserve was known for service

Jacob Walsh was Jupiter High soccer standout, started clothing company

Walsh grew up in Jupiter and was the MVP of the varsity soccer team at Jupiter High School, according to an online obituary. He later took business classes at what is now Keiser University in West Palm Beach and started a streetwear clothing company, the Lost Key Co.

The shooting took place late at night at San Marco at Broken Sound, at Military Trail and Yamato Road in Boca Raton. Neighbors said Walsh knocked on their doors seeking help after being shot. Paramedics drove him to Delray Medical Center, where doctors pronounced him dead.

It is not known when Horne fled to Northern Ireland from Palm Beach County. Authorities there took him into custody at his girlfriend's home in Lisburn in March 2017, nine months after the fatal shooting.

Julius Whigham II is a criminal justice and public safety reporter for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at [email protected] and follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @JuliusWhigham . Help support our work: Subscribe today.

Ireland is the top travel destination for three U.S. states

A new study found that ireland was the most searched for travel destination in three u.s. states..

A new study has revealed the most searched travel destination in each American state, with Ireland the top vacation spot for three U.S. states.

The research, conducted by travel information site Places To Travel , analyzed Google Trends data to establish the top vacation destinations of each state throughout the nation.

The analysis revealed that Italy was the most popular travel destination in ten states, including New York , Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Arizona.

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Hawaii was found to be the second most searched travel destination across the nation, topping the searches of nine states, including New Jersey, California, Texas, Washington, and Alabama.  

Seven states had the Caribbean as their top-searched travel destination, including Tennessee, Louisiana, Oregon, Utah, and Nevada.

Bali, Japan, and Ireland came in joint fourth --  with each destination topping the searches in three states each.

Bali, Indonesia, was the most searched for in Arkansas, Kansas, and Mississippi, while Japan topped the searches in Florida, Georgia, and Colorado. 

Ireland was the top-searched travel destination of Indiana, New Hampshire, and North Dakota. 

Jason Wilson, CEO of Places to Travel shared some top tips for vacationers planning a trip to Ireland.

Ireland is famous for its unpredictable weather , with Wilson explaining: “Be prepared for rain, but don't let it dampen your spirits. The ever-changing skies often add to the dramatic beauty of the Irish landscapes, creating a unique and unforgettable travel experience.”

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Greece and Mexico both come in at fifth place, each topping the searches in two states each. 

New Mexico and Maine both had Greece as their top-searched destination, while Mexico was the most popular with Oklahoma and Vermont.

Seven destinations make up the remainder of the top-searched destinations, with Banff, Dubia, France, Iceland, Norway, Scotland, and Switzerland each topping the searches in one state each.

Banff, Canada was the most searched destination in Michigan, while Delaware was seen to have Dubai as its most searched destination.

France topped the searches in Wyoming, Iceland topped the searches in South Carolina, and Norway was the most searched for destination in Wisconsin.

Scotland and Switzerland were the most searched destinations in Idaho and Maryland, respectively.

Wilson commented on the findings: “The study on travel brings to light interesting trends. It shows a variety of preferences across the nation, indicating diverse interests among Americans. From hot to cold climates, the findings highlight people's different choices regarding travel destinations.”

“It’s extremely important to do thorough research before traveling on vacation, from local customs, laws, and phrases in the native language, all the way through to the weather and climate at the time of vacation.”

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What 9 Days Alone In Ireland Will Do To You

I only sleep in castles now..

“Well, aren’t you living the life of Riley,” a stately Irishman named Dennis says with a grin. It’s my last night in Dromoland Castle, a historic estate-turned-hotel planted on the wild landscapes of Ireland’s County Clare, and I am on my fifth course at the hotel’s Earl of Thomond restaurant (the dish in question is the roast breast of Thorn Hill duck). Venturing alone into Ireland’s hidden heartlands in the dregs of winter may sound like a recipe for melancholic disaster, but as so many ‘off-season’ trips have taught me, any time is a good time.

And this was no pedestrian holiday. My nine-day adventure to the Emerald Isle was guided by Brendan Vacations , a tour operator in both Ireland and Scotland with over 50 years of know-how. Though I don’t typically work with travel planning services for trips, their castle tour changed my mind. Private chauffeur! Regal accommodations! Authentic Celtic expeditions! It was everything I wanted out of my moody-weather getaway. Not having to research and puzzle together a complex itinerary of flights, reservations, experiences, and driving routes freed up mental space to savor each moment.

My trip begins and ends in Dublin, just a six-hour flight from New York City. “This is a city of writers,” my driver Hugh tells me en route to The Merrion Hotel —a fact I’m well aware of. Attempting to write anything meaningful about Ireland in the shadow of literary giants like Joyce, Yeats, Beckett, Wilde, Swift, Shaw, and so many others is nothing short of humbling. But as I’m reminded many times on this journey, Ireland is an evolving country—forever changed by famine and steadily pushing forward since. In other words, there will always be a new story to tell.

The next day, I meet my private chauffeur, Andy, a kind-hearted retired cop with a strong sense of Irish sarcasm and an even stronger fidelity to Irish rugby. He was the perfect no-nonsense companion for someone like me who might otherwise eschew a traditional tour format. And so we set off into the verdant countryside, stopping at cozy pubs, rugged national parks, centuries-old castles, and steep seaside cliffs.

Historic Castles

A series of towering stone turrets guards the entrance to Ashford Castle , the same pathway George V entered the grounds through on his visit in 1905 (which, in fact, was constructed for just the occasion). I love this kind of stuff: historical tidbits that drag you back in time. I hopped right into a private tour of the grounds with Fintan , a local historian who I later learned is also a retired principal. He tells me that Ashford is composed of three main parts: a military fortification dating back to the 12th century, a chateau-style estate from the early 1700s, and construction from the 1970s—all sandwiched together to create what is now one of the most picturesque castle hotels in the entire country. Between the original wood ceiling from the 1700s, the cocktail lounge with its crackling fireplace, and my upholstered four-poster bed, it’s about the closest I’ve come to feeling like royalty.

Three days later, Dromoland Castle is the second stop on my tour de countryside estates. I’m equipped with local historian Jane, who tells me it was originally a family home that belonged to the O’Briens, descendants of the King of Ireland, Brian Boru (casual). The oldest part of the castle still standing is The Queen Anne Court, where I peacefully sleep for the next three nights. The best feature of this elegant home-turned-hotel is the drawing room, where I enjoy a glass of Champagne and a few chapters of my book each evening before drifting over to dinner at the Earl of Thomond restaurant and then back to the main gallery for live Irish folk music and a nightcap next to the fireplace.

Cinematic Landscapes

I would be fibbing if I said The Banshees of Inisherin didn’t play a role in my motivation to visit Ireland; I’m still drooling over that rustic pub by the sea. When customizing my itinerary with Brendan Vacations, I knew I needed to check ‘arresting landscapes’ off my list, beginning with Connemara. This national park in the west of Ireland is known for its traditional Irish heritage. (Andy tells me his daughter comes here in the summers to learn the Irish language.) There’s also the Connemara Pony, indigenous to the region, and the country’s only fjord, Killary Harbour. This is where the scenery begins to look extremely Irish—winding along misty roads next to rolling green hillsides threaded by slim streams of fresh mountain water—it’s boastfully picturesque. I ask Andy to be on the lookout for a pitstop where I can photograph all of these things in one composite. “Sure, maybe I can get a salmon to jump out of the stream in front of the fjord for you, too.” (Did I mention I love Andy’s sarcasm?)

Next, he drops me off at the Cliffs of Moher with specific instructions: “If you’re feeling more adventurous, go left.” This world-famous walk overlooking the wild Atlantic Ocean is staggering; these unique cliffs reach over 700 feet at their highest point and wrap the coastline for five miles as the crow flies. The route to the left leads me along a muddy path with spectacular vistas of the cliffs that plummet downward onto crashing waves (a location that was, fun fact, used as a filming location for Harry Potter ).

Then there’s Burren National Park. An ancient limestone seabed formed 350 million years ago, and is now a special conservation area spanning 1,800 hectares. Here, I meet up with Marie—the ‘Wild Burren Woman,’ as she calls herself. Marie grew up in the area, so I’m granted access to a private part of the landscape she calls the Hidden Burren. “I want to show you my fossils,” she says excitedly, hopping over cracks between the rocks to retrieve a large slab of stone, revealing what looks like the remnants of clam shells. “I make a lot of decisions about my life here in the Burren,” Marie tells me. During the warmer months of the year, colorful wildflowers spring up between the crevices of the silvery limestone, creating an impossibly magical display of nature. I am admittedly remorseful I don’t get to witness the blooms, but Marie fixes this. “Woo- hooooooo ,” she yells as we hop over a fence to run up the hill and take in the majestic Burren from a bird’s eye view. “I’ll leave you to it,” she says thoughtfully after a couple of minutes, allowing me to soak everything in. As I said, any time is a good time.

Animal Encounters

Though falconry is among the more popular animal experiences that travelers seek out when visiting Ireland (some accounts report its history in the country can be traced as far back as 2,000 BC), my preferences lean toward that of the equine variety. I catch up with Mary at Ashford Castle’s equestrian center, and she selects a Connemara Pony named Bean for me to ride around the grounds. We clip-clop into the forest beside lush green moss and trees beside sparkling waterfalls and babbling brooks. “This isn’t even that green,” Mary says with a knowing grin, adding that the next few months will render the landscape even brighter.

The following morning, I meander from Ashford Castle’s entrance to the nearby forest to take a leisurely stroll with a pack of Irish Wolfhounds. If you’re unfamiliar, this noble breed is the world’s tallest dog and fought alongside the Celts during the Gallic Wars. Their handler, James, reminds me of Hagrid—exceptionally tall with a bellowing voice and a gaggle of animals that could probably kill me if they wanted to. Thankfully, they don’t—Mulligan, Finnegan, Shea, Molly, and the ‘flip flop’ dog (a black Labrador that carries a flip flop in his mouth the entire time) enthusiastically guide us through the woods. Guests of the hotel can partake in this outing every morning and borrow a pair of Wellies from the front desk for clomping around in the mud— very Irish.

A slice of soda bread, a pour of Guinness, and a plate of meat and potatoes are still standard fare in Ireland, but as I learned on food tours in Dublin and Galway, there’s so much more to experience. I catch up with my guide, Eveleen Coyle of Fab Food Trails, at the entrance of Sheridans in Dublin, a cheesemonger that’s been around since the ‘90s and part of the broader push to evolve the cheese scene in the country. “One of the things about cheese in Ireland is that because it’s so new, a lot of education needs to be done to steer people away from misconceptions,” the shop attendant tells us as we sample a delicious goat’s milk cheese with fenugreek and coriander. He cites producers like Milleens, founded in the 1970s, as playing a defining role in the revival of farmhouse cheesemaking in Ireland.

About a two-hour drive west in Galway, I join Regina from Galway Food Tours at Ean to sample their selection of natural wines paired with innovative dishes like squid toast and cabbage fritters. The restaurant (at the helm of Enda McEvoy and Sinead Meacle) also has an in-house bakery, which Regina tells me makes a killer sourdough thanks to the native yeast on the bakery’s stone walls. We also sample more traditional bites at Tigh Neachtain —a traditional Irish pub with charming ‘snugs’ (an intimate seating nook) where you can enjoy lamb meatballs in a homemade tomato sauce or muscles from Connemara washed down with a local craft beer. It’s the oldest pub in the city and one of the most charming I’ve ever stepped inside.

I spend my last day in Ireland in Dublin—devouring scones and sweets at The Shelbourne’s iconic afternoon tea service (for one!) and relishing my final moments at The Merrion Hotel , a luxury hotel set in four restored Georgian townhouses with decor that lights my Regency-era-loving-heart ablaze. It would be all too easy to stay put in my five-star room, which overlooks striking Edwardian buildings, but I realize with a pang of panic that I haven’t tried a drop of whiskey since landing on Irish soil. I swiftly resolve the issue with a visit to The Merrion’s cocktail bar, where I enjoy a pour of Powers John’s Lane beside the fireplace. A fitting ending to my very Irish journey.

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Four treated for smoke inhalation following Omagh arson attack

Flammable liquid poured through letterbox of house on wednesday.

Two adults and two children were in the house at the time.

Four people have been treated for smoke inhalation following an arson attack on a property in Co Tyrone.

Detectives said it is believed that flammable liquid was poured through the letterbox of the house in Omagh on Wednesday.

It is understood that two adults and two children were in the house at the time.

A PSNI spokesperson said: “Shortly before 3.45am, it was reported that a fire had been started at a property in the Winters Grove area.

“Officers attended, alongside colleagues from the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service, who had managed to extinguish the blaze, which is believed to have been started after flammable liquid was poured through the letterbox.

“The four occupants of the house were inside at the time of the incident, and were treated at the scene by colleagues from the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service for smoke inhalation.

“Extensive damage has been caused to the interior of the property as a result of the fire.”

The spokesperson said: “This was an extremely reckless incident, and we are grateful to our colleagues in the fire service for tackling this fire, which could have had very serious consequences for those affected.

“An investigation is under way, and I am appealing to anyone who may have any information which may assist us, including CCTV, dashcam or mobile phone footage, to get in touch by calling 101, and quoting reference number 187 of 03/04/24.”

Alliance Party councillor Stephen Donnelly said it was a reckless attack.

He said: “This is a truly appalling incident and those responsible must be robustly condemned.

“There is no place in our community for such utterly reckless behaviour, and my thoughts are with the family who are now left to pick up the pieces.

“The residents of Winters Grove, and the broader Hospital Road area, have absolutely no interest in such senseless criminality.

“We can only be thankful nobody was seriously hurt, but given the scale of the damage done to the property, its clear that that could easily not have been the case.

“I would urge anyone with any information that may be useful to the PSNI in their investigations to get in touch with them, or report it anonymously via Crimestoppers.” – PA

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