Report to be launched at Stormont

By Laura Friel

The success or failure of the new structures of government in Ireland should be measured by their impact on the situation of Travelling people, according to new research by the West Belfast Economic Forum.

Launching ``Out in the Country'', a document on the Traveller Economy in Belfast at Stormont next week will bring Travelling people to the very heart of government in the north, says research author Dr Robbie McVeigh. ``It is only a symbolic first step, but still an important step towards ensuring the rights and needs of Travellers are at the centre of government thinking and policy.''

The study is to be officially released on Monday at a launch hosted by Sinn Fein Assembly member Dara O Hagan.

``Work is a key part of Traveller culture,'' writes McVeigh, and yet economic practices by Travelling people in the North have been either ignored or merely ``mentioned in passing''. As a consequence, McVeigh contends, analyses to date have ``failed to encourage any systematic discussion... let alone any programmatic developments in support of the Traveller economy.''

The document contrasts the lack of recognition within the Six counties, with ``a great deal of discussion and research around the idea of the Traveller economy in the south of Ireland''

Dispelling a myth, popular in the Six counties, which regards Travelling people as being ``from the south,'' McVeigh points out that there were Travellers in Ulster long before partition, there have been Travellers within the Six counties since partition and most Travelling people currently resident north of the border were in fact born and raised there. Within the north, the largest Traveller population is in Belfast, almost all of whom are in West Belfast.

Clearly Travelling people are very much part of West Belfast life yet, as McVeigh points out, the relationship between Travellers and the settled community remains ``complex'', with both ``widespread anti Traveller racism and broad support for Travellers' rights.'' This chequered history includes both the shameful destruction by local settled people of a service site on the Springfield Road in 1980, the intimidation of Travellers out of Poleglass in 1992 as well as positive initiatives such as the West Belfast Feile's commitment to challenging all anti Traveller discrimination during the festival and local MP Gerry Adams public commitment to Traveller equality in the context of the Belfast Agreement.

Travellers are often regarded as people who do not work but ``the reality is not that they do not work but rather that they do not work in the same way as settled or sedentary people,`` says McVeigh. An erosion in traditional economic activities has increased dependency on welfare but this is far from the whole story of change engendered by a process of urbanisation which has affected both Traveller and settled peoples.

McVeigh flags up successful enterprises developed by Travelling people within the south of Ireland, Europe and the USA where a small number of Belfast based Travellers have been very successful spray painting, linoleum selling and tarmacadam laying.

Within Ireland 20% of the 15,000 market traders in the south are Travellers but there are very few Traveller families with licenses and stalls. 25% of Travelling families keep and deal in horses, Travellers have been involved in recycling for generations. But underpinning all this economic activity is discrimination and neglect which ameliorates against development. ``If farmers need subsidies, if business people need subsidies, if transnational corporations need subsidies; then it is not unreasonable to suppose that the Traveller economy also need subsidies,'' writes McVeigh.

In the north, the picture is worse. Described by one Traveller as once a ``goldmine for Travellers'' involved in scrap dealing, the Traveller economy in Belfast has virtually collapsed with the vast majority of Travelling families dependent exclusively upon welfare.

There has been no investment in the Traveller economy in the north and what investment there has been in the wider Traveller community (site provision) is often bound by restrictions which prevent economic activity. ``In the context of West Belfast, the most economically marginalised community in the most marginalised constituency in the north of Ireland receives no meaningful support for its economic base.''

McVeigh identifies a process of impoverishment amongst Travelling people in Belfast which needs to be addressed by ``supporting the successful businesses which survive in the Traveller economy, ...supporting innovation and diversification within the Traveller economy ..and finding ways for Travellers to work outside the traditional Traveller economy and inside the formal `settled' economy.''

Guided by the principle ``that the point of research is to change the world rather than to interpret it ``, Belfast Travellers Education and Development Group are already training people from the Travelling community as community development workers. Four employment placements have been already funded for next year. One of their specific tasks will be around the issue of the Traveller economy. Through its research West Belfast Economic Forum have identified key interest in and opportunities for Traveller enterprise in the area of cultural production which could develop alongside the potential of tourism and craft industry in West Belfast. Travellers involved in the BTEDG Apprenticeship project have already begun commissioning the production of Traveller artefacts form the Travelling community in Belfast.

However, the main contribution McVeigh sees as a result of research into the Traveller economy will be alerting and informing statutory agencies tasked with economic development. ``The research identifies a list of needs and skills waiting to be met,'' says McVeigh, ``it's an exercise in naming, identifying the Traveller economy and pushing government agencies into taking it seriously and supporting it as it would economic development within the wider settled community.''

Dara O Hagan said she was ``very pleased the launch of ``Out in the Country'' would be taking place at Stormont. It is very important that previously marginalised and excluded communities are brought into the political mainstream,`` she said, ``Travelling people have been particularly marginalised and it is important that within a changing political climate communities like the Travellers are included. Challenging discrimination across the board includes challenging discrimination against Travelling people. In the words of Robbie McVeigh, ``Economic justice for Travellers is a key part of economic justice for everyone.''