As an alliance of Traveller support groups draws up a five-year strategy, the community is seeking to restore a sense of pride in its unique ethnic identity, writes Kitty Holland

Mags Casey was recently reassured by the principal of her children's primary school there was no racism or discrimination there. "He said to me, 'Oh, Mags, don't worry. No one knows your children are Travellers.' As if this was a good thing. I was shocked, though I suppose not surprised."

The attractive, thoughtful young woman, living in south Tipperary, said the incident particularly upset her when she saw how the school was celebrating the cultures of other children from Nigeria, eastern Europe and South America.

"I felt the message our children were getting from the school was that it's shameful to be a Traveller. I know there are incidents in schools where teachers ignore other children bullying Traveller children, and I think teachers should be challenging that. One of my lads said to me recently, 'It's a curse to be a Traveller, mummy.' I said it was a thing to be proud of, and he said, 'Mummy it's not. You're afraid if the neighbours find out we're Travellers. You're hiding who you are. It is a curse, mummy.' It does kill a little bit of you to hear that. He's only 11."

The future of young Travellers and the question of whether it is indeed a "good thing" to be a Traveller in Ireland in 2007 are among the issues being grappled with within the Traveller community.

The Irish Traveller Movement (ITM), which represents more than 80 Traveller support groups, is drawing up a new five-year strategy. ITM co-ordinator Damien Peelo says the aim is to pinpoint what should be the priorities between now and 2012. The stated aim of ITM is to achieve "full equality" for the estimated 6,000 Traveller families in the State. As part of this process, ITM held a day-long "think-in" in Mullingar last week, attended by about 100 people. Fresh thinking is believed to be necessary because, after more than 20 years of work by support groups, the community remains the most marginalised in Irish society and, as acknowledged by Lucy Gaffney, chairwoman of the Government's National Action Plan Against Racism, the ethnic group given the "hardest time".

Despite the 1995 Task Force on the Travelling Community, the Traveller Health Strategy, the Department of Justice's Traveller Monitoring Committee, National Traveller Accommodation Consultative Committee and numerous other initiatives, more than 1,000 families remain in "emergency" accommodation - effectively by the side of the road without hot running water or proper toilet facilities. More than 70 per cent are unemployed. Traveller babies are almost three times more likely to die in their first year than babies born to "settled" mothers. The life expectancy of Traveller men is nine years less than the average, while for Traveller women it is 12 years less. They suffer far higher rates of mental health problems, depression and suicide than their "settled" counterparts.

Participants in Mullingar said they felt prejudice against Travellers had hardened in the past decade, despite the work done and piecemeal progress on accommodation. Pointing to the Nally/Ward court judgment and last week's High Court decision not to order South Dublin County Council to provide a centrally-heated mobile home to an elderly, ill Traveller couple, many agreed when one woman said: "We've given up so much, trying to fit in with a society that doesn't want us, and we've gained very little."

Others spoke of a sense of despair at how much, in fact, had been lost, referring particularly to having "lost our nomadic rights" after anti-trespassing legislation criminalising overnight camping on public land passed in 2002.

Considerable time was also given to facing difficult internal issues. Violent feuding, anti-social behaviour, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, domestic violence and mental-health issues were acknowledged as continuing to do the community huge damage, not only in their personal, immediate impacts, but also in terms of the impact on their "public relations".

"The feuding", said one woman, "is explosive. There is not one of us who has not been affected by it. None of us wants it. It's a minority involved, but we all get hurt by it." The silence and nodding heads in response suggested the pain the issue causes. Feuding came up again and again, as did domestic violence, which one woman said had not gotten less, while the damage being done by alcohol and drug abuse was described as "getting worse". "These are difficult issues," says Peelo, "but ones the community knows it has to face up to."

Martin Collins, assistant director of Pavee Point, a separate lobbying group, agrees these issues do Travellers no favours. Collins, who has been to the fore in condemning the violence which can erupt at large gatherings such as funerals when feuding families come face to face, says that Pavee Point runs a Traveller mediation service. He knows the fear of violence has seen whole towns shut down on the days of Traveller funerals. "The behaviour of some Travellers has been inexcusable, but Pavee Point has been pioneering in trying to get to grips with it and there should be more efforts rolled out like that." He says in some respects the violence, the mental health issues, the misuse of drink and drugs and the suicides "are symptoms of an illness within parts of the community, a community which has been under siege".

"I think sometimes a community does turn in on itself when it is so oppressed over generations and can press the self-destruct button," he says. This, and the other internal issues, he says, must be addressed first by the community, albeit with the support of State agencies, such as the HSE, to assist with training healthcare workers to tackle addictions, mental health issues and domestic violence. Work is being done in these areas.

Typical is the situation in the northwest, says Siobhán McLoughlin, manager of the Donegal Traveller Project. The record on Traveller accommodation in Donegal appears typical also. "While significant progress has been made on providing houses, there's not much on providing halting sites. We have about 16 families who want permanent halting sites who have been in emergency sites for five years. Houses are being dangled in front of them and some are caving in and probably will take houses. It is really a policy of forced settlement," she says.

It is this view that undercuts all of the discourse. The fact is, says Collins, that official rhetoric may have moved away from that in the 1960s which advocated forced assimilation. Task forces and the reports may speak of respecting Travellers' ethnic identity, he says, but, without legal recognition of their ethnic status, the practice remains rooted in a view that Travellers are "failed settled people" who need to be "made to behave".

Niall Crowley, chief executive of the Equality Authority, believes there is some official recognition of Travellers as a distinct ethnic group. He cites their being named as a distinct group in equality legislation. However, he agrees that without the community being accorded legal recognition of their ethnic status, it is both more difficult for their "difference" to be regarded positively, and easier for the legal system to insist on treating them the same as the "settled" community. The recent case involving Brigid and Paddy Doherty in south Co Dublin is a prime example of this, he says.

Peelo, too, believes that if the Dohertys had had the legal protection of "ethnic minority" status, Mr Justice Peter Charleton would have had to take into account their nomadic tradition and their resulting preference for a caravan, and could not have ruled that they should have accepted the council's offer of a flat. Speaking to The Irish Times in their cold caravan last week, Paddy Doherty said he was very disappointed by the High Court's decision. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't," he smiled. "But people don't understand Travellers, they don't understand nature or God. We pray twice a day and only want what we need. I think people don't understand that any more."

"It's not just about some personal sentiment or pride," says Peelo. "It's the legal directives that would flow from it. It would be a key legislative foothold."

Concomitant with this, according to Collins, Peelo and numerous speakers in Mullingar, is the need to restore pride in Traveller culture and identity. Says Collins: "I believe this is the biggest challenge for the community for the next decade - affirming the Traveller identity. From the cradle to the grave Travellers are drip-fed that we are inferior, inadequate, stupid and should be ashamed. We have internalised that."

One woman, a Traveller health worker from Dublin, said: "It's such hard work being a Traveller - there is no space to celebrate our culture, our music, our crafts, our spiritualism, our love of family - everything Irish society says it's proud of."

"The shame has to be challenged," says Casey. "It is [ destroying] us. The racism that makes my kids afraid of who they are is a form of violence. I really think if we don't be clear about who we are, we will lose it. We have very, very good people."

She believes the leadership programmes being run throughout the ITM network are vital. Rosaleen McDonagh, a Traveller standing for the Senate in the next elections, agrees, saying Travellers must politicise themselves. "We must maintain our integrity," says McDonagh, "and stop apologising for ourselves, being grateful for every little scrap." Casey says: "We need to be firm about getting education, getting confidence, building up our links with allies. Most of all we have to be clear about what's up for negotiation and what's not."