In support of Travellers’ rights. - Ireland

From John Molyneux

On 17 April an Oireachtas committee recommended that Travellers be recognised as an ethnic minority.
The Joint Committee on Justice and Equality said “it is no longer tenable for this State to deny Traveller ethnicity” and that it is “long past time for this State to honour our responsibilities to the international conventions on human rights”.

Long past time is right. An ethnic minority within the Irish state is precisely what Travellers are and have always been. . They are a very small minority, only about 25,000 or approximately 0.5% of the population but DNA evidence shows that they have been a distinct ethnic group for about 1000 years. They have a distinct cultural identity and language (though it has fallen into disuse) and they are massively disadvantaged and discriminated against.

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