I do not expect that this post will do much to combat the underlining threads of discrimination and misinterpretation offered up by other posters in relation to both the community and the individuals within in, but after reading some of the comments I feel drawn to add my own.

A community can be defined by a common experience of the world, in both a synchronistic and diachronically sense, bound by vocabulary peculiarity’s and group alliances, most often lineage and family ties are of great importance and the Irish Travelling Pavee culture is of no difference but to reinforce the thoughforms of “They” etc while having it cross associated with a unsupported communal understanding, people are in fact painting all with the same brush.

I am genuinely sorry to hear of many of the above experiences but they are not unique to the community, nor is the underlining prejudices of refusing to see a person as an individual, regardless of how others may of treated you. Humanity and the communities that compose have always had and I suspect will always have; undesirables. To allow such people to destroy the opportunities of others and ourselves is a sorrowful act of self mutilation – as one of our greatest acts of depravity is when we assume we do not belong to one another.

As an individual who was born from this tradition I take it as a personal affront that anyone would define me as a label above the person I am. While indeed markers of identity are helpful in this ever changing sea of “community” I feel that many, if not most, do not know the living issues and difficulties such lines of thinking bring.

Many are seen in open display while others whisper in the shadows of mundane life, of course such remaining issues like that of the insidious internalised prejudices of the community, apathy, fear, lack of recourse for all involved and so forth need to be engaged with and overcome, but I like many other things suspect that this will only be achieved together.

I hope some of the readers take time to review the above posts and comments from the view of being a law abiding, tax paying Traveller. Many of the comments are nothing less then venom and poison to those that have nothing to do with such social and moral errors and yet cast among the same old issues.

I am a Traveller/Pavee but that is not all I am and I hope next when any of you encounter the label, that you will be more willing to look beyond it to the person beneath, as I promise to endeavour to do the same.

I’ve discovered a few things.

I still live in a council estate, I still live with travellers. I now realise that this is the most secure environment a family can live in, given that deviants don’t shit on their own doorstep.

The travellers around here are sound, while on some basis I still don’t trust them… the bigger problem is not the knackers but the others… scumbag unmentionables that can’t control their kids.

I was distracted for a while, but I was wrong.

It’s not the travellers that are a problem, it’s the ones below the radar, the settled, the ones who need parenting courses.

I take back at least 60% of what I said in this post, I made a mistake.

I still don’t understand how people put up with them and gladly get up in the morning to go to work paying half of our salary in taxes while the scumbags spend their days making babies and beating up their own wives. I call for a revolution. Any politicians out there listening? You may get a lot of votes out of this.

It’s trying to guess if the bad eggs are actually good eggs without getting robbed blind in the process. That’s what gets me.

I think this kid here was a good egg, but he just did what he was trained to do. I blame his (inbred) parents. I hope he survives the statistics, I really do.

In the meantime I judge them all and remain open to pleasant surprises, but unfortunately that doesn’t seem to happen much.

I don’t want to compare Muslims to knackers. The majority of Muslims in this country are decent people. On the other hand, the majority of knackers in this country are worthless scum.

Who funds Pavee Point and the Equality Authority? Not the bloody knackers! They’re too busy flogging stolen power tools and pirate DVDs at Puck Fair, while the guards check out cloud formations in the sky above.

I’m a liberal. I’m so fucking liberal, there isn’t a political party in this country I would vote for. I’m also a great believer in equal rights. So, if it’s okay with the powers that be, I will from now on drink and drive a 09 Transit at high speeds over traffic bumps without tax or insurance, live in a mansion whilst drawing the dole, strut around in a tight fitting vest, marry my first cousin and have a Hummer and horse drawn carriage parade through town for the ultimate display of my authority.

Don’t tell me I can’t do it! My solicitor is following behind in the Roller.

Next time you see a knacker child looking sad and lost, think before you act. Then, if there’s nobody looking ……… Well, consider the greater good. That’s all I’ll say.

I think you know that I’m not saying the rest of us are angels!!! I didn’t say that anywhere because it’s blatantly far from the truth.

Please don’t take the words on this blog too literally by the way, I would never run anyone over! I’m not as evil as I sound.

I don’t hate the knackers. I’m wary of them, but I don’t hate them. I don’t hate anyone. I’m just another annoyed settled person venting a frustration is all.