Dr. Jim Mac Laughlin:

There is the issue of ethnically defined people having a right to self-determination and political rights. I will take a wider theoretical perspective on that. Historically those ethnically-defined people who were seen to have a right to self-determination and political autonomy had to be substantial, white, capable of self-supporting, and economically powerful enough to move into that 19th century world of large nations and even larger empires. What we in Ireland and throughout western Europe are now talking about is that the nations that got to be built were not really nations at all but were multi-nations. They had entrapped within them minorities. We can think of the Nationalist minority in Northern Ireland, and also Scottish and Welsh nationalists. We can think of Basques and Tyrolese. We are talking about ethnic minorities. These are small groups of peoples and we are talking about a quite small minority in this country.

The term "closet Traveller" goes back to what I mentioned earlier about us having such negative images of who Travellers are, just as historically, Irish people were painted in the 19th century. The historian L. P. Curtis wrote about the way we were either apes or angels. Among this, albeit small, Traveller population there are very many highly articulate and cultured people. Encouraging the process of ethnogenesis would certainly be a way to speed up the conveyor belt to bring those people further to the fore.

Looking at the wider dimension, I can think of very few cases throughout western Europe, Latin America and other parts of the world where the granting of the recognition of ethnic identity did not greatly enhance the self-confidence and the sense of value these people have. We could be greatly surprised at what might emerge in the future from Irish Travellers in that regard.