Ms Brigid Carmody:

I will also speak about media coverage of Travellers, which is something that our project has taken a particular interest in in recent years. We understand that the media can shape the public's understanding of us, especially for many of the public who have had little or no face-to-face contact with the Traveller community. People can often have an assumption of who we are and what our culture is based on media stereotypes.

Media coverage also has a major effect on Travellers, especially our young people, who are connected with media, particularly social media. I will read out a statement made by the media in Cork in the past year. Unfortunately, it is not unusual. Under the headline "The northside is ruined", the article reads: "I am sending this email as a distraught northsider who is sick of seeing the northside being ruined every day by travellers ... Now just wait for the bleeding hearts ,the ethnic minority and the "its [sic] our culture" campaigners to start." Unfortunately, we have seen at first hand in Cork the local media using this type of feature to invite members of the public to phone in and air every gripe they can think of with sweeping negative statements against Travellers. Imagine this happening three or four times per year on a local radio station, which is usually playing in the local shops, garages, taxis and hairdressers. Imagine having to use those services with one's children. When this happens, Traveller projects are inundated with phone calls from distressed Travellers talking about the hurt and shame of being stereotyped and rejected in the communities they have lived all their lives. Travellers are calling on our project to respond to this type of media coverage, but we are struggling and need support to do it.

There needs to be a targeted Traveller-Roma communications initiative to promote the many positives within our community and set out a national Traveller-Roma inclusion strategy. This initiative also needs to include supports for local community development projects in dealing with the media.

I will bring the committee's attention to the online and social media pages of newspapers and radio stations. While we do not have the resources to monitor these fully, we have been informally recording some of the public comments that follow pretty much any mention of Travellers, good or bad. I will provide a few examples. Following a story of a Traveller family in need of accommodation, there were comments like "Inbreeding does not make you a race, sweetheart", "Blacks are human, knackers are not", "Burn them out", "Just bring in a tank of slurry and start spraying", "Bring them to the shooting range - good target practice for our boys in green" and "A few litres of petrol and a match will sort them out". Under a recent positive article on the Cork Traveller pride celebrations, one of the first comments was "Traveller pride - what have they got to be proud of?" Another was a suggestion that Travellers were thieves and had stolen the items that were on display for Traveller pride.

It is unrealistic to expect Travellers and Traveller projects to police and report every single racist comment on social media pages, in newspapers or on radio stations. This needs to be done by the newspapers and radio stations that also broadcast their news online and through social media. They must be obliged to pre-moderate comments on their pages and remove hate speech and racist comments.