Dr. Jim Mac Laughlin:

I spent approximately 25 years working in the universities sector. I have given that up as universities have become instrumental. I found undergraduate and postgraduate students very receptive when I put on courses on racism and spoke about racism against Travellers and European Gypsies. There was a great take-up of such courses and I am very hopeful about these kinds of programme. I was asked about education packs for schools. There is a greater degree of receptivity to discussion on these issues among younger people than among the older population. That emerged in the way younger people reacted against a well established Irish comedian who did not go down too well when he made terrible remarks about Travellers.

On Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn's point, I would not focus too much on the extent to which we were all nomadic. My point is that Irish nationalism has historically been about land and the struggle for the independence of the island. It has been about farming and agriculture. Travellers who did not have a stake in the land were excluded from this. As they did not have a stake in the land, they were considered not to have a right to be citizens of the nation.

The affinity of Travellers with North American Indians and other nomadic peoples can be worked on. However, it might present more problems than solutions. We do not want to racialise Travellers. Basque separatists have been trying to do this and have gone to the extent of suggesting their blood type is quite different from that of any other European people. They have tried to say they are Europe's original people. I would be careful about that. However, I note the links between the nomadism of Travellers and that of North American Indians.