Dr. Robbie McVeigh:

Ethnicity is central to the recognition of Traveller identity. Ethnicity carries with it a recognition of the dignity of a culture, which is missing if one simply regards Travellers as a sort of sui generis population which cannot be explained in terms of any other analysis except that they travel. Currently, directly or indirectly and by implication, Travellers are a separate group in terms of equality legislation. Ethnicity is vital to that process. There is no question in the North. As I said in the opening statement, Northern Ireland did not become a paradise for Travellers because they were recognised as an ethnic group. The recognition meant that whenever anti-Traveller racism happened, it was understood and addressed appropriately by the criminal justice system, politicians and others. Recognition provides a paradigm through which to understand statements such as those the committee is discussing.

My position on nomadism is slightly different from Dr. Mac Laughlin's. There is a fixation on the origin of Travellers and people always want to know what it is. The origin question is central to every discussion on Traveller ethnicity. It is a valid question, as is the question of from where settled people come. What one sees in Ireland is the emergence of two ethnic groups. At one point, everybody in Ireland was nomadic. The really interesting question is at what point most of us became urbanised and settled. One sees there a dialectic between two ethnicities, rather than a fixation on the origin of Travellers and whether they are really indigenous and survivors of pre-Celtic Ireland. There are valid questions to be asked about this, but it is equally important to ask, if we are settled people, from where our identity came. An important point on nomadism in the context of the committee's broader discussion is that Travellers are economically commercial nomads, which is different from hunter-gatherer societies and pastoral nomadism. The latter societies could exist without a relationship with any other community. Traveller society is commercially nomadic and based on exchange with other people. At its best, there has always been a positive synergism between the services Travellers provide and what non-Traveller, settled people have wanted. The type of nomadism Travellers have is a little different. We can have a further discussion on this, but for now we should be aware of it as the context for addressing Traveller nomadism.

A discussion of Traveller culture and history emerged in the court case. People need to be aware of it if they do not know anything about Traveller history.

As I said before, the long shared history of Travellers was a core issue for the court, but it was accepted that if Traveller culture existed as an autonomous, independent, defined ethnicity before the Famine, that was enough to tick that box. Cultural tradition on its own was not really contested in that court case. People accepted that the cultural differences that are manifestly there with Traveller culture in comparison with settled culture are real, different and recognised.

With regard to common geographical origin, they are all Irish. With regard to a common language, Gammon or Cant is spoken by Travellers. With regard to a common religion, most Travellers are Catholic but the way they practise their Catholicism tends to be very different from the way settled Catholic people do it. We have had a separate parish for Travellers in Dublin, which is an indication of how different that religious practice has been with a particular focus on pilgrimage and so on. While there is a common religion between settled and Traveller Irish people, the way this religion has been practised is very different. With regard to being a minority, this is so self-evident that it did not really bear any discussion. There is no question that Travellers are a minority in terms of wider Irish society. All of those criteria were ticked in that court case and are part of that project of educating the wider settled population about why Travellers are different and the history they carry with them.