Whiff of prejudice not paint as Travellers left out of Council

Bradley Bytes – A sort of political column by Dara Bradley 

Around 20 Travellers decamped to City Hall on Monday to register a protest about housing for their community, or rather the lack of it.
Led by the impressive Margaret O’Riada of Galway Traveller Movement, the group demanded “Traveller Homes Now”. Armed with placards, they were more vocal than usual.
Their backs were up, and with good reason. The previous week in the Galway City Tribune, Councillor Declan McDonnell, the Chairperson of the Council’s Housing Strategic Policy Committee, said the city’s homeless figures were distorted by the inclusion of Travellers.
Some 50% of those registered as homeless in Galway City were classified as Travellers, which “doesn’t make sense” he said, particularly given that just 2.2% of the population of the city are Travellers.
“It’s not like 50 years ago when you had substantial numbers of Travellers living on the side of the road,” said McDonnell, while suggesting some people were ‘gaming the system’.
The message was clear: Travellers on the housing waiting list, and registering as homeless, are taking the place of non-Travellers.
Though he was playing to the prejudices of some of his voters, Travellers understandably were angry.
In calling for his resignation, Traveller representatives said he showed “disrespect” to their community, and they listed a litany of failures of the local authority to meet its housing commitments to Travellers.
That’s the background. But back to Monday, and the protest.
In anticipation of the arrival of the protesters, Galway City Council had two security guards at the entrance to City Hall, checking everyone’s reason for being there.
As luck would have it, and by complete coincidence, no doubt, the public gallery was cordoned off with ticker-tape, the likes of which you might find at a crime scene or building site, and several ‘wet paint’ signs. This was because a fresh coat of paint had been applied to the public seating area, mar dhea.
Councillors confided afterwards that there was neither sight nor smell of fresh paint in the room. Two Traveller representatives did make it into the Council chamber and were made to sit in the area usually reserved for reporters.
Of course, the timing of the ‘paint job’ had nothing to do with the previous time Travellers protested at City Hall, in June, when their behaviour was branded “unbecoming and unnecessary” by Council Chief Executive Brendan McGrath after they stormed a meeting in protest at being evicted from a halting site.

*For more Bradley Bytes, see this week’s Galway City Tribune