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Social Apartheid in the Twenty-Six Counties

06/07/07

The Third-World conditions which some people in Ireland continue to endure were highlighted recently in a report documenting the suffering of one Dublin Traveller community.

‘Traveller’s Last Rights’, a report compiled by catholic priest Fr Stephen Monaghan and Jacinta Brack of the Citizen Traveller project, flatly contradicts the claims of universal prosperity made by proponents of the ‘Celtic Tiger’.

One of the most shocking findings was that of all reported Traveller deaths in a 10-year period, in the parish under examination, 50 per cent were of people were under the age of 39.

70 per cent of the deceased Travellers in the same parish died before their 59th birthdays.

While the highest rate of death for the females documented was due to cancer (25 per cent), incidences of suicide (all men) and road deaths (particularly for men) were also higher than that of the general population.

The report stressed that the study was confined to one parish, in one city in the country.

However, a 1987 Health Research Board study for the Twenty-Six Counties found Traveller health to be “significantly worse than that of the settled community”.

It found settled men and women had life expectancies of 75 and 78 years respectively, while those for Travellers were 65 for both men and women.

In the ‘Traveller’s Last Rights’ report, 80 per cent of Travellers whose deaths were studied died before they reached 65.

The report’s authors said it was vital that Travellers were legally defined as an ethnic minority if their health status was to be improved. This would, according to them, ensure that future anti-racism policies of service providers, such as health and mental health professionals, would have to be inclusive of Travellers.

éirígí chairperson Brian Leeson said that these statistics identified some of the stark social disparities of ‘Celtic Tiger Ireland’.

“A lot of people make the point that statistics sometimes serve to obscure rather than highlight realities. However, two sets of figures over the last week or so very clearly highlight the ever-increasing levels of inequality to be found in ‘Celtic Tiger Ireland’.

“On the one hand we have the shockingly low levels of life expectancy for members of the Traveller community highlighted in ‘Traveller’s Last Rights’, and on the other hand we have AIB chief executive Eugene Sheehy being paid a total of just over €2.4 million (£1.6 million) last year, which in turn was more then twice what he was paid in 2005.’

“This means that Mr Sheehy was paid roughly €10,000 (£6,600) for every working day last year. This stands in stark contrast to the average industrial wage in the twenty-six counties which is currently just over €30,000 (£19,800).

“I’m pretty sure that if research were to be conducted on Mr Sheehy and his peers it would find their life expectancy to be considerably higher then that of the average Traveller.

“The link between poverty and ill health leading to premature death has been long since established. The only solution to such appalling disparities in life expectancy is to address the underlying causes.

Brian concluded: “Everybody in this country deserves the sort of healthcare that the rich and wealthy already receive. This can only be achieved through a complete transformation of our social and economic system to one that is based upon need and not greed.”