Gypsies, Celts and tinkers

Colonial antecedents of anti-traveller racism in Ireland

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2145830
AutoresJane Helleiner (Brock University, autor de correspondencia)
Año1995
Volumen18
Número3
Páginas532-554
Fecha de publicación1995-07-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEthnic and Racial Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0141-9870 • E-ISSN: 1466-4356
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01419870.1995.9993878
OpenAlexW2048070700
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas12
Referencias citadas13

Post-colonial nationalist ideologies and practices construct an Irish Republic free of 'ethnicity' and 'racism'. The ethnicization of the Irish Travelling People ('itinerants', 'tinkers') and the existence of anti-traveller racism, however, reveal the limitations of this construction. This article focuses upon the antecedents of anti-traveller ideologies by concentrating on the period that preceded Irish independence in 1922. The history of Irish itinerancy from the middle ages to the mid-nineteenth century is first described and located within the context of British colonialism. This is followed by a consideration of scholarly, literary and popular representations of 'tinkers' during the late nineteenth century. Three interelated discourses, those of the British Gypsylorists, the Anglo-Irish Celtic Literary Revivalists, and the folklore of the Irish peasantry, are described and linked to British imperialism, Irish cultural nationalism, and agrarian class relations respectively. It is argued that an analysis of these discourses, grounded in political economy, provides a useful historical context for analyses of more recent constructions of Travellers that have arisen in the course of struggles over a state settlement programme initiated in the 1960s. Through documentation and analysis of historical constructions of Travelling People, especially constructions of their origins, this article aims to challenge contemporary essentialist constructions of both ethnic identity and racism by redirecting attention instead towards the economic and political processes and relations of power that produce difference and inequality within the Irish context. Such analysis can also raise broader issues regarding the existence and specificity of racism in the Irish Republic

Colonialism · Context (archaeology · Essentialism · Ideology · Irish · Irish nationalism · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Racism · Sociology · Gender Studies · History · Law · Romani and Gypsy Studies · Water Resources and Governance