Irish Examiner view: Recording your own lack of action
We like to boast in Ireland that our traditions around death — attending funerals, the very notion of a wake, the month's mind — set us apart; that they show the deep respect we have for those who have left us and the support we offer those left behind.
Those traditions were not seen on the banks of the River Lee last Wednesday.
Some of those present filmed the man drowning in the river rather than going to his aid.
The press of spectators trying to see what was happening eventually meant the gardaí had to establish a cordon to hold people back.
Cork Fire Brigade second officer Victor Shine, speaking with the perspective of over four decades of distinguished service, told the Irish Examiner: 'People today tend to video rather than render aid, but this was another level.
'I would have expected to see lifebuoys in the water and there are some in the area, but I didn't see any in the water, and I'm not sure if anyone attempted to throw a lifebuoy.
'I would appeal to people not to share these clips and to consider the impact it might have on the man's family or friends if they saw it.'
Mr Shine's calm assertion that people will film or record rather than offering help is a devastating indictment of our society, all the more piercing because of the note of acceptance. This is who we are now; this is what we do.
Futile though it may be to say so, those who filmed this incident — and those who share those video clips — should hang their heads in mortification at their lack of empathy for another human being.
It is shameful that people would whip out their cameras rather than make the most basic attempt at helping someone clearly in difficulty in the water.
A life ended on Wednesday night. No one should be proud of themselves for filming that.
Opportunistic US nears deal
We appear to have the semblance of a deal in the Ukraine-Russia war, but what kind of deal exactly?
Yesterday, news broke that the US and Ukraine have come up with an arrangement wherein the US will share future revenues from Ukraine's mineral reserves under a deal creating a joint investment fund between the countries.
The immediate reaction is that this may be a useful vehicle for the two countries in the medium term, perhaps, but what impact will it have on the war which grinds on and on in Ukraine?
As ever with the Trump administration, the details are slow in emerging, but it was significant that well-placed sources were swift to emphasise that guarantees of future US security assistance were not part of the deal. The same sources stated that such guarantees had been ruled out early on in the negotiations.
Can this deal be positive for Ukraine, then? At the most basic level, it shows that the country can work with US president Donald Trump to reach formal agreements, and it may yet prove a canny move to give the US a financial interest in a peaceful and prosperous Ukraine. That may be significant when and if Russia comes to the negotiating table.
The other way to look at this deal is as an opportunistic move by the US.
A vulnerable nation which has been attacked by an aggressor must now share revenues from its natural resources with a vastly more powerful nation — and all for a form of support which looks less than wholehearted.
It would be disingenuous to think there no quid pro quos in geopolitics. There is an interpretation of this deal which experienced diplomats would immediately recognise: The US has by far the strongest hand in this relationship and would be remiss if it did not extract the maximum advantage.
This deal still looks like one country taking advantage of another country, one struggling to fend off an unprovoked invasion by a totalitarian regime.
Building success
Like many traditional media, filmmaking is undergoing something of a crisis at present.
The cinema industry's challenges are many and varied: The rise of streaming services, increased costs, the technological challenges posed by AI, and more besides.
As a result, when a movie becomes a breakout hit, there is keen interest within the industry in establishing the reasons for its success.
This year the breakout movie appears to be A Minecraft Movie. As of last week, it had broken the $500m (€443m) box office barrier globally, with ticket sales of $291.3m in the US and $273.3m internationally.
The reason for its success is obvious: It's based on the hugely popular video game Minecraft, which has sold hundreds of millions of copies. The film, therefore, comes with a ready-made audience, many of them children.
In cinemas, these viewers' delight in moments such as the delivery of the line 'chicken jockey' during the movie has led to uproar, if throwing popcorn at the screen truly qualifies as uproar.
Cineastes may despair at the success of A Minecraft Movie, but its stellar performance at the box office is also being seen as good news for cinema as a whole, evidence that the public has rediscovered its love of the movies.
Or perhaps, much more specifically, its love of movies with chicken jockeys.
Read More
Irish Examiner view: Blackout should remind us to prepare
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Irish Sun
a day ago
- The Irish Sun
Dad who moved family to Russia to flee ‘woke' West is sent to front line – as wife says he's been ‘thrown to the wolves'
A TEXAN dad has been sent to the front line by Vladimir Putin after he moved his young family to Russia to escape "woke" America. Derek Huffman, 46, has been "thrown to the wolves" by the deranged Russian wartime regime with his family now reportedly begging the US government to save him. 5 Texan Derek Huffman, 46, has been sent to the front line by Vladimir Putin after moving his family to Russia Credit: YouTube/@HuffmanTime 5 Derek with his young family in Moscow Credit: YouTube/@HuffmanTime 5 Derek's wife DeAnna says her partner has been 'thrown to the wolves' Credit: YouTube/@HuffmanTime Derek uprooted his home life and jetted off to the small town of Istra, just 25 miles from Moscow, alongside his wife, their three daughters and their husky earlier this year. The Texan, along with wife DeAnna, decided to move to Russia after claiming the US education system had become too progressive. The couple said the final straw was when their daughter Sophia was taught about the idea of being a lesbian at school. A trip to Moscow in 2023 later convinced the family that Russia was the perfect place to bring up their children in a traditional society. read more in Russia Derek applied via the 'shared values' visa scheme which attempts to The family made the move and expected to start their dream lives. But Derek soon found himself in trouble after he agreed to join the Russian military in a non-combat capacity. He believed he would be given a role such as a welder or a war correspondent due to his lack of experience as a soldier. Most read in The US Sun But DeAnna revealed in a vlog uploaded to the family's YouTube channel that her husband has now been drafted to "near" the front line as a fully fledged fighter. The heartbroken wife says she fears for Derek's life as he doesn't speak any Russian and had only been given a limited amount of training. How Putin is 'weaponising Westerners' by offering safe haven to Russia-obsessed crackpots including Brits She said: "He feels like he's being thrown to the wolves right now, and he's kind of having to lean on faith, and that's what we're all doing." Since being deployed to fight against Ukraine , Derek has only been able to speak to his loved ones on a handful of occasions. His last message came in June, on Father's Day in the US, as he spoke to his family while wearing camouflage and military gear. He held back tears as he said: "I miss you all more than you can imagine. "I can't wait to see you, hopefully I get a vacation at some point and I get to go home and spend a couple of weeks with you. "But man, you're on my mind 24/7 and just know that what I'm doing is important to me and important to our family. "Just know I will do whatever it takes to be safe and to come home to you. Take care of each other." In the months since, the family have only said he is "doing fine". 5 Derek speaks no Russian and was given very little combat training before being shipped out Credit: YouTube/@HuffmanTime 5 Derek applied via the 'shared values' visa scheme which attempts to attract foreigners who reject 'destructive neoliberal ideologies' Putin claims are pushed by the West Credit: AP And amid the lack of information, a mystery Telegram group has been set up titled: "Save that little girls." The group was shared by the family online but the link has been deleted since. Created only on Sunday, the sole message from the account said: "We are asking the United States government to save this family." It was shared along with a picture of DeAnna and her daughters crying in the street. Derek happily signed up for the military when he first arrived as he wanted to show his appreciation for his new country by "risking his life". Being alone in a new country, raising kids, and trying to stay strong has tested me in ways I never imagined DeAnna Huffman He claimed he wanted to "earn a place in Russia" without being given free handouts. But DeAnna has since claimed her husband was seriously misled. She said: "When he signed up and had all of that done, he was told he would not be training for two weeks and going straight to the front lines. "But it seems as though he is getting one more week of training, closer to the front lines, and then they are going to put him on the front lines." The terrified mom added: "It's been just a few months since our family made the big move from America to Russia. "While we've had amazing adventures, this journey has also brought deep challenges. "Being alone in a new country, raising kids, and trying to stay strong has tested me in ways I never imagined." How Putin is 'weaponizing Westerners' by offering safe haven to Russia TYRANT Putin has changed Russian immigration laws to tempt people to ditch the West and seek asylum in his country with "traditional values". He signed a decree to streamline the Russian immigration process - waiving off immigration quotas and the need for Russian language exams - for foreigners opposed to the Western idea of democracy. The dictator recently passed a law allowing foreign nationals who fight in his meatgrinder war in Ukraine to seek fast-track citizenship in Russia - along with their entire family. Reports by the Russian embassy in London claim at least at least 34 people have requested to move to Russia from the UK after Putin signed the decree on August 19. Those who applied have not had to prove they can speak Russian or have any knowledge of the 'history and fundamentals of Russian legislation", Putin's new tactic has already paved the way for American citizen Leo Lionel, his wife Chantel Felice Haer and their three children, aged 16, 14, and 11. Lionel said: "Personally I want to thank your President Putin for allowing Russia to become a good place for families in this world climate. "We intend to use this opportunity to benefit our family. I feel like I've been put in an arch of safety. And it's very important." Canadian passport holder Arend Feinstra with his wife also left their country and moved to Russia with their eight children. He said of his move: "We didn't feel safe with our children there and for the future." The grandson of the French war hero Charles de Gaulle last year said he wanted Russian citizenship because the country offered "great possibilities".
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Irish Times
‘I have Star Wars going on outside my window': How Kyiv is coping with upsurge in Russia's attacks
Kyiv residents who managed to sleep on another night of intense Russian air attacks woke to an increasingly familiar scene on Monday morning, as smoke wreathed several districts of the city, hospitals treated the wounded, and damage to civilian buildings and transport infrastructure made journeys to work slower and more stressful. At least one person was killed and eight injured during a night of drone and missile attacks on the city of 3.5 million. Apartment blocks, office buildings and a kindergarten were set on fire and the entrance to a metro station was hit, sending smoke pouring down on to platforms where people were taking shelter. Russian drone attacks on Ukraine – and particularly Kyiv – have intensified sharply in recent weeks, and the two heaviest strikes of the war took place this month, peaking overnight from July 8th-9th with the launch of 728 drones and 13 missiles. Graphic: Paul Scott/ IRISH TIMES GRAPHICS Ukrainian officials said on Monday morning that Russia fired 426 drones and 24 missiles overnight, most of which were shot down or electronically jammed. But the toll on the country and its people from direct strikes, falling debris and stress and tiredness accumulated over more than three years of full-scale war continues to mount. READ MORE A young girl takes a selfie as locals hide in a shelter during an air-raid alarm, near a site of a drone strike on a residential building in Kyiv. Photograph: Sergey Dolzhenko/European Pressphoto Agency 'When people asked me whether I was worried about living in Kyiv, I would say that yes, it's being shelled and bombed, but it's well protected. That's how it felt until a few weeks ago. There were drone attacks every other night but they would hardly reach the actual city – they were usually shot down in the regions,' says Nazar, a Kyiv resident. 'But in the past month there have been lots of occasions when suddenly lots of drones have come into the city. I've started hearing explosions closer and closer, to the point where I couldn't ignore it like before. That's when it started feeling less safe.' In Kyiv and other towns and cities where air-raid alerts can last for most of the day and night, Ukrainians must decide whether to take a risk by doing what they had planned – from staying in bed and trying to sleep to following a normal work routine – or to seek shelter in a basement, underground car park or metro station. 'Seeing drones over my residential area, over my actual apartment building, is a scary thing. They make a particular annoying, threatening noise, which speeds up as they're about to hit a target. It sounds like something from a second World War movie,' says Nazar, who lives in a 16-floor flat in Kyiv's western Nyvky district. A local man carries his dog at a damaged stairwell after a drone strike on a residential building in Kyiv on Monday. Photograph: Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA 'Now a few buildings have been destroyed not far from me and you hear about hundreds of these drones coming. You don't feel safe. So now I go to the underground shelter at 3 or 4am.' The Shahed drones fired at Kyiv and other cities are not the small, light models – similar to hobby drones but carrying explosives – that both sides use on the front line. The Iranian-made Shaheds are 3.5m long, have a wingspan of 2.5m and weigh 200kg, and can fly for some 2,000km before plunging into a target and detonating a 40kg warhead. Russia now mass produces its own version of the Shahed, called the Geran. A Ukrainian explosives expert examines parts of a Shahed military drone that fell following an air attack last month. Photograph: Sergey Bobok/AFP 'It's a guessing game. A matter of luck,' Olesya, who lives on the eighth floor of an apartment building in northwestern Kyiv, says of the danger of being killed or hurt. 'While before I would have stayed in my flat during an alert, now, if there are too many drones flying overhead, I go into the corridor of the building (for greater protection) or to a lower floor,' she adds. 'People who have stayed in Kyiv tend to find some kind of rational decision in terms of everyday functioning. So if you stay in your apartment there is a chance that you'll be killed there, but there is also a chance that you'll get a good night's sleep and not be hit ... But sometimes it's very hard to sleep and function normally afterwards.' Russia's escalating attacks have coincided with fresh concerns over Ukraine's air defences, as the United States halted supplies of some crucial weaponry and then announced that some would be delivered after all. That was followed by a White House decision this month to send more air defence systems and other arms to Kyiv via a new deal with Nato. Germany and other European states are expected to provide Ukraine with advanced US-made Patriot air defence units from their stocks and then 'backfill' with equipment bought from the US. As ever during nearly 3½ years of all-out war – and 11 years of conflict since Russia occupied Crimea and created heavily armed militias in eastern Ukraine – the timing and scale of western help for Ukraine is still unclear. People with their belongings leave a damaged metro station after a Russian attack in Kyiv last week. Photograph: Oleksii Filippov/AFP 'I live on the 14th floor and I have Star Wars going on outside my window. Not just tracers but I can see Shaheds flying past,' says Viktoriya, whose flat on the eastern bank of the Dnipro river is on an approach route for many drones and missiles targeting Kyiv. 'Before, the majority was repelled. But now I don't think we have enough air-defence assets or manpower to track everything, so they do get through,' she adds, calling Russia's tactics 'terror for the sake of terror'. 'Now I see more people going at night to metro stations and other shelters with sleeping bags, mats, dogs, backpacks and other necessities. They're becoming more systematic and going fully prepared. But there are also those who don't go, and feel the chance of being hit while going to the shelter is higher than when being at home.' On July 8th – the night of the heaviest Russian air attack so far – 32,000 people took refuge in Kyiv's metro stations, including almost 2,200 children, according to city officials. Figures for night-time visits to the metro system in July are expected to surpass those for June, when 165,000 visits were recorded, up from 65,000 in May. A man carries a dog in a damaged metro station following a Russian attack in Kyiv last week. Photograph: Oleksi Filippov/AFP Russia has also launched intense drone and missile strikes on western Ukraine this month, shaking the residents of cities that are 1,000km from the frontline: the mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk said it had suffered its heaviest attack of the war in the early hours of Monday, and that four people had been injured in nearby villages. There is fear in Kyiv and other cities, just as there is anger at the West's failure to back up rhetoric with action, but such feelings are by now familiar to Ukrainians – as are Russia's demands for a settlement that would amount to capitulation. 'I wouldn't say there's a catastrophic shift in how it feels ... But it does feel very targeted, very instrumentalised, this terror against civilians,' Olesya says. 'It feels very thought-out, to make people scared and panic and potentially put pressure on the authorities and demand talks – any talks just to stop this. I don't feel this is working for now, at least on a mass scale.' 'I don't think we are depressed or saying this is the end of Ukraine,' says Nazar. 'Surprisingly, I have more resilience than I thought, and I think people are on same page in that way.'
RTÉ News
6 days ago
- RTÉ News
'It affects everyone': Travellers on the impact of violent feuds
Around a dozen men enter the housing scheme in Co Clare, one has a gun, others are armed with bats and slash hooks. They are videoed by another member of the gang so the footage could be later shared on social media. The audio on the 83-second video is a series of dull thuds, as wooden bats meet car metal and shatter-resistant windscreens, followed by the clink of breaking glass as swinging slash hooks batter windows of cars, houses, and mobile homes. None of the residents show themselves during the mayhem. Then the gunman, heavyset and dressed in a light-grey hoodie, dark bottoms, and a dark baseball cap, lifts his rifle and shoots into a house. Another man roars "c'mon, c'mon" and his gang starts to retreat, passing an upturned set of children's goalposts as they leave the site almost casually. Assorted toys are on the footpath, plastic cars just about big enough for a toddler to sit on, a pink scooter and a pink plastic chair - objects of innocence incongruous with the scene of hate and terror. Social media feuding The video is from 2023 at a Traveller-specific housing scheme in north Clare. Social media users will probably be familiar with similar videos showing feud-related attacks. Most get little attention, despite the levels of violence involved and the scale of terror inflicted on the victims. Just last week, a video circulated by the Irish Examiner showed cars and a house in Cork City being smashed up by a gang carrying slash hooks. In the last 12 months, there have also been significant feud-related incidents in counties with simmering feuds such as Limerick, Sligo, Galway, Longford, Westmeath, Dublin. These are part of what Traveller organisations say is a growing problem of interfamily and intra-family feuding that is becoming more violent. One Traveller rights activist, who declined to talk on the record, told Prime Time that feuding is "tearing our community apart." Last year, research published by three leading Traveller organisations began with a stark line. "Inter-family violence is a pervasive problem affecting Traveller individuals and their families, with far reaching consequences for the entire Traveller community, that include mental health difficulties, imprisonment, injury and in some instances, death." Also last year, the Traveller Mediation Service wrote "it is important to state that violence is not part of Traveller culture," but that inter-family conflict has "reverberations for the entire Traveller community, where backing down is seen as weakness, and a loss of honour." Feuding between or within families "affects everyone," said Colette Joyce, Secretary of the Louth Traveller Movement, "because we're all related and very closely related, it's horrible for our older generation, for people who have grown up together as brothers and sisters nearly, it could be first cousins, second cousins..." Social media is now widely viewed as being responsible for inflaming and exacerbating conflict, feud incidents are often recorded by the aggressors as well as victims or bystanders. "As soon as it's happening, it's being recorded and you have access immediately all over the world," said Nell McDonagh, Culture and Heritage officer for Meath Travellers Workshops. "Whether you're living in Germany, whether you're living in Navan, you have access to it immediately, before any peacekeepers or mediators can get involved, it's all over the world." 'Call out' videos - in which one person invites another to a fight - can attract hundreds of thousands of views, yet social media posts reflecting a positive image of the community typically get hundreds of views. Impact on Travellers Reporting on the Traveller feuding problem is a delicate subject because Travellers feel routinely stigmatised by media portrayals. Yet, it is a significant criminal problem with a severe impact on its victims who are overwhelmingly Travellers. The Irish Traveller Movement declined a request to be interviewed for a Prime Time report on the issue, instead issuing a statement on behalf of itself and 11 other Traveller organisations. The statement asked for RTÉ "not to go ahead with this programme due to its impact on the community as a whole, many of whom have entirely no connection to the issues being discussed tonight." It also said that the programme would reinforce, "damaging stereotypes that contribute to racism and discrimination." On the other hand, dozens of Travellers cooperated with the research for the programme. "It's not dirty to talk about feuding. It's okay to want to resolve it, and it's okay that we take responsibility as well for our actions as a community," said Senator Eileen Flynn, who is a Traveller. "But it's also important that the Government takes responsibilities for their ill treatment for many years to our community," Senator Flynn added. Regional feuds Co Clare is one of the counties with a significant feuding problem. Since 2023, An Garda Síochána has been running Operation Féilire to combat it. Prime Time has learned that gardaí currently estimate there are 13 active feuds in the county. "Feuding has been a big issue in Clare in recent years," said Páraic McMahon, Head of News at the Clare Echo. It's a "peaks-and-troughs-type situation. When it gets bad, things get very bad, things get out of control." He said that "as recently as 2023 up to 10 Traveller families were feuding in Ennis alone." Fianna Fáil TD for Clare, Cathal Crowe, said it's a major public concern. "I feel sorry for a lot of the women and the children caught up in the line of fire," he said. There are "fine, fine families" in the Clare Traveller community, he said, "but there are some families entrenched in this feuding warfare, and the youngsters are being brought up behind them to continue on and to carry that feuding on." At Christmas, footage of an incident in Ennis was circulated widely on social media showing two rival groups clashing and cars being rammed. It was "a pretty scary event for a lot of people," Mr McMahon said. After that incident, Mr Crowe wrote to Garda Commissioner Drew Harris urging him to "fully utilise" the Armed Response Unit and bring in gardai from outside the local division. Nomadic traditions Feuding is not in any sense a uniquely Traveller problem. In modern times, violent feuds have erupted between drug-dealing criminal gangs in Limerick and Dublin. Historically, organised faction-fighting or brawls between groups connected by family or parish were a widespread problem, particularly in Munster. However, while drugs and money can be a factor in some Traveller feuds, they tend to be mainly inter-family or intra-family disputes, and often around abstract issues of family honour. "We live in family groups. Our social life is always done in family," Nell McDonagh said, noting that wider family groupings could "extend to a couple of thousand people." "In the past, we were nomadic and we had the freedom and the ability to move around Ireland very, very freely. If there was a dispute or an issue that might affect more than one or two people, the family would get up and they would move to another camp," Ms McDonagh added. However, getting up and leaving is rarely an option nowadays partly because in 2002 the State responded to problems arising from unauthorised encampments on public land by effectively outlawing the Traveller nomadic lifestyle. Nowadays, Travellers who stop on public land, as they would have done for centuries, risk prosecution and confiscation of their property by Gardaí. "It's against the law for Travellers to travel in this country," Senator Flynn said. "It's remarkable to me when I go to Sligo, Donegal, see people in their campers, white, middle class settled people in their campers, and they're drawing trailers, and they can park up anywhere they want and use the services," she added. If members of the Traveller community were to do the same, Senator Flynn says, "gardaí would be called. And that's absolutely taking away our way of life and the whole community's way of life." Conflicts are consistently ending up in a cycle of violence and retaliation. Last year the publicly funded Traveller Mediation Service said that in its experience that "disputes over the last number of years within the community have worsened and become more violent, with increasing use of weapons, especially petrol-bombs and guns." Operation Stola The Traveller Mediation Service declined a request for interview, but according to its most recently published annual reports, it mediated in 388 disputes in the 2019-2023 period across at least 28 counties. Included were disputes between neighbours, accommodation issues, ongoing interfamily conflicts, and issues with agencies. One of those counties was Longford, where feuding has been an intermittent problem for decades. "I remember very well Cemetery Sunday in July 2019. We had the police helicopter in the sky. We had the armed response unit. We even have the dog unit, and this was for a mass in a cemetery," Longford Fianna Fáil councillor Seamus Butler said. "We nearly went over the brink," he added. From 2019, gardaí set up Operation Stola to target feuding in Longford. After the first three years, the Department of Justice reported 6,761 incidents associated with the operation, 206 arrests and 454 charges. In May 2022, then Fine Gael Minister of State Frankie Feighan told the Dáil that "the majority of violent crimes occurring in the Longford district in the year to date have related to feuding families." While there are still serious feud-related incidents from time to time in and around Longford, the situation has calmed. Since the peak in 2019, Cllr Butler said, "we've had over 36 raids" by the Garda Criminal Assets Bureau. "Houses have been confiscated. An awful lot of luxury goods, cash, and drugs have been seized in Longford. A lot of these people thought they were untouchable. They are now in deep trouble with their properties," Cllr Butler said. Longford Chamber president Fulton Grant said that "more garda presence" and the imprisonment of key figures in the feuding had an effect. "We seem to have got a good handle on it here," Mr Grant said. But there are other non-law-and-order factors, too. "It's engagement on all sides," Mr Grant said, describing how several female Travellers were a calming influence and a bridge within the community who are willing to communicate. Property destruction Research published by Traveller organisations last year titled 'The Impact of Traveller Interfamily Conflict on Individuals and Families,' noted the effect on the health of Travellers. It said feuding has "evolved to typically involve weapons, ramming of vehicles, destruction of property, that includes the setting of sites and homes on fire." "It can result in loss of life, severe mental-health difficulties, and families forced to leave their homes," the research paper continued. In Co Clare over a decade ago, feuding resulted in such significant property destruction that an entire site for Traveller-specific accommodation was razed by Clare County Council and a social housing estate built in its place. A Google Earth image from 2009 shows six units at the Ashline site on the outskirts of Ennis. Another image shows that, by 2011, two of them were destroyed. Clare County Council's 2014-2018 Traveller Accommodation Programme noted that, "At end of 2013 the group housing schemes at Ashline and [nearby] Beechpark lie completely vacant, having been the subject of repeated arson attacks to the extent that insurance cover no longer applies. In 2013 alone four houses were substantially damaged by fire." "These were well-built, perfect houses. They've been smashed, burnt, windows put in," said Deputy Crowe. In 2018, the council demolished the entire site, deciding not to refurbish again. "It makes me very angry," said Nell McDonagh, "because I think it's so unjust that a certain small number of people can destroy opportunities such as accommodation. We need to deal with the people who are responsible for this." "The vulnerable people, the people who needed accommodation, they were the ones that missed out there on opportunities. The people responsible for the violent behaviour; they don't care," Ms McDonagh added. Lateral violence Some connect the feuding problem to a concept called lateral violence, which has been studied among ethnic communities in other countries, including the Sami people of Northernmost Europe and the Aboriginal people of Australia. Lateral violence is "when people from the same community direct their rage, anger, frustrations toward people from their own community and that rage and anger and frustration comes from being oppressed," Dr Tia Whyman, Research Fellow at Murdoch University in Australia told Prime Time. "So they direct it towards themselves and their community because it's safer, rather than direct it to the people that are doing the oppressing," Dr Whyman added. "There are lots of different types of conflicts, but for it to be lateral violence, there needs to be some form of oppression," according to Dr Kristina Sehlin MacNeil, Associate Professor in Sami Studies, Umeå University, Sweden. The theory of lateral violence should not be used as "an excuse to behave badly towards one's peers," Dr Sehlin MacNeil said, adding that it can be useful in analysing the roots of peer-on-peer violence and finding solutions to it. Traveller pride How much the concept can be applied to the issue of Traveller feuding is debatable, but what is clear is that Travellers are a hard-pressed ethnic minority who are often unjustly treated. "The biggest challenges facing our community at the moment are mental health, addiction, homelessness, and unemployment," said Senator Flynn. "I'm thinking of suicide, schizophrenia, other mental health problems like depression, anxiety. It's overwhelming, actually, within our community." Surveys suggest that prejudice against Travellers in Ireland is very widespread. For example, the National Traveller Community Survey 2017 found only 9% would have a Traveller as a family member. Only 17% of just over 1,000 respondents said they would employ a Traveller. Senator Eileen Flynn said she experienced discrimination after applying for a job in care over a decade ago following a period of work experience. "I was brilliant at the job and I loved it," she said, "but once they hear the address was Labre Park, a halting site, the job was no longer available. I had great skills, but the barrier was I was a member of the Traveller community." Despite the barriers, she said, her pride in her community remains unwavering. "I couldn't ask to be from a better community," she said. "It's the love, the family, how the community take care of each other." Like many Travellers, Colette Joyce said there is too much media focus on negative issues in the community, such as criminality and feuding. "I suppose negativity sells," she said. "The issue for me is that all Travellers are painted as the same. We're all put down as the one. So if a Traveller at the far end of the country, does something, it automatically becomes my problem and I'm blamed for the same thing," she said. "I might not even know that person. And that is just something that I would like to see eradicated."
