Breda: Traveller's Life

dublin | rights, freedoms and repression | feature Saturday July 12, 2003 12:30 by Dave - IMC daviddonnellan at eircom dot net

Life in a Travellers' Camp

The right of Travellers to basic facilities such as water and electricity can still not be taken for granted apparently. To find out more I called over to the Traveller's Site in Ballyfermot for the first time recently. I was a bit nervous walking in but was immediately made to feel very welcome by the residents. I met sisters Breda and Tina who told me their stories...

A visit to Breda and Tina, Travellers living in Ballyfermot.

What’s your name?
My name is Breda.

How long have you been here?
I’ve been here 21 years. My mother is not a Traveller. She’s from Ballyfermot. My father’s a Traveller. When they got married they went to England. There were only three girls and we were all born over there. We always lived in a house. When we came back from England first we came to Cork. We stayed three years. Then when my father’s sister got sick up here, one died and the other lived on her own. We came to live near them. She was never married. She was on her own. That was what brought us to Ballyfermot.

How many children do you have?
I’ve got six children. They range from one to eleven.

And what’s it like bringing up kids here?
It’s quite hard. We haven’t got really proper facilities. We’re 12 years here illegally and we haven’t got proper access to electricity, running water, everyday necessities. Proper flush toilet things.

It’s quite hard. Even if you want to wash the children’s clothes. We’re on the same thing. [My sister Tina] will have to turn everything off her electric before I can use my machine because it's only a wire coming from a house - the grandparents house.

We have to economise. We have to just take turns. We haven’t got any proper facilities. We’re over here now near the sewage. And underneath the pylons. The overhead wires that are all bad health risks. Although no doctor actually comes forward to say that anything happens.

It’s rat infested. And people get sick and it’s due to the conditions we’re living in. When we get rain…it’d be interesting when we get one or two days rain to see the street out here. Where all the water lodges. It’s dreadful. You’d actually need a boat.

What’s your average day?
My average day is I get up in the morning, say 7 O’clock get washed start getting the breakfast. Drag some of them out of bed especially on the school days. They all seem to want to sleep out on the school days. Get their lunch ready. Get them all dressed.

Now we have a bus at the moment that’s picks up the kids. That’s one advantage.
Brings the younger ones home as well. They go to Bluebell. The big majority go to Ballyfermot. There’s not as many go to Blubell as go to Ballyfermot. Joe the bus driver makes three runs. He comes at, I think 8, twenty past 8 and half eight. He makes three runs to have them all in school. He’s actually a Traveller himself. It’s great. He knows. The Traveller children are kinda wild.

The smaller ones come home at 2 O’clock. The older ones come home at half two. I have their dinners ready when they come home. I do the cleaning when they’re away at school as well. A lot of cleaning things to do. Go to the shops, get your messages. Trying to do your bit of washing. It’s all hectic. There’s no really sitting down. You’re on the go the whole time.

We’re living directly beside the Camac River. It’s sewage filled. It’s full of rat infested…my two small children 3 and 4 year olds came in the other day with a big rat
He was as big as a rabbit. To their grandfather. Their grandfather hunts so they thought it was a rabbit. Big huge dead rat. And they were insulted when their grandfather couldn’t say anything but ‘No, Get out, get out’.

Tina’s husband made some rat cages. He caught loads. One man out the factory said he got steel parts for the cars and they were all eaten by the rats. There must be some new breed of rats. Reinforced concrete is eaten by the rats. ‘How can anyone live in those houses or caravans with those rats’ the man was saying.

On a day to day-to-day basis you’re living with it. Everyday you’re washing the kids with Savlon. The men do come out to lay poison.but they cannot put it everywhere. They don’t come around here where the kids are so what can you do.