Irish Travellers: More Hypocritical NY Times Irish Character Venom

Douglas Dalby, who's previously authored dubious stories about burying dead Irish babies in septic tanks and blaming Irish students killed in the US by faulty apartment construction for their own deaths,  adds Irish Traveller bigotry to his list of Irish character faults.

In a 10/30/2015 story about Irish Travellers he segues from minor difficulties in finding accommodations for fifteen Travellers, who lost their dwellings in a fire, to an indictment of Irish society for mistreating the Travellers.   Dalby blames the Irish as a group for a litany of Traveller problems including imprisonment for crime, alcoholism, disease and mortality rates, and claims deliberate exclusion of the minority group is the cause.   In doing so British Dalby ignores that being a Traveler is a voluntary choice and that there are no laws or social mores that force anyone to be a Traveler.   Genetically, the Traveller group is "typical of the larger Irish indigenous population." Being a Traveler isn't like being black in America.   Most of the Traveler's problems result from an itinerant life style choice that make access to health care, education and jobs problematic.  Moreover, generations of intermarriage within Traveler clans have led to a propensity for inherited diseases especially galactosaemia.

Although Traveller clans live in all of the British Isles and America and the itinerant population is far larger in Britain,  Mr. Dalby neglects to mention whether the Travellers fare any better outside the Irish Republic.   A recent American TV series, The Riches, with a strong British connection suggests suggests not.   The story is about a dysfunctional clan of Irish Traveller con artists and criminals living in America. The main characters were played by British actors Eddie Izzard adn Minnie Driver, without any compunction about their "black face" portrayals of a minority group that Mr. Dalby sees as very maligned.   The creator and writer of the series is Dmitry Lipkin a Russian-Jewish refugee.

Unlike Mr. Dalby, none of The Times coverage of The Riches expressed any discomfort with the "black face" Traveller portrayals as congenital con artists and criminals.  You might call this hypocrisy and you'd be very close to the mark.

Eddie Izzard’s Master Plan - Caryn James

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/arts/television/16jame.html

The Riches, Grifters in Sheeps’ Clothing

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/08/arts/television/08rich.html

Riches: For This Family of Pros, the Con Is Everything

By ALESSANDRA STANLEY  -  Published: March 12, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/arts/television/12stan.html

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The Times has 160 year history of venomous attacks on the Irish character:

No Irish Need Vote - NYC not an American City
http://hidden-civil-war.blogspot.com/2014/10/ny-times-no-irish-need-vote-nyc-not.html
Stalking General Sherman
http://hidden-civil-war.blogspot.com/2013/11/stalking-general-sherman.html
The New York Times and the Irish Character 
http://hidden-civil-war.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-new-york-times-and-irish-character.htmlNew York City's Passion Play
http://hidden-civil-war.blogspot.com/2013/08/new-york-citys-passion-play.html