VIDEO: "Myth Busters" - Deconstructing Myths About The Travelling Community

dublin | rights, freedoms and repression | feature

Monday March 28, 2005 11:51

by Blanchardstown Traveller Development Group - (arranged and processed by kevin)

28 minute DivX film for you to download.

"Myth Busters" is a film which aims to challenge the myths around the Travelling Community. It is a Cultural Awareness project, produced by the Blanchardstown Traveller Development Group, in conjunction with 'Know Racism', the National Anti-Racism Awareness Programme. It is intended as an educational tool, attempting to dispel some common myths and prejudices.

It is just over 28 minutes long. The film is encoded in the DivX format, and is a 98 MB download. Realistically you will need a broadband connection to download it. DivX is a video compression tool. If you wish to view this video, you will need a DivX player. This is free, you can get it here for Windows 98/ME/2000/XP, here for the Mac, or here for Linux.

To download the film, right click here and save the AVI file to your computer.

Fast Downloading Audio Only Version Here

The film is presented by Jemma Dinnigan who is a member of the Travelling Community. The four myths that are addressed in the film are Traveller Weddings, Halting Sites, Education, and Working for a Living. In each section, she talks to travellers, primarily from two halting sites in the Dublin 15 area, Morgan Place on the Navan Road, and St. Philomena's in Ballycoolin to the north of Blanchardstown. Travellers talk about their experiences relating to each of these myths.

For example, Margaret Hand from St. Philomena's site in Ballycoolin talks about the myth that "all Travellers live in dirty caravans on the site of the road. Their halting sites are always full of rubbish". Margaret responds: "After seeing St. Philomena's statue in Sligo, we decided to name the site after her. St. Philomena's Court has 5 detached bungalows which are all newly built. In St. Philomena's Park there are about 10 bays altogether. There's a pre-school here for children between 2 and 5 years. As well as that, a caretaker lives on site and he's a Traveller himself. He's responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of the site, so there's a high standard of care here." In the film, you can see how well both halting sites are maintained.

Christine Collins is a student in St. Dominics College in Cabra, just off the Navan Road. She responded to the myth of Travellers not caring about getting on in education or not being interested in learning. "I want to go on to study Accountancy in Trinity College Dublin. Business Studies is my favourite subject but I have to get through secondary school first though! I'm studying 13 subjects for my Junior Cert, so its very stressful! I think more Travellers are staying in school longer because they want to get good jobs. A few of my relations went onto third level so it definitely runs in the family."

For more information on Myth Busters, or if you would like a copy of the film on DVD for a screening, you can contact the Blanchardstown Traveller Development Group, on (01) 8207812, or by post at Parslickstown House, Ladyswell, Mulhuddart, Dublin 15.

Other Traveller-related articles on Indymedia Éire:
Irish travellers and their association with Roma Gypsies
Lessons from Dunsink Traveller Protest
Travellers take to the streets
Traveller Accommodation Crisis
Ireland gives a summer welcome to Citizen Traveller - yet again.