Ireland's Cassius Clay
By Eoghan MacCormaic
It's interesting to see the way in which the new film, Southpaw, on
the life and times of Francie Barrett has been received by the
broadcast media, with both heavyweights of RTÉ - Gay Byrne and Pat
Kenny - devoting time to the film on their respective TV and radio
shows during the past week.
Followers of Gay Byrne, and there are a few, will know that he has in
the past provided a platform for the travelling community and
unusually for Byrne, this was not done in a completely patronising
way.
Kenny, on the other hand, always appears uncomfortable and stuffy.
Kenny asked if such a film would be made had Francie Barrett been
from Tallaght or Ballyfermot. The reviewer chided him, saying that
that was the very point of the project: Barrett wasn't from such
areas. It was being a traveller that made him different.
However, a positive slot on the national media on an infrequent
occasion is no substitute for equality. Francie Barrett is different,
and it is right that that difference be celebrated, that his
overcoming many obstacles to represent Ireland be celebrated but
don't let us pretend that a night on the Late Late or a review on Pat
Kenny means he's made it.
There are some communities in Ireland who won't thank Sundown
Productions for making `Southpaw, the Francie Barrett Story', despite
the imprimatur of Gaybo, or the curiosity of Pat Kenny. In fact in
some areas the film, like the Barretts or any other member of the
travelling community or Traveller family will be met with outright
hostility.
ti-traveller prejudice is rife and can rightly be described as our
internal racism. When the then Cassius Clay returned to the USA in
the early sixties with his Olympic Gold he was hurt and offended to
find that while he could represent America in the Games, stand on the
podium and receive a medal for Uncle Sam, be celebrated as an
American victor, he could still be refused food in a restaurant
because of the colour of his skin. Francie Barrett must understand
how Cassius Clay felt but while Cassius could `reinvent' himself as
Muhammad Ali, in the family of Islam, Francie is stuck, it seems,
with the traveller image.
The argument is made, often, that travelling people are their own
worst enemies. It's an attractive argument and allows people who need
it a politically correct hook for whatever remaining bias they might
have. `I have nothing against travellers but...' is the explanation
used but to describe the actions of a minority of any population
group, in this case the travelling community, as making that group
`their own worst enemies' is the ultimate in prejudice.
It might seem odd, but according to the experience of the travelling
community itself there is less hostility to travellers in Britain
than in Ireland. Francie Barrett repeated on the Late Late what
other travellers have pointed out in the past, that in England no-one
pigeon-holes the travelling community in the way they are
pigeon-holed here. Of course that doesn't mean that there's no
prejudice there... it merely means that the `subdivision' of the
traveller doesn't count for so much and to the average English
person, the Irish traveller is Irish first, middle and last. The
traveller `label' rarely arises. If they're to be treated unfairly,
at least it's equally unfairly!
It might be of some consolation to travellers - or perhaps a source
of worry - that across the water they are lumped in just the same as
the Norn Iron Unionist and loyalist is Paddified, with or without
their consent. And maybe for the only time in their lives, the
travelling community will be discriminated against, or marginalised,
or harassed not on ground of their birth, family or social
background, but because of their nationality. Maybe that's progress.
Maybe that's the true meaning of positive discrimination...
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