28/06/2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TraVision Foundation Demands Ireland Confront Legacy of Traveller Assimilation and "Preventable Deaths" Following Scottish Apology
(Sligo, Ireland – 28 June 2025)
In the wake of Scotland’s formal state apology to its Gypsy/Traveller community, the Irish-based TraVision Foundation is calling on the Irish Government to issue a similar public apology for its role in the deaths, displacements, and cultural erasure of Irish Travellers. The Foundation is also demanding an independent national investigation into what it describes as nearly a century of institutional harm, including the suppression of scientific evidence relating to Traveller origins and health.
The call follows Scotland’s historic apology earlier this week from First Minister John Swinney, who condemned the so-called “Tinker Experiment” — a government policy from the 1940s to 1980s that forced Traveller families into substandard housing and removed children from their families. Swinney described the campaign as a form of “cultural genocide.”
“As First Minister of Scotland, I want to say this directly to Gypsy/Traveller communities: the ‘Tinker experiments’ should not have happened. These policies were wrong... On behalf of Scotland, we are sorry.”
– John Swinney, First Minister of Scotland, 25 June 2025
Despite clear historical and policy parallels, the Irish State has never issued a similar apology, and no public inquiry has ever been conducted into its treatment of Travellers. According to the TraVision Foundation, Ireland’s legacy of forced assimilation did not begin in the 1940s, but can be traced back to the 1925 enforcement of anti-nomadic laws — decades before the Scottish experiment.
“The trauma of forced settlement, child removal, and identity erasure in Ireland predates the Scottish case. From 1925 onwards, Traveller families were targeted by laws and policies that sought not to support, but to eliminate our way of life. The fact that no apology or investigation has followed speaks volumes.”
– Spokesperson, TraVision Foundation
The 1963 Commission and Its Legacy
The 1963 Report of the Commission on Itinerancy is cited as a watershed moment in Irish assimilation policy. Its recommendations, couched in bureaucratic language, called for a “final solution” to what it termed “the itinerant problem” — through complete absorption into the settled population.
“What happened in Ireland was not ‘neglect’ — it was targeted cultural destruction,” said a spokesperson for the Foundation. “Children died on unsafe halting sites, adults were broken by a system that denied their very identity, and entire family lines were dismantled by state policy. This requires more than a general nod to historic ‘discrimination’ — it requires an apology for deliberate, measurable harm.”
Call for Independent Investigation into Suppressed Evidence
The TraVision Foundation, an independent organisation grounded in decolonisation, science, and community history, is now calling for the following:
A Formal Public Apology
From the Irish State and all state-funded Traveller organisations for preventable deaths, cultural erasure, and systemic trauma caused by forced assimilation.
An Independent, Interdisciplinary Investigation
Led outside of state-funded sociological institutions, to examine the deliberate suppression of historical, genetic, archaeological, and microbiome evidence that affirms Travellers’ status as an indigenous Gaelic population.
National Reckoning
Recognition that the outcomes of these policies include disproportionate rates of su***de, mental illness, institutionalisation, and erased heritage, which have never been investigated at a national level.
“Apologies for ‘discrimination’ won’t cut it anymore,” said the Foundation’s Director. “We are talking about structural harm rooted in the denial of who we are. Scotland has acknowledged its role. Ireland must now do the same — not just with words, but with truth, justice, and change.”
Scientific Evidence Ignored
Recent studies have confirmed that Irish Travellers are not a marginal offshoot of settled society, but a distinct and ancient Gaelic population:
Genetic studies have shown a separation from the settled population centuries before the Famine, disproving myths that Travellers are a “failed settled group.”
Microbiome research reveals that Travellers maintain a gut microbiota more similar to pre-industrial, non-urbanised populations — a biological indicator of indigenous ecological continuity.
Archaeological and historical records suggest continuity with nomadic Gaelic kinship networks, undermining the colonial framework that portrayed Travellers as "rootless."
“The continued omission of this science from public policy and so-called Traveller advocacy is no accident,” the Foundation’s statement continued. “It has allowed the Irish State — and the NGOs it funds — to control the narrative, block community truth, and continue policies of cultural erasure under the name of ‘inclusion.’”
The Foundation is preparing a formal submission to:
The Taoiseach
The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
All major Traveller organisations
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)
The submission will request:
Special Measures under ICERD Article 2(2) to acknowledge Traveller indigeneity;
Self-governance structures to replace the state-appointed model of Traveller representation;
A full investigation into preventable deaths, the silencing of whistleblowers, and the systematic erasure of indigenous scientific and historical data.
“This is not about the past. The same colonial structures are still in place — just rebranded. We are calling time on silence, and calling in the international community.”
– TraVision Foundation
ENDS
Issued by:
TraVision Foundation
Press Contact: .com
Website: www.travisionfoundation.com
Bernard Sweeney:
Mob: 0851332787
