Romanian Gypsies attacked in Belfast

[GMantis]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iDji7_Kp0M1B_ADrZ0T9-dBi-xpwD98SI4HG0
Now in most cases I'm sceptical about claims of persecution against Gypsies, but here I have to take their side. It seems that for many in Northern Ireland that if they can't have religious conflict, they'll have racial conflict instead.

[JSojourner]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iDji7_Kp0M1B_ADrZ0T9-dBi-xpwD98SI4HG0
Now in most cases I'm sceptical about claims of persecution against Gypsies, but here I have to take their side. It seems that for many in Northern Ireland that if they can't have religious conflict, they'll have racial conflict instead.

Mantis,

Thanks for posting it.  I have heard very little coverage of this here in the states but NPR and the BBC have run a few good pieces.

I understand very little of the Gypsy-Romany culture or history...despite the fact that 100% of my maternal lineage is Hungarian.  I know they can be found as far east as the former Soviet Republicans of Central Asia, all over Europe and throughout the U.S. and Canada.

What is perplexing is how to reckon various groups that are called "gypsies".  Around here, we are regularly visited by "The Irish Travelers"...who have no ancestral ties to the Romany people that I know of.  Yet people often refer to them as "gypsies".  I've heard some Spaniards refer to the Basque people as "gypsies", but are they?

I should probably get a good book on the subject and bone up.

[justfollowingtheelections]

You can learn more about the Romani people here and the discrimination against them in Europe throughout the centuries:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_people

[Stranger in a strange land]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iDji7_Kp0M1B_ADrZ0T9-dBi-xpwD98SI4HG0
Now in most cases I'm sceptical about claims of persecution against Gypsies, but here I have to take their side. It seems that for many in Northern Ireland that if they can't have religious conflict, they'll have racial conflict instead.

Mantis,

Thanks for posting it.  I have heard very little coverage of this here in the states but NPR and the BBC have run a few good pieces.

I understand very little of the Gypsy-Romany culture or history...despite the fact that 100% of my maternal lineage is Hungarian.  I know they can be found as far east as the former Soviet Republicans of Central Asia, all over Europe and throughout the U.S. and Canada.

What is perplexing is how to reckon various groups that are called "gypsies".  Around here, we are regularly visited by "The Irish Travelers"...who have no ancestral ties to the Romany people that I know of.  Yet people often refer to them as "gypsies".  I've heard some Spaniards refer to the Basque people as "gypsies", but are they?

I should probably get a good book on the subject and bone up.

From what I understand, the Travelers are referred to as gypsies due to their nomadic lifestyle and to negative stereotypes about thievery and malfeasence associated with both groups. I've never heard a Spanish person refer to Basques as gypsies or gitanos, though in Argentina,  Turco (Turk) are used to refer to any person with a dark complexion, and gypsy or equilvalent terms are used the same way in other cultures.

[GMantis]

You can learn more about the Romani people here and the discrimination against them in Europe throughout the centuries:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_people

Of course the Gypsies have not always behaved exemplary, but this case is outrageous.

I understand very little of the Gypsy-Romany culture or history...despite the fact that 100% of my maternal lineage is Hungarian.  I know they can be found as far east as the former Soviet Republicans of Central Asia, all over Europe and throughout the U.S. and Canada.

The Hungarians have nothing to do with the Gypsies. They're not even many in Hungary itself, most seem to live in former Hungarian territories, like Slovakia and Transylvania.

What is perplexing is how to reckon various groups that are called "gypsies".  Around here, we are regularly visited by "The Irish Travelers"...who have no ancestral ties to the Romany people that I know of.  Yet people often refer to them as "gypsies".  I've heard some Spaniards refer to the Basque people as "gypsies", but are they?

I don't think they have anything to do with the Gypsies, (except some borrowings in their language). It seems they are named Gypsies because of their similar lifestyle.

[patrick1]

Pretty standard behavior from Loyalists.  Many of their paramilitaries always had a far right-ish bent to them and with the troubles subsiding many have taken a fully white nationalist/anti foreigner  direction.  That is not to say discrimination or violence has not occurred in the republic or nationalist communities- it just does not seem to be as widespread.