Travellers’ evictions SAM ADAMS
Last days at Dale Farm
Irish Travellers, most of them devout Catholics, seemed almost resigned to eviction by the local council from their homes at a campsite at Dale Farm, Essex, earlier this week before winning a last-minute temporary reprieve ahead of yesterday’s High Court hearing
misrepresented in the newspapers. They are very wary about speaking to them.” Fr Dan Mason need not have said a word. His look of resignation when asked whether Travellers at Dale Farm would be up for an interview said it all. The 36-year-old priest stared thoughtfully out of the window of the old Ford Fiesta as we bumped and jolted over the craters that pockmark the road leading into the campsite near Basildon in Essex, then said, smiling: “You’ll be OK though I think. They will be reassured that you are from a Catholic news- paper.” Half of the Dale Farm site, a former scrap- yard owned by the Travellers, was built on without planning permission. This part of the site had been subject to a 10-year battle, including representations at the High Court and complaints from United Nations officials about potential breaches of the Travellers’ human rights. I visited Dale Farm last week ahead of yes-
“T
terday’s last-ditch High Court hearing to prevent Basildon Council from enforcing an eviction order. According to some national newspapers this was going to be the scene of a bloody battle – with hundreds of Travellers and campaigners preparing to man the bar- ricades in order to resist their removal. The signs of imminent conflict were cer- tainly evident. The council had already laid out a metal track for the bulldozers running from the road to the campsite, which was pro- tected by metal fencing and groups of large men in luminous clothing, while a 20ft watch- tower built by Travellers and campaigners
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hey don’t trust the media much now, to be honest. They have welcomed them in the past only to be completely
Seventy-five-year-old Anne Egan, a Traveller, chats with Fr Dan Mason in her home at Dale Farm
over the entrance to the campsite would not have looked out of place at a rebel stronghold in a war-torn African country.
But once inside the scene was one of appar-
ent calm. Scruffy dogs snoozed in the warm midday sun, while dozens of children played boisterously by the side of the road – as small groups of mothers stood engrossed in con- versation. Fr Mason said the site had turned into a “media circus” with one television news organ- isation renting out a field nearby to film the eviction live, while Sky News was rumoured to be planning to use a helicopter to cover the action that was scheduled for Monday but then delayed by a High Court injunction. “I appreciate the viewpoint of the council and the people who live nearby,” said Fr Mason. “But what I don’t understand is that the council have said this is green-belt land, and should not have been built on. But this was a scrapyard, which the Travellers have tidied up and built their homes on. If they were not here, it would hardly be a place of natural beauty – it would be covered in scrap.” Sr Catherine Reilly, a steely but softly spoken 72-year-old Irish nun, who has worked with the Travellers of Dale Farm for the past nine years, offered a pithy assessment of the situ- ation from the driver’s seat to my right: “It’s like ethnic cleansing. They [the council and bailiffs] don’t care [about the Travellers].” Estimates of the number of Irish Travellers in the United Kingdom range from tens to
hundreds of thousands. Most of them are devout Catholics, and the Dale Farm com- munity is no different, with images of Jesus and Mary positioned in front of caravans, by the roadside and inside their homes. We were here for a special Mass organised by Fr Mason to mark the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, which he hoped to use to promote a message of peace ahead of the scheduled eviction. At a time when public displays of deference towards priests and Religious are fading, the Travellers showed deep respect and admira- tion for their two visitors. Their reliance on Fr Mason and Sr Catherine – who regularly help them fill in passport applications and council documents as well as communications from the local school – for both spiritual and pastoral support cannot be overstated. Sr Catherine rounded up Massgoers by winding down her window and quietly reminding each group of mothers and older men to get ready. A 3ft statue of Mary stood outside the smart
chalet where the Mass was to be held. A circle of Traveller women, aged from their early thirties to around 60, sat chatting, some pen- sively fingering rosary beads. Their faces lit up as Fr Mason approached. “Hello, Father – what do you think of our chances on Monday then?” said one of the older women from behind a thick pair of sun- glasses. “Do you think it’s going to happen?” “I don’t know what will happen,” he replied,
sadly. “That is the honest answer.” “Although the way things are looking I would have to say probably, yes, I’m afraid.” The priest, who ministered to parishes in
east London before moving to Essex to become parish priest in nearby Wickford a year ago, said he always made a point of being com- pletely honest with the Travellers about their situation. A group of around 20 women and young
girls – for there were no men of working age in sight when I first arrived at the campsite – followed Fr Mason into the house where a small table had been set up with a cross, some candles and the Bible. In his homily Fr Mason focused on the example of Mahatma Gandhi, who led India to independence from Britain in 1947 following a campaign of non-violent protest.
“Gandhi said he objected to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; but that the evil it does is perma- nent,” said Fr Mason. “When we are thinking
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