Irish Traveller Women Negotiating Home and School Environments: Identity, Space and Embodiment TAMSIN CAVALIERO PhD Thesis I.T. Sligo Department of Social Sciences Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy Supervisor: Dr Martin Levinson Internal Supervisor: Dr Breda McTaggart May 2016 Declaration This material submitted for assessment of the programme of study leading to the award of PhD is entirely my own work and, except where appropriately acknowledged and cited, does not include the work of any other party. Signed: Date: Tamsin Cavaliero ii For Richard iii Acknowledgements I would like to thank the research participants of Baile Lucht Siúil who made this possible. Whilst they remain anonymous in here; I wish them all the luck in the world and my heartfelt thanks. I am deeply grateful for their trust, humour, hospitality, honesty and kindness. I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr Martin Levinson for his support, dedication, wisdom, insight, inspiration and encouragement in facilitating me to realise this project. I hope this work does you justice. Thanks to Dr Gwen Scarbrough and Dr John Kane for their help at the initial stages of this research. Thank you to Dr Chris Griffin for his support, encouragement and advice through this process. I would also like to thank the staff in the Research Office at I.T. Sligo; specifically Dr John Bartlett and Mary McLoughlin for all their support throughout this process. I wish to express my sincerest thanks to all of the library staff at I.T. Sligo, in particular Fiona Fox, Geraldine Taheny, Sinead Kelly, Lisa Moore, Jim Foran and Stephen Fahy. I would also like to thank Una L’estrange, Diane O’Brien, Dana Vasiloika and Cillian O’Murchu for putting up with me and sorting out technical glitches! Thanks to my colleagues in the Department of Social Studies in I.T. Sligo and the Centre for Research in Social Professions (CRiSP). In particular I would like to thank my KTCC colleagues Aoife Cooney, Anna Fewer-Hamilton, Jessica Mannion, Silvia Gursinski and Dr Chris Sparks for reminding me what’s important about work. I would also like to thank Linda McGloin and Valerie Clinton for endless support patience. iv Special thanks must go to Dr Breda McTaggart for believing in me. I would also like to thank Linda McGloin and Valerie Clinton for endless support patience. My husband Richard who has kept everything going at home so that I have been able to complete this thesis, and my children, Jack, Alfie and Noah for whom I thank for their humour and patience throughout this process. v Abstract Irish Traveller Women Negotiating Home and School Environments: Identity, Space and Embodiment Tamsin Cavaliero, I.T. Sligo The purpose of this research is to investigate the manner in which Traveller women negotiate different spaces, in particular, the home-school interface within the context of a rapidly changing society. Previous writers (Helleiner 2000; Okely 1983) on Gypsy Traveller women recognised that withdrawal from the workforce into the home place has led to a reduction in Traveller women’s participation in the wider society, and contributes to a decrease in female pollution taboos (Okely 1975). Yet increasing engagement by Traveller women within the educational sector has had a significant impact of the way in which Traveller women’s identity is understood and negotiated both within and between communities. Through a detailed exploration, from a distinctly gendered, cross-generational perspective, this research foregrounds the voices of mothers and daughters from an ethnographic perspective, located in Baile Lucht Siúil in the Republic of Ireland. The key finding from this research is that gender plays the most important role in shaping Traveller identity. By focussing on the disjuncture between the generations, and building on ideas of Okely (1975, 1983) and Gay y Blasco (1997, 1999) the study draws attention to the importance of ritual hygiene practices observed through embodied performances as a way of preserving and maintaining group boundaries that are understood through moral performances located at the site of the body. The changing perceptions of ethnic and national identities are ascribed moral values understood through the unique relationship between Ireland and England. I argue that evidence of familial expectations centre around a performed and enacted morality relating to deportment, behaviour and dress as evidence of female sexuality. This research offers new insights and understandings of Gypsy / Traveller women in Ireland, both by conveying their voices and by providing a context in which they could explore their feelings about their roles in a changing environment. vi Table of Contents Declaration ............................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................. iv Abstract .................................................................................................................................... vi Chapter One .............................................................................................................................. 1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter Two ............................................................................................................................. 9 Travellers in Ireland ...................................................................................................................... 9 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 9 Who are the Travellers? ........................................................................................................................... 9 Origins .......................................................................................................................................................... 10 Characteristics .......................................................................................................................................... 10 Population Statistics ............................................................................................................................... 12 Discrimination ........................................................................................................................................... 13 Employment ............................................................................................................................................... 14 Accommodation ........................................................................................................................................ 15 Traveller Women ..................................................................................................................................... 16 Children and Young People.................................................................................................................. 17 Education .................................................................................................................................................... 20 Government Policy .................................................................................................................................. 24 Conclusion................................................................................................................................................... 25 Chapter Three ....................................................................................................................... 26 Literature Review.......................................................................................................................... 26 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 26 Evolving ways of Considering Traveller Identity ....................................................................... 27 Changing Uses of Space and Gendered Space .............................................................................. 39 Gendered Identities ................................................................................................................................ 54 Conclusion................................................................................................................................................... 65 Chapter Four ......................................................................................................................... 66 Methodology .................................................................................................................................... 66 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 66 Methodology Choices ............................................................................................................................. 67 Ethnography .............................................................................................................................................. 70 Positionality ..............................................................................................................................................
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