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The traveling groups are asking comedian Des Bishop to apologize for the comments in which he described the community as inbred and violent.
During an interview with the US radio station Sirius XM, Bishop said that travelers “drink a lot”, “get violent when they drink”, “they are kind of feudal” and “everyone is on welfare.”
He gave an extensive interview on the Jim and Sam Show, a Monday-Friday morning show on Manhattan-based Sirius XM, in March 2018. The satellite channel has 34 million subscribers. A YouTube video of the interview has been widely shared in recent weeks by the community.
At the beginning of the 40-minute interview, presenters Jim Norton and Sam Roberts ask Bishop about “those bare-knuckled fighters.”
In response, Bishop says they are “Travelers” and says, “Travelers are like, they are highly discriminated against.”
He tells how he “lived with them for a month” in Tuam, Co Galway, for a documentary about stand-up comedy “in bad areas”.
“They were great. They were great fun. But you know, like all marginalized and disadvantaged groups, they have some social problems.”
Asked: “Did they drink?” He said, “They drink a lot. They become violent when they drink. They are kind of feudal, so they have a lot of fights. They are kind of tribal, I should say, so they have a lot of fights, so when families turn against each other it can be quite bloody and violent. But not so much with pistols, but with axes and machetes and so on ”.
Describing the community as “rude” and “paranoid,” he said “there is a lot of inbreeding.”
“Just like the First Communion for Travelers is kind of amazing. Horse drawn carriages, the children are all arranged. They spend, and it’s funny because everyone is on social welfare, people say that everyone is on social welfare, but they spend a lot of money on their communion dresses. When asked if they are poor, he responds: “Well, in quotation marks, ‘they are poor’, yes.”
At another point, Bishop says he “always stands up” for travelers, adding that they are “hated” by the Irish, calling it “irrational” and “classic” racism.
The interview resurfaced after being posted by traveling comedian Martin Beanz Ward, with the comment: “I am asking you to publicly apologize to my community. No cancellations or blacklists, just an opportunity to learn and grow. “
Bernard Joyce, director of the Irish Travelers Movement, described Bishop’s comments as “shocking, degrading and racist” and added that they caused harm both then and now “in the community, which is unacceptable.” An unqualified apology to travelers experiencing widespread racism would go some way to making it right. “
Martin Collins, co-editor of Pavee Point, said the comments were “absolutely appalling.”
He said: “Of course they are racist and of course you should apologize. However, there are some Travelers, who work in the arts, who inadvertently cause harm also when they use stereotypes from their own community. “
Bishop, despite repeated requests for a response through his agent for more than a week, did not provide any comment. Sirius XM did not respond to The Irish Times.
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