We have recently begun to rethink our understanding of history, particularly in relation to justice and injustice. This reconsideration of the old binaries of “right versus wrong” or “might versus right” has enabled us both to embrace groups previously ignored or disregarded and to criticize the governing bodies responsible for the discriminatory practices against them. Indeed, instead of lionizing the colonists, as my father's history books had done, my social studies books taught our generation to question the “heroic” decisions of the decision makers. We learned, for example, that when faced with indigenous groups with differing customs, languages, and, in some cases, physical features, the colonizing forces often reacted to them (Native Americans, Aborigines, Maori, etc.) inappropriately with fear and suspicion, immediately labeling them as “other” and, therefore, inferior. Further, in more cases than not, those colonizers embarked on campaigns of government-sanctioned racism and discrimination, effectually limiting the rights of the people that they considered “other.” In the case of Ireland, however, we saw a situation where the seemingly powerless colonized shifted that balance of power and proved the new worldview, that justice could win out over injustice. Given its colonized history, it is therefore surprising that Ireland continued the colonizer's pattern of “othering” of marginalized groups, such as with the Irish Travellers, when given the chance to govern itself.

An obvious question asked by anyone interested in the plight of Travellers is why have Travellers been denied the same rights as other Irish citizens? Moreover, what is it—stereotype, gossip, fear—that incites so much animosity toward Travellers from the non-Traveller population? These questions demand answers, particularly when one considers that most “settled” people in Ireland will have little to no interpersonal contact with Travellers in their lifetime, simply because of the scant numbers of the Traveller population. Indeed, in her book Becoming Conspicuous: Irish Travellers, Society and the State, 1922–1970, Aoife Bhreatnach maintains that “[reliable] figures on the size of the minority population were not deemed important until 2002, when Travellers could describe themselves in the census, producing a figure of 23,700 people, just 0.6 percent of the total Irish population” (149). And while this seems a miniscule number, the legend of the Traveller looms large in Irish imagination. Indeed, while often the subject of gossip and media attention, Travellers have also been featured positively in the works of many “settled” authors, including Lady Gregory and John M. Synge. Sadly, many other depictions have reinforced negative stereotypes of Travellers and serve to reflect the overwhelming racist attitudes against them in Irish society. As is the case with many marginalized groups, the myths—positive and negative—abounding about Travellers often overshadow the stark reality. Aoife Bhreatnach's Becoming Conspicuous: Irish Travellers, Society and the State, 1922–1970 and Michael Hayes's Irish Travellers: Representations and Realities prove that while often the subject of fascination, derision, and scrutiny, Irish Travellers have endured great social and governmental injustice while simply attempting to pursue their chosen lifestyle.

Because both Bhreatnach and Hayes study a population that is often at the center of both fanciful and negative stereotype (think of the seductive “Tinker” girl in The Field who speaks to both), each author attempts to provide unbiased analyses of the Travellers themselves and the society surrounding them in order to separate fact from fiction. Bhreatnach's text is comprehensive and academic in nature and “is the first attempt to assess the historical relationship between Ireland's indigenous nomadic minority and the housed populations” (2). Bhreatnach's study is a primer of sorts for anyone new to the topic of Irish Travellers in the Republic of Ireland, for it carefully and systematically details all important government actions in relation to Travellers from 1922 to 1970.

A seasoned scholar and writer, Bhreatnach anticipates the needs of her reader by providing pertinent background information enabling her to better understand the position of Travellers in twentieth-century Irish society. Indeed, the first three chapters discuss the definition of Irish Travellers (including their differences from Gypsies/Anglo-Romanies and homeless or vagrant people) and the problems incurred by Travellers when the government increased its intervention into the lives of Ireland's citizens. Although the majority population thrived under the new laws implemented by the state, such as the School Attendance Act, which dictated mandatory schooling for children aged 6–14, and the Acquisition of Derelict Sites Act (1940), which enabled the state to clear out slum areas in order to create modern housing, Travellers found the new improvements difficult to bear: they depended upon the income generated by their children, now lost as a consequence of mandatory schooling, and were evicted from the “derelict sites” that they had often frequented (45, 59). Clearly, the Traveller way of life was not considered (or considered favorably) when the government began its program of modernization. This hypothesis proves true in the fourth chapter, where Bhreatnach details the way that Travellers were ignored by governmental agencies that regulated the state services that may have helped them, such as welfare benefits and health and educational services. Chapters 5 and 6 detail the circumstances surrounding the creation of the Committee on Itinerancy and the repercussions of The Report of the Commission on Itinerancy (1963) that ensued, which was “the first government report on Travellers [and is] an excellent example of the tendency of government to problematise individuals or groups” (3). Her conclusion and epilogue revisit the previous chapters and summarize the important events in Traveller history since 1970. By combining a wealth of governmental, historical, and personal sources, Bhreatnach constructs a seminal text that fills a void too long left open in Irish Studies. With an assiduous attention to detail and a riveting writing style, Bhreatnach's book details the ramifications of the momentous social changes that swept through Ireland post-Independence on Traveller life.

Michael Hayes's study takes a different approach, as his “book attempts to trace the evolution of a discourse of Otherness concerning the figure of the Traveller in Irish popular tradition and interweaves this discourse with academic knowledge and theorisation of Travellers as it has evolved in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries” (1). Therefore, Hayes aims to prove that Travellers are, indeed, “othered” in Irish society, positing reasons for this alienation, while Bhreatnach considers this “othering” a given and proceeds from there. Hayes begins his examination in the nineteenth century, detailing the development of the critical interest in Irish Travellers and Gypsies (carefully articulating the differences between the two groups) throughout that decade and into the twentieth century. Throughout this section, Hayes utilizes ethnicity theory to stress the idea that Travellers are a distinctive ethnic group. This notion is controversial because by applying a new ethnicity to a group of people who are, historically, Irish in origin, Hayes, with help from a multitude of theorists, redefines the common connotation of ethnicity (47–57). Ironically, by positing a redefinition of ethnicity, Hayes himself effectually contributes to the “othering” of Irish Travellers.

The next portion of the text delves into Hayes's primary thesis and demonstrates the ways that the Travellers have been “othered” by the non-Traveller community, particularly targeting the “settled” community's distrust of the Travellers’ nomadic lifestyle and seeming poverty as well as their belief that that Travellers “dropped-out” of “settled” society by choice (59–142). In the midst of these chapters, Hayes foreshadows the most interesting section of the book, the portion dedicated to detailing then deconstructing the stereotypes prevalent in Irish society about the Travellers, including the charges that they “were said to be uneducated, stupid, sexually lax, and prone to laziness, criminality and violence” (115). After the myriad theories proposed in the first sections of the book, this portion is refreshingly free of secondary sources and instead depends on primary sources, actual Traveller voices, to disprove the damaging stereotypes about Travellers that abound in Irish society. Indeed, in this section Hayes provides a wonderfully engaging and intelligent discussion about the various uninformed views bandied about in regard to Travellers in popular culture, ranging from allegations of child stealing to accusations of “sexual immorality” (147–51, 213). In order to counter these charges, Hayes carefully and systematically provides primary sources that refute these stereotypes, demonstrating to the reader that rather than stealing children, Travellers often accepted unwanted children from “settled” families, thus rescuing them from untold misery (147–51). Moreover, the charge of sexual immorality proves just as ridiculous as child snatching, for Hayes documents many primary sources stressing the importance of chastity and fidelity in the Traveller community (213–22). The final chapters consider the current state of Traveller criticism and Traveller advocacy, providing a bit of optimism for the future of Traveller and non-Traveller relations.

Overall, Hayes's text is markedly different in style and purpose than Bhreatnach's book and, unfairly, suffers in comparison. If a reader is looking to supplement her knowledge base on this subject and is searching for various theories to explain the discrimination faced by Travellers (which is, to be sure, Hayes's purpose), Hayes's Irish Travellers: Representations and Realities does this superbly. If, however, one is reading Hayes's book to get a basic understanding of the plight of Irish Travellers in Irish society, I believe that she might be disappointed. Indeed, while Bhreatnach's text demonstrates a confident ethos reinforced by her constant anticipation of readers’ questions and concerns, thus reflecting her strong scholarly background, Hayes's text suffers from a confusing and often frustrating organizational pattern, frequent repetition of material (to the point of irritation), and verbosity. I would recommend Bhreatnach's Becoming Conspicuous: Irish Travellers, Society and the State, 1922–1970 without reservation to any Irish Studies class, for it is an excellent analysis of both the societal changes in the Republic since Independence and the situation of Travellers in this new climate.