Eviction

Irish Travellers are an indigenous ethnic nomadic group, and mostly identify as Catholic. Originally metalworkers, their origins are largely unknown but their DNA suggests that they have been distinct from the settled Irish community for at least 1000 years. There are around 15,000 Irish Travellers living in the UK and they are largely ostracised from wider society as well as experiencing cultural discrimination. Dale Farm was the largest Travellers’ site in Essex, and half of the site had been illegally inhabited. Basildon council said they wanted to evict the families living on the land illegally, and return the site to open land, which would take several weeks. The £8.4 million eviction of around 100 families from their homes included more than 100 riot police, 200 bailiffs, 34 arrests and a whole day forcibly removing residents and human rights activists. 9 years later the site is still derelict, full of debris and overgrown; and the traveller families now live on the side of the road leading up to the site.