Liberal rule through non‐liberal means: The attempted settlement of Irish travellers (1955–1975)

Abstract

In 1963, after the publication of the Report of the Commission on Itinerancy, the Irish Government embarked on a national programme for the ‘settlement’, ‘assimilation’ and ‘rehabilitation’ of Irish Travellers. This paper is concerned with the power effects of discourses both driving and mobilised by the Report and with how liberal forms of thought and political rationality have considered the treatment of individuals and groups considered to be without the ‘attributes of juridical and political responsibility’ (Dean, 1999:134). The paper describes how Traveller society was ‘imagined’ and reconstructed during this period through elite discourse and the use of statistical inscriptions; how these mechanisms of representation facilitated and legitimated intervention into their everyday lives, rendered Travellers visible and permitted their characterisation as a ‘group’, a ‘community’ in need of reform.

Key index words:

• Irish Travellers
• govemmentality
• bio‐politics
• settlement