• Image search – Recherche d’images
  • La Boutique VU’
  • Galerie VU’
  • Contacts
  • Newsletter
  • English
    • French
  • Français Français French fr
  • English English English en
Agence VU'
  • Photographers
  • Series
  • Portraitists
  • Exhibitions
  • Corporate & Ads
    • Productions
    • Corporate photographers
    • Instagram
    • About
  • Education
    • VU’ Education
    • Mentorat Fonds Régnier pour la Création
    • Information & Registration
  • News
  • Menu Menu

Series


Outlaws, 1999

Rip Hopkins

The Irish State has long seen the Traveller’s existence as a problem. The local authorities try to assimilate them into society by giving them housing and education, assaulting and meat mincing them to a point where Travelers are ambiguous about their own identity. Undermined by their settlement, facing extreme brutality by the State on a daily basis, the Travellers are impoverished both psychologically and economically.

Irish Travellers formerly travelled in rural areas and performed a variety of trades and services, most notably tinsmithing, horse-dealing and peddling, living in tents and horse-drawn waggons. Today concentrated around Dublin they are the last indigenous itinerant group left in Europe. They now tow their caravans with cars and work mainly in the scrap metal trade but they persist in keeping horses even though they have little commercial value because they represent the waning Travelers cultural identity and the symbol of what little freedom they have left. Now the authorities are taking that too.

The Control of Horses Act was passed in 1996 and has since been enforced in Dublin and its surrounding areas: The Dublin City Control Area. Under the Act every owner must obtain a license for his horse, where a microchip for identification purposes is implanted in its ear. To obtain this license the owner must pay an annual fee and each horse must have at least half an acre of grazing land and a stable. Even for settled Travellers it is very difficult to fulfill these criteria. If these requirements are not met the local authorities confiscate the horse and if a license is not obtained within a certain delay, the horse is either sold on or, if nobody wants to buy it, it is put down.

Resulting from the defiance of the Horses Act, Sulky racing or Trotting has become extremely popular amongst Traveller groups in the Dublin region. These races are illegal so their venue is kept secret up until the last minute, held early in the morning or late at night on a two mile stretch of main road somewhere in the Dublin region. The races have become the main social venues for Dublin’s Traveller communities, where a winning horse can earn its owner up to £20,000. For many this is the Traveller’s last stand, struggling against odds to overcome a disastrous economic situation, trying to hold onto their horses, up against an imposed integration where their culture and identity are at stake.


ARCHIVES CONTACT


—

Hôtel Paul Delaroche
58 rue Saint Lazare, 75009 Paris
+33 1 53 01 85 85




—

Archive Database
VU' Education
La Boutique VU'
VU' La Galerie



—

Where About photographers
About
Contacts
Newsletter



—

facebook twitter instagram youtube linkedin
© Agence VU' - Abvent Group 2022 - Mentions légales

    This site uses cookies. If you accept them, Agence VU’ can collect statistical and anonymous data to analyse its audience behaviour. More Information

    AcceptDeclined

    Cookie and Privacy Settings



    How we use cookies

    We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

    Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

    Essential Website Cookies

    These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

    Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refuseing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

    We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

    We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

    Google Analytics Cookies

    These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you in order to enhance your experience.

    If you do not want that we track your visit to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here:

    Other external services

    We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

    Google Webfont Settings:

    Google Map Settings:

    Google reCaptcha Settings:

    Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

    Other cookies

    The following cookies are also needed - You can choose if you want to allow them:

    Scroll to top