“It’s Fine To Discriminate Against Irish Travellers” | Pontins Racism Row

pontin the Holiday Camp has been found to racially discriminate against Irish travelers the company known for offering cheap domestic holidays has been found guilty of multiple instances of race discrimination including creating a list of common Irish surnames that were labeled undesirable guests staff were told to decline or Council bookings made under those names which included o Connell oonah Hugh but not oan so Kevin you get away with it you can still go pontins was also criticized for requiring their guests to appear on the Electoral register a practice which was found to be discriminatory against Gypsies and travelers just just like we were speaking about there it's it's the same it's the same and dare I say it with Travelers and gypsies it's an acceptable form of racism like because they're white it's okay but actually this would be totally unacceptable if they had a list and they said no black guests no muslim guests but you it's fine to discriminate against Irish travelers well I think they knew it wasn't this has been Travy by way by the way these names all of these names O'Brien oon o Donal oonu ommani O'Reilly and then lots of other names as as you quite rightly indicate I'm a bit I'm feeling a bit left out what's wrong with o solivan but apparently O Sullivan is never a traveler name but all these names that not to say that all oon are travelers all these names are common traveler names this must be against the law uh you cannot just say you can't come here because you're here's here's here's the thing here's what I'm not I'm certainly not going to defend what they have done here but I think there is a bit of an explanation I think um I mean first they haven't done this in a vacuum they've done this C they would clearly argue even if they couldn't say it out loud that they have done this for a reason there is some experience that they've had they've done for a reason when I was 17 18 I worked at pontins as a a little blue coat doing all that kind of you know stuff you do as a BL it was great fun it was do you do as a g Entertainer well not really that up I didn't have a I didn't have a discernable Talent nothing's changed there not but they had troubles with certain groups of guests now I didn't know at the time who they were referring to they just used to say every couple of weeks a certain group shows up they probably weren't Irish travelers I have no idea who they were I just remember that it was all everybody was on right remember this group they came last year or they came at the beginning of the season it's now the end they always come back twice they're going to be here there's going to be 50 of them they will kick off they'll act as if they're the only people on the Holiday Camp they won't obey by any of the rules they'll get drunk Chalet will get smashed up now I don't remember the detail of it other than thinking as a seven blim me who that what a wild w what the hell's going on and certain groups would turn up and show up I never correlated it with being any particular group I didn't know maybe I wasn't old enough to take notice but that's where I think that's what I think they've certain group up whether they're Irish English whatever they happen to be certain groups show up and they have a problem with it and they're trying to identify in that case there is another way of dealing with everybody which is the same which is do you say um like some in fact some American companies do where they take your credit card and they say we are taking your credit card number right now and we will take off this amount of money off it and then if you leave and everything is okay that money will just be be clear will put be put back on and you do is make sure that it's in but it wasn't just about as I remember it wasn't just about you know somebody nicking towels or smashing the sink up it was about a general kind of feel of intimidation of other guests some groups you put you know if you put an entire group of I don't know you know football fans of a particular Club all wearing the same shirts all sitting there chanting every night at the bar then that's that's it was that kind of thing they were dealing with whatever group it was I would say again is in that case deal with it deal with when it happens and go this is extremely clumsy as well I me this is a this is a code for travelers can't come they can't say that so they come up with all these names and I'm sure there'll be plenty of oconnell and o'donal's who could sue Pon in saying I'm not a traveler you know why can't I come to you you know funny would it to have a holiday camp in Britain in England and say Here's a band named Smith I mean penny that Penny would be worth I would if if they come up with a list saying anyone called starma or sunac then fair you can go fair enough I know what they're doing here I think we can all applaud that but then they've also said um to get around this that they're saying you have to be on the Electoral register not yeah precisely but your thing about the credit card I mean most hotels do that right they hold a PL on your credit card that's I was just but I was I was thinking of how much you'd have to take off in American seem to take they they take off a grand I think it was last time a long time ago but in terms of intimidation as you saying col there's no way of stopping that really correct well there is you just get more get more security for goodness sake what