Shirenewton Irish traveller campsite, South Wales
There is generally a stigma associated to those from Irish Traveller backgrounds. For example, on my third day as the Wicketz Development Officer for South Wales in June 2021, I joined a South Wales police engagement/outreach session hosted at the Shirenewton Irish Traveller campsite in Cardiff. After 10 minutes, a large group of men from a nearby campsite arrived looking to settle a feud between two families.
Thankfully the police officers I was with on the day were able to call for assistance and diffuse the situation before anything more could happen. Under police advice, Wicketz took a step back from delivering on the site to allow for tensions between families to die down. Fast forward two years and South Wales police deemed tensions to have fallen to an acceptable level for community projects to return to the site.
Wicketz has recently begun running weekly taster sessions in a small MUGA on the campsite itself, next door to the council building. We would’ve started sooner, but with there only being a small outdoor area available on site, the weather got the better of us.
I want to stress that this activity is very much a work in progress and dependant on the environment being safe enough for community projects to come in and run safe and effective sessions.
The point of this project is to encourage younger participants to make friends their own age from outside their community in an effort to try and keep them in primary and secondary education for as long as possible.
Boys will generally drop out of primary education by Year 6 and the girls will be lucky to make it to Year 9. By getting them involved in the local Wicketz programme we are hoping we can encourage them to stay in education for that little bit longer. With some Maths and English GCSE’s being available as early as Year 9 in some cases, we’re not trying to completely change the normal life of someone from a traveller community, but just leave the door ajar for other opportunities later in life if they choose to go another path.
The project in partnership with South Wales Police is also a platform for officers linked to the campsite to rebuild functional relationships with the families living on site. Prior to Covid-19 there was a relatively good relationship between plot owners on the site and the police. Since then, given new guidelines and a handful of police sting operations in 2021, this relationship had broken down. But Wicketz is helping to bring the coummunity together.
Sessions have been running for just over a month, with numbers as high 15 attending any one point. I would also stress that these sessions are not your stereotypical ‘Wicketz’ sessions, there have been a couple examples of farm animals stopping play as well as some pretty intense sparring on the pitch…
Wicketz are not personally in contact with the families as Cardiff Council are used as middlemen to pass on session information/opportunities. From what Cardiff Council have passed on there is a little bit of traction already behind the idea of some of the younger participants getting involved in the Llanrumney hub on a temporary basis. Moreover the idea of helping these young people get themselves a Maths or English GCSE is something that parents have also brought up.
This is very much uncharted territory for Wicketz in South Wales. The ideal future would be a small number of participants becoming full members of the Llanrumney hub over the summer break. With these participants making friends and learning, encouraging them to stay in the education system for as long as possible. There would also be a far better relationship between the campsite and local police officers.
Last updated April 2023