It's very rare that you hear Social Services going after gypsy families, they certainly would need some bottle, to walk into a gypsy camp and steal their kids from under their noses!! There are good and bad in every community and the same can be said for the gypsy community. This is the true story of Mairead and Dermot who are still on the run, scared everyday that Social Services will find them and steal their kids!!
Mairead and Dermot, now 27 and 31 respectively, were born into a gypsy community, never known any other life but that. They were bluntly honest with me when I spoke with them. They told me that as kids, they had no rules, no education, were left to run wild, taught to abuse the police, went into shops stealing and they were never held accountable for anything. In our world, if we were raising our kids like that, Social Workers would swoop and remove our kids from our care for sure!
The young couple, who married when Mairead was 18, very quickly started their own family. They very quickly decided, that they didn't want their child to be raised in the same way they were, they decided to leave their community. It would take another six years and the birth of two more children, before they plucked up the courage to leave, Dermot found a normal job with a building company, Mairead stayed at home with the kids, they rented a home in the Midlands and the two eldest children started school. It all sounds rosy but it was the start of hell for the young family, they needed to make it work, there was no going back as their own community had shunned them for leaving.
When you move into a small community, you instantly stand out as being a stranger, it was exactly like that for Mairead and Dermot, for a start their accents didn't help, Irish, but definitely Gypsy Irish, they found themselves making up a back story, different to their gypsy roots. They were fully aware of the perceptions people had about gypsies. The children settled into school but it wasn't long before Mairead was called into the school because her eldest had hit another boy. Her son told her that some of the other kids had been hitting him because they had found out he was a gypsy and calling him gypsy scum, they wouldn't play with him because their parents had told them he was dirty. The school suggested that she take him home for the rest of the day. That afternoon she went back to collect her daughter, her coat was ripped and she had chewing gum in her hair, she was only 5yrs old.
That evening Mairead told Dermot what had happened, he sat his kids down and promised them things would get better. They had just sat down to dinner in the kitchen, when a brick came crashing through the living room window. Dermot ran outside, a teenager on a bike sped off down the road. Mairead wanted to call the police but Dermot didn't want to draw attention to themselves. The next night someone emptied rubbish outside their front door, then someone pushed dog poo through their letterbox the next day. The following week Mairead was called into the school again, this time she was asked to take both of her children home because they had head lice. All kids get head lice don't they??
She cleared them both and took them back to school the next day. That evening the kids came home scratching their heads, they had caught head lice again. She kept them off school the next day and cleared them again. That evening there was a knock at the door, it was a Social Worker, she told them that the school had called them, concerned that things weren't happy at home. Mairead and Dermot invited her in, which was mistake number 1, they made her a cup of tea and asked to have a look around the property. She moved from room to room, making notes and giving them the odd disapproving glance. You will be hearing from me again, she said, as she left the house.
Two evenings later she returned and brought with her two police officers and a court order. The judge had granted removal of their three children, pending a court hearing. They granted the order based on what she had written down. Mairead and Dermot were beside themselves when the kids were dragged out screaming, the Social Worker slapped a copy of the order in Dermot's hand, Dermot was threatened with arrest if he didn't calm down. The next day they sought legal advice, the solicitor was very sympathetic and made some calls on their behalf. She found out that the kids had been placed with an emergency foster carer and requested a copy of the paperwork from Social Services. She promised to get it back into court as soon as possible, for now, they were only allowed to see the kids for an hour per day, in a contact centre.
One week later they were in court, their solicitor requested that the children be returned to Mairead and Dermot. She told the judge that the court order to remove the kids was unwarranted and because of their gypsy roots they had purposely been persecuted by Social Workers, the school and some people in the local neighbourhood!
The Social Worker stood up and said she had visited their home, she found a boarded up window (brick through the window), dirty pots all over the kitchen (they had just cooked a meal) messy bedrooms (normal for kids), she said Dermot had a nasty temper (she was stealing his kids) and that the kids school clothes were scruffy (bullied at school), she also said that it was the parents responsibility to clear head lice in the evening, not keep them off school to do it.
The judge sided with Mairead and Dermot, he could find no merit in the order, and told Social Services to return the children to their home. He ordered a home visit by Social Services once a month. That night they packed the car up with a few belongings and ran. They didn't want to be put through that again and were sure that things would only get worse!! They are now living in rural Ireland, I spoke to them last month on the phone, all they wanted was to be accepted and to give their kids a normal life and education. They have been shunned by their families for leaving their community, they won't return to the UK for fear of Social Workers taking their children again.
Image Sources:-
Image 1 - https://pixabay.com/en/caravan-gypsy-hair-travel-bohemia-1147978/
Image 2 - https://pixabay.com/en/heart-love-sunset-the-sun-sky-3147976/
Image 3 - https://pixabay.com/en/shouting-angry-face-woman-scary-1719492/
Image 4 - https://pixabay.com/en/judge-power-court-trial-anger-2831353/