NEW research has revealed that the health needs of the Irish community in Britain are being ignored.
This is despite Irish Travellers having some of the poorest health of any ethnic minority community in the country.
The research, a collaboration between the Irish in Britain organisation and the Race Equality Foundation, found that Irish people are not being viewed as a separate ethnicity in Britain.
“Because of the tendency to only view ethnicity in terms of skin colour, health inequalities experienced by the Irish community and persisting into the third generation in Britain are largely invisible,” author Mary Tilki said.
Despite making up 1 per cent of the population of Britain – and some 2.2 per cent of the London population – health concerns specific to the Irish community slip under the radar.
Two such illnesses are cancer and dementia – particularly in the older community.
However, the most immediate concern to emerge from the report was the health of the Irish Traveller community.
“Gypsy and Irish Travellers aged 50 and over have the highest levels of limiting long-term illness and ‘bad’ or ‘very bad’ health in England,” the report states.
Evidence also suggested that Irish Travellers experience unusually high levels of early onset dementia.
Isolation was found to be the biggest contributing factor to the ill-health of the Irish in Britain, with many older Irish people living alone already susceptible to dementia and other age-related illnesses.
Meanwhile, many Irish Traveller communities keep to themselves, the result of which is a general lack of knowledge about the symptoms and dangers of cancer and dementia.
While it is predicted both diseases will remain significant risks for the foreseeable future, the research recommends that public health interventions be introduced as a matter of urgency for the Irish and Irish Traveller communities’ health.
