CONTESTED CHILDHOOD - THE DISCOURSE AND POLITICS OF TRAVELER CHILDHOOD IN IRELAND

This article examines discourses of childhood drawn from press reports , parliamentary debates and government-sponsored reports concerning th e Travelling People, an indigenous ethnic minority population in Irela nd. Discourses of childhood are located within a changing Irish politi cal economy and shifting Traveller-related policy. The case study reve als how discourses of childhood articulate with, and often reinforce, inferiorizing discourses of racism, gender and class. It is argued tha t critical analyses of the discourses of childhood can simultaneously challenge naturalized constructions of 'the child' and other discourse s of social inequality.