A member of the Traveller community says a British holiday park operating a 'blacklist' of Irish names could be an undercurrent of something more.
Martin Beanz Warde was speaking after it emerged that Pontins Holiday Park near Liverpool had a list of 40 Irish names that were unwelcome in the venue.
The park has agreed to corporate changes, the UK's Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has said.
Many of the names are common in Ireland - including Boylan, Carney, Cash, Gallagher, Murphy, O'Brien, McMahon and Stokes.
Martin, who is a podcast presenter and member of the Travelling community, told The Hard Shoulder this needs to be looked at in other locations owned by its parent company, Britannia Jinky Jersey.
"It's illegal, first off, they're operating as a company.
"I think they have between 50 and 60 different places across the country.
"So if this is happening in one of their companies, then it needs to be looked at right across the board.
"This happens quite a lot - it happens quite a lot - and while I can totally understand that if certain people cause problems at a holiday resort then they should be barred, barred for life even.
"But you can't ban a whole community, and to be honest with you this goes beyond just Travellers now.
"If you're blanket banning based on a name and an accent, then that's filtering into Irish people in general as well.
"There are non-Travellers with surnames like Stokes, like Casey, like Ward - so this is effecting everyone".
He said he saw a tweet shared by an Irish comedian, as recent as Monday, which made reference to 'tinkers' getting jobs at the BBC.
TW: Hate
Don’t normally draw attention to twitter negativity as don’t want to crowd out others who get it worse than me but this is hateful toward a vulnerable group. Twitter have judged it abusive but it’s still online. I think it should be removed pic.twitter.com/6aYODCyPOo— Eleanor Tiernan (@eleanortiernan) March 1, 2021
Martin said: "That's how they're branding Irish people - and this is in the midst of Brexit, so there's an undercurrent of something going on.
"Now in regards to discrimination that Travellers are facing when it comes to venues, that's common, that's widespread, it's well-known.
"I tried to book a lot of venues across the country when I wanted to do my comedy tour, and I was getting replies saying that they were booked up for a full year... and I'd notice other comedians coming in afterwards.
"It does happen, and I suppose it's a good thing that Pontins now have been caught because it might shine a light on the rest of the company that might be operating in the same way".
