Double Wedding, Dale Farm community in Basildon, 2010


These photographs show a double wedding of Margaret and her brother (John) to two other Irish Travellers. Photographs of the bride (Margaret), her mother (Kathleen) and grand-mother (Margaret) were taken in their caravan after the wedding: they discuss the wedding, the customs and the preparations. The written story is the transcript of this conversation.


A subsequent visit one year later shows the couples's newborns.


The couples and their families live on Dale Farm, Britain's largest Traveller community. Kathleen McCarthy (the mother) is the vice chairperson of the Dale Farm Housing Association which for the past five years has been campaigning to save it from destruction by Basildon District Council.


The BDC have recently signed a contract with Constant & Co bailiffs to carry out a massive forced eviction operation against the 90 families at Dale Farm, who have been refused planning permission for their mobile-homes but offered no alternative - despite a legal obligation placed on the council by the Government to provide land for a minimum of 62 new caravan pitches.

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