rahoonery

English

Etymology

Derived from the suburb of Rahoon in Galway where residents expelled Travellers from their camp by force in 1969; +‎ -ery.

Noun

rahoonery (uncountable)

1. (Ireland) Violently anti-Traveller sentiment and action.
   • 1986, Sharon Gmelch, Nan: The Life of an Irish Travelling Woman (Biography), →ISBN, page 237:

     In a widely publicized incident in 1968, residents of Rahoon, a housing estate on the outskirts of Galway City, picketed a proposed official campsite in their area and forced the city to abandon work on it. A year later, a group of residents still angry because several Traveller families remained camped near the abandoned site armed themselves with sticks and attacked the families. They uprooted tents and physically pushed the Travellers and their belongings into the street. The incident gave rise to a new word in the national lexicon, "rahoonery," meaning violently anti-Traveller sentiment and action.