All Eyes on Murphy Village - Metro Spirit
Interesting history of Travellers/Gypsies and curious story of South Carolina CPS removing children from young Traveller mothers:
When the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office requested the public’s assistance this past week in locating two missing juveniles from Murphy Village in North Augusta, it got a lot of attention.
The two missing girls are both underage. One girl is 15-year-old Josie Mulholland, who may also go by Josie O’Hara. The other missing girl is Josie’s infant daughter, 11-month-old Saylor Mulholland.
Authorities believe the Irish Travellers
living in Murphy Village could possibly be hiding the juvenile girls due to recent actions by the South Carolina Department of Social Services.
Just last month, the South Carolina Department of Social Services removed six young girls, ages ranging from 6 to 13, from their parents’ custody. One of the girls has been returned to her parents, but the other five remain in state custody.
The children were allegedly removed during the middle of the school day from Our Lady of Peace Catholic School by DSS.
While DSS says it cannot publicly comment on the case involving the children, many local residents believe that the agency is looking into allegations that these young girls were already being groomed for the Irish Travellers’ custom of arranged marriages.
Some have gone further to suggest that the state is looking into allegations of sexual abuse.
The Irish Travellers themselves insist such allegations are completely false and they have posted dozens of yard signs along Highway 25 demanding that their children be returned.
“We’d rather not be called gypsies, but it’s lost its sting, its meaning. It’s not particularly offensive anymore.”
— Julie, an Irish Traveller
The red and white yard signs read “Free Our Kids,” and “Legal Kidnapping.” Other signs read “D.S.S. Stole Our Daughters” and “D.S.S. Out of Control.”
Murphy Village’s accusations against DSS, along with the recent indictment of about 20 Irish Travellers in North Augusta regarding a federal fraud case, has once again turned the spotlight on Murphy Village.
While some residents may point to a 2012 episode of TLC’s “My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding” that was filmed in North Augusta as an example of life in Murphy Village, like most reality shows on television, it was a bit misleading.
The show involved Tamara and Bill McKown, a couple who was married in 2011 in North Augusta. But Tamara McKown was a non-Traveller from Tennessee, so it really wasn’t your typical Irish Traveller wedding.
However, there have been several individuals over the years who have studied the secluded Murphy Village community in in an attempt to learn more about its secretive culture.
One such person is Crystan LaTorah Dowds of Duke University’s Department of Cultural Anthropology, who also happens to be a native Augustan.
In 2013, Dowds wrote a fascinating thesis while studying at Duke called, “Denouncing White Privilege and Re-examining Marginality: Productions and Consequences of Difference between Travelers and non-Travelers in North Augusta, S.C.”
In the thesis, Dowds wrote that she took a medical leave of absence from Duke several years ago and spent time with relatives who lived off Highway 25 in North Augusta.
Her relatives are not Irish Travellers, but she had an opportunity to closely observe the relationship between those living in Murphy Village and North Augusta residents that she described as “non-Travellers.”
Dowds’ thesis is particularly interesting because it is written from a local person’s point of view after spending a significant amount of time in North Augusta near Murphy Village.
She was also able to convince two Irish Travellers to participate in candid interviews about Murphy Village.
Dowds began her thesis explaining that she took a job in 2011 near Highway 25 and was surprised about how quickly the topic of Irish Traveller came up in conversation among her fellow employees.
“So, Crystan, where you from?” she wrote that her co-workers asked.
“When we have our little girls all dressed up for a party, and we go out in public, to a restaurant or something, I’m embarrassed.”
— Susan, an Irish Traveller