Ten years on and nothing has changed

Sherrie Smith asks what has changed 10 years after a devastating fire at a Travellers site in Ireland devastated a community

Ten years after a devastating fire in Carrickmines claimed 11 lives, a new blaze at the Ver Meadows Traveller site in Hertfordshire highlights a painful cycle of inaction and neglect. Despite vows of "never again," the stories of survivors and victims reveal how little has changed.

🕯️ The Carrickmines Victims: A Legacy of Loss

The Carrickmines fire on October 10, 2015, remains one of Ireland's worst fire tragedies. Eleven people, including five children and an unborn child, lost their lives . They were:

· Willie Lynch (25), Tara Gilbert (27), and their children, Jodie (9) and Kelsey (4). Tara was 14 weeks pregnant .

· Jimmy Lynch (39), Willie's brother .

· Thomas Connors (27), Sylvia Connors (30), and their three children, Jim (5), Christy (3), and Mary (6 months) .

A decade on, the grief remains overwhelming. Ben Lynch, who lost eight family members, describes a family "left in an awful state" . Harry Gilbert, who lost his daughter Tara and two grandchildren, speaks of a pain "like someone sticking a knife in you and you're not dead" . The tragedy was compounded when Tara's twin sister, Amanda, took her own life in 2018, unable to bear the loss .

😢 The Ver Meadows Fire: A Preventable Disaster

In July 2025, a fire tore through the Ver Meadows Traveller site in Hertfordshire, destroying 15 pitches and leaving dozens of families homeless . While no lives were lost, the trauma and loss were profound.

· "I've lost everything": Ms. Cash, a single mother and resident, described the horror of watching her life burn to ashes. Her autistic 19-year-old son lost his entire collection of WWE figures, collected since he was seven. Their dogs died in the fire .

· Systemic Failures: Residents reported that the site's single fire hydrant was impossible to find, even for the fire brigade, hampering efforts to control the blaze . An independent report had previously warned Hertfordshire County Council about unsafe electrical infrastructure and a lack of basic fire safety provisions at the site, but no action was taken .

· Dangerous Overcrowding: Evidence showed caravans on the site were placed as close as 80cm apart, far below the legal requirement of six metres, creating tinderbox conditions . The council had acknowledged in a letter that "due to the shortage of available pitches, many families are 'doubled up'" .

📢 A Call to Action from Drive2Survive

The community and advocacy groups are demanding change. Drive2Survive, a collective founded by Sherrie Smith and Jake Bowrrs and others, stands in solidarity with affected families and campaigns against the systemic neglect that leads to these tragedies . They echo the call from charities that loss of life is "only a matter of time" without immediate action .

The demands are clear:

· For Local Authorities: Conduct immediate, mandatory fire safety audits of all authorized sites and fund urgent infrastructure upgrades .

· For National Government: Mandate the provision of new, culturally appropriate Traveller sites and link funding to the fulfillment of these commitments .

· For the Public: Challenge the stigma and NIMBYism that blocks new sites .

A decade of inaction since Carrickmines is a decade of complicity. The memories of those lost and the plight of those like the residents of Ver Meadows must be the catalyst for change