The Irish Traveler community dates back to the 1700s. They are an odd bunch, Gypsy like, with their legal own code, language, hierarchy and culture. There are Irish Traveler communities throughout Europe and the United States. They have just 
successfully claimed real Irish ancestry with the Irish government, proving Irish origins.
Their specialty is crime, there is really no other way to put it, and they travel the country preying on the naïve, the elderly and the innocent.
Chances are you have had an encounter with someone in the Irish Traveler community; they offer to fix your roof, or patch your driveway, or do odd jobs for hefty fees, and then they are gone. Some are also involved in the drug trade as dealers. They drive cars with out-of-state or no licensing and generally drift from place to place.
There is little romance to their lives. In fact, the average age within the various communities is about 39. The women and children have higher than normal mortality rates. The children are not educated. They are an anachronism to present day society and as tragic as they are “colorful.” As scam artists, some of the Irish Travelers live a very wealthy appearing life-style. They have made their money based on all kinds of fraud. Other Travelers live in trailer parks and out of cars.
Murphy Village
One community of Irish Travelers exists in South Carolina in an area called Murphy Village. It is not a quaint Irish village, but an odd collection of domiciles from mansion-like homes to ramshackle trailers.
However, the latest scandal involving the Irish Travelers was created by someone outside the community, a physician by the name of Fred Gilliard.
Gilliard has just pleaded guilty to providing the South Carolina Irish Travelers community with prescriptions for opioids. In writing the fake prescriptions, Fred Gilliard is responsible for the distribution of oxycodone. The drug is sold throughout the Murphy Village community. He is responsible for “hooking” many patients in the area on the drug, and he is also charged with asking his female patients for sex.
Gilliard is no choir boy. He has previously served time for illegal distribution of drugs and now, billing fraud through Medicare. In his rather strange association with the Irish Travelers, he has managed to up the ante of the cycle of fraud within the community. If members of the community are “crooked,” Gilliard has raised them to a new and troubling level.
Irish Traveler – No Code
It is arguable that as twisted as their code of ethics may be, the Irish Travelers are head and shoulders above Fred Gilliard. There was a time when the physician actually subscribed to the Hippocratic Oath. The “Oath” passed him by many years ago.
How could this happen? How could a doctor who apparently specialized in the treatment of addictions fall to the depths of opioid distribution? In truth, the same enticements to commit fraud that a business person or an association member may have, was just as applicable to Gilliard.
His rationalization for his actions may have been borne out of bias. It is possible that within his way of thinking was the fact that he saw the Irish Traveler community as inherently illegal and unethical, and in his mind, it made no difference that he was also addicting them to opioids. This is the worst kind of bias; characterizing an entire community as unsalvageable or incapable of being shown compassion. There are many tragic examples of such bias throughout history.
Gilliard also saw an opportunity. He was dealing with people within an insular community who “wouldn’t rat” on him. He had something (a medical license) that they needed. If they turned him in, they would lose the Golden Goose to generate more prescriptions – and more money.
Finally, Gilliard had the need to make more money. Need is a very powerful motivator. He was 76, low on funds and had to bring in more income. He didn’t write the prescriptions out of the goodness of his heart. He got paid to do it.
Who needs ethics training? Virtually every professional segment of our society and more so, the professions (such as medicine) that believe their training has made them resistant to temptation.
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