rahoonery

R1A1H4O1O1N1E1R1Y4

noun

Violently anti-Traveller sentiment and action.

Scrabble 15

Meanings

nounrahoonery (uncountable)
  1. IrelanduncountableViolently anti-Traveller sentiment and action.
    1 more example

    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.

    1986, Sharon Gmelch, Nan: The Life of an Irish Travelling Woman (Biography), →ISBN, page 237

Origin

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

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

rahoonery. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rahoonery

MLA

“rahoonery.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rahoonery. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “rahoonery,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rahoonery.

Source: rahoonery on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.