Online auction house eBay was facing criticism today over an attempt to sell violent footage of bare knuckle Traveller fights in Ireland.
The shocking camcorder footage is on sale to the highest bidder on the world-famous website.
Some DVDs advertised in recent weeks were billed as a “must-have piece of unlicensed boxing history”.
One was placed by a Northern Irish vendor, who said it contained “hard-hitting action within the Travelling people”.
After the Belfast Telegraph alerted eBay to two of the items, they were removed from the site.
An eBay spokesperson said: “These items contravene eBay listings policy and our customer service teams ended the auctions as soon as the Belfast Telegraph alerted us to them.”
But within days, more items had been posted in fresh auctions.
One DVD advertised yesterday was described as: “Over two hours of Gypsies punching the hell out of each other and shouting stuff that you won’t be able to understand!”
A Traveller’s support group in Belfast said it did not condone the sale and was concerned that eBay could effectively be profiting from an illegal event.
Calling for eBay to vet the material sold on its site, Sinn Fein spokesperson on human rights, Catriona Ruane, said members of the Travelling community were not the only people to be exploited in this way.
A group of students in America had made a fortune selling footage worldwide of homeless people fighting on a DVD called ‘Bum Fight’, she said.
“We are against the exploitation of violence in any way,” Ms Ruane said.
“I think eBay should have more responsibility. They shouldn’t be selling racist incitement to hatred.”

Posted: 08|30|05 at 10:39 am. Filed under: Online Auctions.