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Hidden World Of Girls

For traveller women in ireland, life is changing.

The Kitchen Sisters

Second of a yearlong series

Helen Connors (right), who is part of a Traveller family, says she started school when she was 4 years old. But the community didn't take Traveller girls very seriously — and she says she was called a "knacker" and a "pikey." Nikki Silva hide caption

Helen Connors (right), who is part of a Traveller family, says she started school when she was 4 years old. But the community didn't take Traveller girls very seriously — and she says she was called a "knacker" and a "pikey."

Travellers, "the people of walking," are often referred to as the Gypsies of Ireland. Mistrusted for the most part, their traditions and lifestyle are not well understood within the larger culture. Historically, they were nomads who moved in caravans and lived in encampments on the side of the road. Their tradition as "tinkers" or tinsmiths, and as the breeders and traders of some of Ireland's best horses, goes back hundreds of years.

As times change in Ireland and the notions of private and public space change and contract, the culture no longer accepts the Travellers on public and private lands and has begun to create "halts" where they can settle.

Helen Connors, 21, lives in Hazel Hill, a new government experiment in Traveller housing on the lower slopes of Dublin Mountain, with her husband and two children.

"Travellers got their name because they're so fond of traveling around the world in a caravan," she says. "They'd have their wagons and their horses. You'd see them along the roadside. You could be in Dublin today; you could be in Cork tomorrow. That's how Travellers got their name. We call you 'settled people.' "

"Travelling girls don't really mix much with settled girls," says Shirley Martin, a 23-year-old mother of three. "The way of living, caravans, by the side of the road. A come and go thing. My family is a Travelling family."

Life In School Hard For Travellers

There are similarities between Traveller and Romany Gypsy culture, but Travellers do not define themselves as Romany, says Mary Burke, associate professor of Irish literature at the University of Connecticut.

For many generations, Travellers -- the nomadic, indigenous Irish minority -- provided services to an Ireland that was predominantly agricultural: seasonal farm labor, tinsmithing, horse-trading, hawking, music and entertainment.

The Irish government is experimenting with housing for Travellers — the Gypsies of Ireland — on the lower slopes of Dublin Mountain. The houses are called "halts." Today, the majority of Travellers either live in houses permanently or live in houses at certain times of the year. Gerry O'Leary hide caption

The Irish government is experimenting with housing for Travellers — the Gypsies of Ireland — on the lower slopes of Dublin Mountain. The houses are called "halts." Today, the majority of Travellers either live in houses permanently or live in houses at certain times of the year.

In the early days Travellers moved from place to place with horses and carts. British Romany introduced Travellers to wagons. The wagons were overtaken by caravans, and the caravans were overtaken by mobile homes. But today the majority of Travellers either live in houses permanently or live in houses at certain times of the year.

"But that doesn't mean that prejudice or identity disappear when they settle in houses," Burke says.

Connors started school when she was about 4 years old. She says the community didn't take educating Traveller girls very seriously.

"I didn't learn very much in school because I was bullied a lot," Connors says. "You were a 'knacker' or a 'pikey.' That's all you'd hear every day. You'd be in trouble nearly every day for fighting. If I said to the teacher, 'I can't do that; can I have some help?' she'd say, 'Here's paper; just go down to the back of the class and draw whatever you want.' I had one teacher that said to me, 'Well, a Traveller won't do nothing with their life. Why would you want to know how to read and write? You're going to go off and marry young and have loads of children.' So I was just put down to the end of the class and everyone else was up on top."

Because school in Ireland is set up for kids who live in a house year-round, Burke says, a cultural attitude developed toward Traveller kids who moved around a lot for not being capable of -- or interested in -- learning.

"And that carries over into today," Burke says.

Traveller Girls Marry Young

Traveller families are especially strict with girls, according to Martin.

"Some mothers and fathers is too strict where you wouldn't be allowed to go anywhere," she says. "This is why most Travelling girls get married young, because they want to get away from that. Travelling girls, most of them today would be 16, 17, 18, which will want marriage."

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The girls travel in a pack, promenading.

"They look very glamorous," Burke says. "Lot's of makeup and heels and long hair."

Terry McCarthy, 16, was recently married.

"When I was 13, I met my husband at a festival," she says. "And the minute I met him, I knew I was in love. I got engaged when I was 15. I had a big do for that. I had a big engagement party. Just went from there then. I got married last month. I had a lovely big huge white dress."

"Whatever you want on your wedding day you have to get," Connors says. "When I got married, I got to design my own wedding dress -- my dream dress. It had a 50-foot train. It was all diamonds and lace. Travellers, too, they have a mini-bride. That's a girl you just dress up to look just like yourself for the day. Your mini-bride has to look like you."

Theresa Hughes and daughter Jennifer have been sewing wedding dresses for Traveller girls for more than 10 years.

"The Travelling community, they come over to us to get their outfits made for going to weddings -- even the mothers and grannies want bling," Theresa says. "Thick pink satin, sequins, beads, glitter. They go all out."

Jennifer shows off a white miniskirt with beads on it.

"I just go all out; I go for extremes," she says. "I kind of used Elvis as an inspiration -- Elvis' white Lycra suit, the flared one that he wears to his last concert."

There is a lot of money involved in Traveller weddings, both in terms of substantial dowry payments and in terms of putting on a good show.

Traveller Women Gain Power

As women age in Traveller culture, they gain power. They often outlive the men. They can become matriarchs in the culture, particularly if they have a large family. And there's prestige attached to being the mother of many.

Shirley Martin, 23, a resident at Hazel Hill, says that Traveller families are especially strict with girls — and that's why they marry young. Nikki Silva hide caption

Shirley Martin, 23, a resident at Hazel Hill, says that Traveller families are especially strict with girls — and that's why they marry young.

"When I was a kid, the Travellers, they used to come around our houses making pots and pans and doing odd jobs," says Paul Connelly, the caretaker of the Hazel Hill halting site. "And in return for that, they may get milk and bread and potatoes. People will not tolerate Travellers living on the side of the roads now. It's dangerous for themselves. The country's trying to get them settled. Set up halting sites and trying to get them to live in them."

Traveller life has changed, Helen Connors says.

"My mother and father had 17 children -- nine boys and eight girls," she says. "Myself, I left school when I was 11, but then I started a trainer course where I learned how to read and write. Then I did a child care course, and I passed all my exams. Now I can read and write what I never learned in school. I learned it by myself. Travellers are speaking up for themselves and being heard."

Produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva) in collaboration with Dublin producer, Nuala Macklin; mixed by Jim McKee

Web Resources

• EILMELDUNG — __proto_headline__

Leben am Straßenrand: Traveller-Familien in Irland

Fotoserie über irische Traveller Mama, Papa, acht Kinder und ihr Wohnwagen

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Als Fotograf Joseph-Philippe Bevillard  im Jahr 2000 nach Irland zog, sah er kurz nach seiner Ankunft am Flughafen vom Taxi aus einige Wohnwagen, Lagerfeuer, Frauen, die am Straßenrand Wäsche aufhängten und Kinder, die Ponys ritten - irische Travellerfamilien. "Ich fühlte mich sofort zu dem einzigartigen nomadischen Lebensstil hingezogen und fragte mich, wer diese Leute sind."

Doch erst Jahre später, ab 2009, fing er an, die Menschen zu fotografieren, zunächst in Schwarz-Weiß, ab 2018 in Farbe. Seitdem verbringt Bevillard viel Zeit mit den Familien und fährt regelmäßig nach Limerick, Ennis, Galway Tipperary, Cork, Kerry und Dublin.

Die irischen Traveller sind ein Nomadenvolk, sie leben schon seit Jahrhunderten auf der Insel. Früher zogen sie mit Planwagen, heute mit dem Wohnwagen umher, lassen sich auf öffentlichen Parkplätzen, am Straßenrand und auf Campingplätzen nieder oder leben auf Siedlungsplätzen, die ihnen von den Städten zur Verfügung gestellt werden und die laut Bevillard wie Gefängnisse aussehen. Nach Angaben des Irish Traveller Movements (ITM)  leben in Irland rund 25.000 Traveller.

Weder Strom noch fließendes Wasser

Bevillard berichtet von den prekären Lebensbedingungen der Menschen, die er getroffen hat. Viele hätten weder fließendes Wasser noch Strom. Sie würden Generatoren sowie Gasheizungen nutzen und draußen auf die Toilette gehen. Oft lebten die großen Familien auf sehr engem Raum zusammen, teilten sich mit mehreren Personen ein Bett.

Auf vielen Bildern sind junge Menschen zu sehen, was daran liegt, dass die meisten Eltern zahlreiche Kinder haben - Bevillard traf sogar eine Mutter mit 26 Söhnen und Töchtern. Die Jungen und Mädchen reiten auf Ponys, kümmern sich um ihre Hunde, boxen, spielen Rugby oder Hurling - und sind schon früh selbstständig.

Die Erwachsenen zu fotografieren ist für Bevillard viel herausfordernder. Es habe eine Weile gedauert, bis sie ihm vertrauten - viele seien misstrauisch gegenüber Fremden. Rund hundert Familien hat er insgesamt porträtiert.

2017 hat die irische Regierung die Traveller offiziell als ethnische Minderheit anerkannt. Doch laut dem Fotografen wird die Situation trotzdem immer angespannter: Obdachlosigkeit, Arbeitsplatzmangel, Diskriminierung gehörten zu den Hauptproblemen, gegen die bislang wenig getan werde.

Eine Studie des University College Dublin  aus dem Jahr 2010 beziffert die Lebenserwartung eines männlichen Travellers auf 61,7 Jahre, rund 15 Jahre weniger als bei der übrigen Bevölkerung Irlands, bei Frauen liegt das Sterbealter 12 Jahre früher.

Bevillard will die Traveller weiterhin fotografieren: "Sie sind wie meine zweite Familie." Außerdem möchte er die Kinder beim Aufwachsen oder Heiraten beobachten - und eines Tages deren Söhne und Töchter porträtieren.

Mehr lesen über

Sie leben in Wohnwagen und Baracken meist am Rand der Städte: Seit 2009 fotografiert Joseph-Philippe Bevillard Travellerfamilien in ganz Irland und gibt einen Einblick in ihren Alltag. Hier schlafen die zweijährige Charlotte und der einjährige Peter, gleichzeitig dient der Raum auch als Ess-, Wohn- und Schlafzimmer der Eltern.

Fast jeder Junge der Irish Traveller hat laut Bevillard einen eigenen Hund, am beliebstesten ist die Rasse Lurcher. Die Tiere sind ausgezeichnete Haustiere, Wachhunde und Jäger. Auch Deutsche Schäferhunde, Pit Bulls und Terrier seien häufig zu finden.

Die meisten Familien, die in Wohnwagen oder -mobilen leben, haben kein fließendes Wasser und keinen Strom. Sie verwenden Stromgeneratoren, nutzen Gasheizungen und gehen draußen auf die Toilette.

Travellermädchen haben oft lange Haare und Wimpern, bemalte Fingernägel, viel Make-up und tragen große Ohrringe, sagt Bevillard. Sie verbringen viel Zeit damit, sich umeinander zu kümmern, ihren Müttern zu helfen und ihr Zuhause zu putzen, während die Jungen sich um ihre Pferde kümmern und im Freien arbeiten.

John nimmt seine jüngeren Geschwister mit auf eine Spritztour mit seinem Quad. "Ich mag dieses Bild sehr, weil es ihre erwachsene Reife zeigt, aber gleichzeitig ihre Unschuld", sagt Bevillard.

Boxen und Sulky Racing, eine Variante des Pferderennsports, außerdem Rugby und Hurling gehören zu den beliebstesten Sportarten, so der Fotograf.

Traveller-Jungen bekommen ihr erstes Pony laut Bevillard meist im Alter von ein bis drei Jahren. Sie lernen schon früh, sich um das Tier zu kümmern - oder es wieder zu verkaufen, wenn sie ein größeres brauchen.

Nachdem sie die Nacht in ihrem Wohnwagen verbracht haben, machen sich die Kinder bereit für die Puck Fair, eines der beliebtesten Feste, an denen viele Traveller teilnehmen.

Die Wohnwagen können im Sommer sehr heiß werden. Dieses Mädchen suchte sich einen schattigen Platz für ihr Nickerchen.

Katie und ihre Familie leben ohne fließendes Wasser, Strom oder angeschlossenes Abwasser. Das Mädchen genießt es, draußen zu sein. Auf den Plätzen, die von der Regierung für die Traveller eingerichtet wurden, fühlen sich die meisten von ihnen laut Bevillard von den hohen Betonmauern, Zäunen und Überwachungskameras eingesperrt und überwacht.

Nellie und Willie leben seit über 40 Jahren in ihrem Wohnwagen am Straßenrand in Tipperary. Bevillard hat bislang rund 100 Familien fotografiert.

Das Verbrennen von Müll ist zwar nicht erlaubt, aber auf den Parkplätzen sehr verbreitet. Seit 2017 sind Traveller in Irland als ethnische Minderheit anerkannt.

Welpen sind ein alltäglicher Anblick bei den Travellern. Sie züchten auch Pferde, Frettchen, Ziegen und Hühner.

"Als ich das Mädchen sah, das mit einem Seil sprang, während ihre jüngere Schwester die Treppe runterkam, dachte ich: Das ist ein perfektes Foto", sagt Bevillard.

Das Leben in einem Wohnwagen ist anstregend, weil so viele Menschen auf engem Raum schlafen. Kinder und sogar Erwachsene machen oft ein Nickerchen, um verlorene Schlafzeiten auszugleichen.

Stolz präsentiert die elfjährige Rita-Marie ihr neues Outfit und ihre Ohrringe auf einer jährlichen Pferdemesse in West Clare. Viele Traveller sind mit Rassismus, Mobbing, Diskriminierung konfrontiert.

Rocky und seine Frau Teresa haben acht Kinder zwischen ein und elf Jahren. Gemeinsam leben sie in einem Wohnwagen mit zwei Betten. Die fünf Mädchen schlafen auf einer Ausziehcouch im Wohnbereich, die Eltern haben kein eigenes Bett. Bevillard traf sogar zwei Familien mit über 20 Kindern.

Früher durften laut Bevillard irische Travellermädchen im Alter von 13 Jahren heiraten, aber heute liegt das Mindestalter in Irland bei 16 Jahren. Priscilla war 17, als sie die Ehefrau von William wurde, der ein Jahr älter ist als sie.

Willy und seine Freundin, die keine Travellerin ist, haben gemeinsam eine Tochter. Viele sind gegen eine Beziehung zwischen Travellern und Nichttravellern, doch laut Bevillard ändert sich langsam etwas an dieser Einstellung.

Ein kleiner Junge kam mit seinem roten Boxhandschuh zu Bevillard und bat ihn, ein Foto von ihm zu machen. Der Fotograf will weiterhin die Traveller ablichten: "Sie sind wie meine zweiten Familie."

• PHOTOGRAPHY

Life With the Irish Travellers Reveals a Bygone World

One photographer spent four years gaining unprecedented access to this close-knit community.

When Birte Kaufmann first encountered Irish Travellers, she was on a trip with friends in the Irish countryside and saw a girl and her little brother running toward a roadside camp. The caravans and horses reminded Kaufmannn, who is German, of the Romany camps she had seen elsewhere in Europe, but the people looked intriguingly different.

Who were they, she wondered, and how could she delve deeper into their culture?

"People said, You'll never get an insight into that community—forget about it," Kaufmann recalls of sharing with Irish friends her burgeoning plans to photograph the close-knit Travellers.

An ethnic minority in Ireland , the Travellers have lived on the margins of mainstream Irish society for centuries. Efforts have been made to incorporate the nomadic group into mainstream culture by settling them into government housing and enforcing school attendance. But even living among "settled people," they face ongoing discrimination.

Kaufmann describes theirs as a parallel world, where deeply-rooted gender roles and an itinerant lifestyle have kept them apart from the broader Irish community even as their freedom to roam has become increasingly curtailed.

To gain access to the community, Kaufmann first attempted to engage through human rights groups that work with them—to no avail. So she decided to do it "the hard way," she says. She had heard about a “halting site”—walled areas on the outskirts of large towns that contain houses as well as spaces for caravan parking—and on her next trip to Ireland, she simply showed up.

She was met by barking dogs, one of which bit her. A young woman approached, speaking English with an accent so thick that Kaufmann had trouble comprehending. Undeterred, she decided to lay her cards on the table. "I was really honest. I told [her] I was coming from Germany , where we don't have our own traveling community, [that] I knew who they were and was interested in how [they live]," Kaufmann recalls.

The young woman "was totally surprised, but finally they invited me for a cup of tea. I was sitting in a caravan with her grandfather. I asked them if I could come back and stay with them." Kaufmann says they chortled, as if to say, Yeah, right.

When she next returned from Germany, it was with a camper van of her own, so that she could stay alongside the extended family clan that would become the focus of her project. "I knew it was a high risk," she says, “but I gave them some pictures I had taken in the caravan of the grandfather. And they said, 'Ok. Now you're here. We have the images. One cup of tea. Now go. We are busy.'"

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As a photographer, and especially as a woman, Kaufmann was something of a novelty given the strictly defined gender roles of the Traveller community—men tend to the horses and livestock, women to home and family. Girls marry young and only with the blessing of their parents. Men don’t typically speak to women in public.

She slowly gained their trust to the point that one of the family members—a young mother who took a particular shine to her and was perhaps even amused at her struggle to understand what they were saying—began teaching her Gammon, their unwritten language.

"She tried to teach me words to say if the guys are being rude," she says. "And then the father started telling me what I should say. [They] tried to make me feel more comfortable." Her knowledge of words selectively and seldom shared with outsiders demonstrated to other Travellers that one of their own had trusted her enough to share.

And in turn, understanding how they communicate with each other helped her get past the sense of feeling unwelcome and deepened her appreciation of their differences. "At first [the talk] sounds really rough," she says. "Then there was this point at which I realized it was their language. They don't really call anyone by name. It's 'the woman over there,' 'the man over there,' 'the child,'" she explains. "It's not personal, [but] at first it sounds very rude.”

Kaufmann made multiple visits to the family over the course of four years, eventually living with them. The men gradually accepted her and allowed her to photograph them hunting and trading horses at a fair. She was able to blend into the background and photograph them as an unobtrusive observer of their everyday lives—lives, she says, that are filled with a lot of idle time. As Ireland becomes less agrarian, the Travellers’ traditional work as horse traders, farm laborers, tinsmiths, and entertainers has become more scarce.

"The older generations can't read or write," Kaufmann says, "but they have their own intelligence. On the one hand life was so sad and boring because everything their lives were stemming from wasn't there anymore. On the other hand there was this freedom—they live their lives in their own way."

And then, she says, she found herself taking no photographs at all. "One of the boys who really didn't like to be photographed said, 'Do you know what's really strange with Birte now? She's here and she's not really photographing anymore.'"

And that's when she knew her project was done.

Birte Kaufmann's project on the Travellers is now available as a book . You may also see more of Birte Kaufmann's photographs on her website .

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Nomadism and Equality: The Irish Traveller and Gypsy Women

• Living reference work entry
• First Online: 01 September 2020
• Cite this living reference work entry

• Madalina Armie 7 &
• Verónica Membrive 7  

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals ((ENUNSDG))

38 Accesses

Itinerants ; Knackers ; Tinkers ; Pikeys

Definitions

When writing the story of the Irish Traveller and Gypsy women is important to specify that in the Irish Republic, the Irish Travellers, New Age Travellers, Irish Romani Gypsies, and Roma from Central and Eastern Europe minorities present broad internal subdivisions. Each of these groups attain different cultural traits and behavioral patterns, although it is true that they have more things in common – and this is one of the reasons why they are frequently and erroneously confused – rather than characteristics which distinguish them. The overlapping of experiences of Roma and Traveller minorities, then, would make impossible at times to treat them as separate cases of study. The Travellers are Ireland’s native ethnic minority. The New Age Travellers, on the other hand, do not form a distinct ethnic group according to the Irish law, and the creation of this nomadic group has as a backdrop the free festivals, therefore their...

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Watson D, Kenny O, McGinnity F (2017) A social portrait of Travellers in Ireland. The Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin

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Madalina Armie & Verónica Membrive

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Armie, M., Membrive, V. (2020). Nomadism and Equality: The Irish Traveller and Gypsy Women. In: Leal Filho, W., Azul, A., Brandli, L., Lange Salvia, A., Wall, T. (eds) Gender Equality. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70060-1_131-1

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Have you ever sat down with an Irish Traveller to ask them what their life was like?

Well, I recently sat down with my 91-year-old grandmother to do exactly that.

As an Irish Traveller woman myself, I wanted to learn more about what life was like for the older generation, and I couldn’t have picked a better person to listen to than my grandmother Kathleen Ward, from Kilconnell, Ballinasloe. 

My grandmother was born in Tuam in February 1931, and she was the fourth oldest in a family of 14, which meant she had lots of responsibilities from a young age.

“My older sister was married, so I had to help my mother rear the younger children while my daddy was working,” she said.

Her father Laurence Ward, from Tuam, was a chimney sweep and a tinsmith, while her mother Mariah from Mountbellew looked after the children and did lots of sewing. 

I asked her what her first memory was, and she told me that she remembers one day that her father had forgotten to collect her from school.

Because she didn’t know her way home, a man she knew put her on the back of his bike and brought her home. She was about 7 or 8 years old at the time, and in those days everybody knew and trusted each other.

But my grandmother could only go to school for a short time because her family had to keep moving. 

“I loved to do playhouses with the girls I knew and my younger sisters. One of the girls I played with was a girl called Mary Ward, and we had a dinner set, and we played with that at the back of the tent I lived in for hours,” she said.

“And I would make flowers as a young girl, this was a great pastime for me. I also played bobbie houses with them – bobbie houses was a game where we made houses from boards and pieces of branches, they were hard but happier times.”

I asked her how she was treated back then as an Irish Traveller.

“S ome would be good, and some would be bad, but you have to go out and meet people. By doing that, I have made many friends throughout the years that I am very grateful for.

“It’s because of that my family wouldn’t have to worry for money, as settled people would help out by giving us food.”

She met her husband, my grandad Michael, at a water pump getting water. S he told me she ran away with him, because she felt she had no other choice because her parents were constantly making wedding matches for her every Tuesday.

(It was normal for the parents or older brothers of young Irish Traveller women to choose who their daughters married.)

“I had to run away or the wedding would have been pushed back for 12 months and when we did run away on the back of the bike, we ran into a big field and I lost my shoe. I got married a week after,” she said.

There were only six people in attendance at the wedding – her parents, her brother and sister-in-law and her father-in-law, and she had a Swiss roll as her wedding cake.

“Every time I eat a Swiss roll cake now it brings memories back from my wedding day, I had to borrow an overcoat to wear for my wedding,” she said.

“I didn’t have my first alcohol drink until I was nearly two and a half years married because it was the tradition that an Irish Traveller woman would not have an alcoholic drink until after their first child was born.”

They were happily married until my grandad suddenly died in 1985 from a heart attack. She always shares the lovely memories of him with her grandchildren that unfortunately never got to meet him.

I asked my grandmother how she managed to live on the side of the road and have children.

She said that it was very difficult, especially in the winter.

“I became a mother around 21 and had 13 children. To feed them, I had to beg for food, and while doing that, I had to bring the children with me.

“I cooked the food by putting the pots and pans on top of an iron triangle over a box with a fire. The type of food I cooked was bacon and cabbage and turnip and bacon, we wouldn’t get chicken often and when we did, there was very little of it.

“They were hard times, but I had to do what I did to get by. To describe the smell of it to you, the most memorable smell was of rabbit stew and the other smells were of bacon and cabbage and pigs heads – they were lovely smells. 

“Your grandad used to skin the rabbits and the smell of that wasn’t very nice, other smells I can still remember are like the turf fire and I can still smell the freshness of the grass and the smell of silage on the side of the road.”

She lived in a caravan for ten years, and in 1978, she moved into her first house.

“I was grateful to finally have the house and a permanent roof over my head and my family, but I felt like it came too late for my older children because if we got the house earlier, they could have stayed in school longer and got a better education than they had.

“I did miss living on the side of the road because that’s all I knew from a young age but I was happy to finally have a house.

“I never got sick until I went into our house and I missed the fresh air on the side of the road because I found it healthier and because I wasn’t used to having a switch on the wall for heating to come quickly.

“I was used to having one temperature in the trailer or in the tent; the summer months were warm, but the winter was extremely cold and because of that I was happy to have the same temperature heat all-year-around.”

I asked her how much Cant she knew growing up.

“I knew a good amount of it when I was younger and I still know some words today,” she said.

In the Irish Traveller community the Cant language is still commonly spoken by the older generation, but in my experience, not many younger people know as much.

This is because many older people who could speak it fluently have passed away, and sadly sometimes the language has died with them.

But in some very traditional Irish Traveller families it was still taught to the children, and it is spoken fluently.

My grandmother recalled what it was like when she got her first dog. The dog’s name was Lass, and when my grandfather was gone off working, a few men came and were messing around and pulled the cover off the tent they were staying in.

She had four young children at the time and was living on the road, but the dog wouldn’t let the men in and saved my grandmother and my aunties and uncles because the men were afraid of the dog. She called them ‘blaggards’.

She would also tell the younger people to stay away from drugs and too much alcohol, be honest and trust their partners, let them trust you, and have no anger towards their wife or husband because you marry them for love – you don’t marry them to be angry or violent towards them. 

I was delighted to speak with her and ask her questions about her life, but I couldn’t be more proud to be her granddaughter. She is an amazing woman who I am very privileged to know.

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Ireland’s Traveller Women

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Ireland, it’s a place that has been long associated with religion and conservative values, but over the last few years, the country has reinvented itself as a new and progressive Ireland. In 2017, the Irish government extended this spirit of inclusivity to its traveller population, who were now to be recognised as a distinct ethnic group within the nation of Ireland. Now in the year 2020, we are three years on but has anything really changed?

In this BBC Our World Special we meet three young women fighting to bust the myths about their community and make their dreams a reality. The film opens in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, where we meet the O’Reilly family who have lived here for the last four years, they currently live on family-owned land in a makeshift halting site with no toilet or shower and there are currently no men on the site. We hear from Noreen, who’s father and eldest brother are both in prison, they are well known in the community as the rubber gang. The family say police attention has always been intense, but this is not just a problem faced by the O’Reilly’s it’s something the entire traveller community has felt.

Directed by : David Howell

'Distinct identity': Irish Travellers celebrate day they were recognized as ethnic minority

This day six years ago, the Irish Traveller community was recognized by the Irish State as an ethnic group

• 16:45, 1 MAR 2023
• Updated 16:49, 1 MAR 2023

In Ireland, today marks Irish Traveller Ethnicity Day: a celebration of the moment Irish Travellers were officially recognized as an ethnic group in the Irish state.

On March 1, 2017, Taoiseach Enda Kenny made a statement in the Dáil formally recognizing the ethnic status of the Traveller community in Ireland. After a campaign spanning multiple decades, the date meant that the contributions made and challenges faced by the Traveller community would now be recognized at state level.

"The Traveller community has for many years campaigned to have their unique heritage, culture and identity formally recognized by the Irish state," the Taoiseach said at the time. "And in this state, they make their contribution as gardaí, doctors, members of the Defence Forces, prison officers."

Read more: Old footage shows New York's historic Gaelic Park in the 1960s

The Taoiseach continued: "So there should be no surprise that a person can identify as Irish and as Traveller. This is a deep and personal issue for many Travellers."

The Irish Traveller community has long faced discrimination in Ireland , with the group largely excluded from settled society over generations. The life expectancy of Irish Travellers is lower than their settled peers, and the community's suicide rate is six times the national average.

Being recognized as an ethnic minority means Irish Travellers (who are separate from but often confused with the Romani people due to similarities in their historically nomadic cultures) are now included in Ireland's anti-racism and integration policies. It also recognizes the unique culture and history of the Traveller community, who have, according to scientists, been genetically distinct from settled Irish people for at least 1,000 years.

The day doesn't just celebrate Irish Travellers based in Ireland, but their international diaspora. The community spans the UK, where they are also recognized as an ethnic minority, as well as Canada and the US .

It's difficult to guess how large the diaspora of the Irish Traveller community is in the US, as the US Census does not recognize them as an ethnic group. Estimations range their US population to be anywhere between 10,000 and 40,000.

The vast majority of this population is thought to have arrived in the US between 1845 and 1860 as a result of the Great Famine. Here, Irish Traveller communities mostly reside in Ohio, Georgia, Texas, Tennessee, Mississippi, and South Carolina. The largest is around 2,500 people, who live in Murphy Village, SC.

Like Irish Travellers in Ireland, Irish Travellers in the US have a unique cultural identity. This includes practicing devout Catholicism, a strong emphasis on family and community, and some usage of Cant, a language of mixed Irish and English origin spoken by Travellers.

"Our Traveller community is an integral part of our society for over a millennium, with their own distinct identity – a people within our people," the Taoiseach said this day six years ago. "...It is a historic day for our Travellers and a proud day for Ireland."

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When ITM talks about ethnicity, we often use the terms identity or culture instead- ethnicity is often used in more academic discussions. So when we discuss ethnicity or identity, we are really looking at the collective set of beliefs, attitudes, values, norms and language that Travellers share that make them Travellers.

What is an ethnic group? Everyone is part of an ethnic group which shapes their identity. It isn’t the same as nationality (the country where you are born) but is about your culture. Defining someone’s ethnicity is difficult, as every culture changes over time. But even though ethnicity changes, there are some things that define what ethnicity is:

• To be part of a specific ethnic group, you must be born into the group. For instance, some Travellers may hide their identity and chose not to recognised as Travellers, but no one can ever become a Traveller unless they are born into it.
• Travellers have a shared history, culture and language.
• Travellers acknowledge themselves s as being of a group different to settled people and settled people acknowledge us as being a separate group.

As Traveller Activist Brigid Quilligan said at a conference on ethnicity “We may not be able to describe easily and for all Travellers what makes us Traveller but we know in our hearts we are. We feel it. It really is in our soul.

Why is ethnicity and culture so important? Culture is a series of values and norms that is acquired by learning (mostly non-consciously) at an early age and is adapted differently by each individual within the group over their lifetime, which is then passed on in a changing process from generation to generation. Culture has a profound influence on how people think, feel, act and process information. Culture is more than traditions, music, language and religious beliefs. It also provides us with a series of frameworks for how we view the world and shapes our values, how we interpret information and define boundaries.

Where does Culture come from? Cultural is transmitted from members of the same cultural group, usually by young children from parents, their peers and their social group, with the basic components of culture acquired at early ages (with children internalising key cultural values and norms). Culture is learned by hearing, seeing and unconsciously adopting or copying actions of those children grow up with. Culture is actively generated and created, in attempts to modify or protect or expand existing norms in face of internal and external challenges- culture is not static and solely based in the past, but an interplay between tradition and emerging new ideas.

Traveller culture and identity is constantly changing and adapting. Some aspects of change happen as society changes globally. Other changes are forced upon the community- for example, legislative changes that have had huge negative impacts on Traveller culture: nomadism effectively criminalised through the Trespass legislation, changes laws governing market trading and laws covering horse ownership. These laws have meant that traditional aspects of Traveller culture are almost impossible to express. Despite these policies, which have had serious impacts on the community, Travellers continue to see themselves as Travellers and show pride in their identity and heritage (link to Traveller Pride)

Why is ethnicity Recognition so important? The Irish Traveller Movement was founded in 1990 on the principle that Travellers are an Ethnic Group and recognition of Traveller Ethnicity has been at the core of our Movement. Central to our analysis of the issues that Travellers face is that denial of Traveller identity and policies of assimilation have created vast inequalities for Travellers in health, accommodation, employment, education and participation in Irish society. ITM’ vision has always been that in order for real change for Travellers, ethnicity needs to be recognised.

Traveller ethnicity recognition is at the heart of the question of how Travellers might become less unequal in Irish Society. The report of the Task Force on the Traveller community highlighted the importance of recognition of Traveller culture:

“The recognition of Travellers’ culture and identity has an importance for Travellers and their status in Irish society. Identity and belonging is vital to everybody and is equal to physical wants and needs. Identity and sense of community cannot be ignored because identity is fiercely cherished by everyone and community is vital for everyone’s sense of belonging.”

In addition, the publication of the Equality Authority report Traveller Ethnicity in 2006 also highlights the contradictions in the Irish Government’s position. The report establishes a clear case for the acknowledgment of Traveller ethnicity:

“An understanding and recognition of Traveller ethnicity is central to the effective promotion of equality of opportunity for the Traveller community.”

Why is ethnic recognition important? The recognition of Traveller ethnicity is a matter of huge significance for Travellers. Recognition of Traveller ethnicity would finally create an opportunity for a sustainable relationship between Travellers and non-Travellers and the institutions of the State. It would mean that Travellers could build on the pride and esteem they have in their identity with the realisation that the State will no longer try to undermine, deny or destroy centuries of culture.

As our former Director Brigid Quilligan said in 2012 at a conference on Traveller ethnicity:

“While we talk of the recognition of us for the people we are would result in increased self esteem and pride amongst our people. We all know of Travellers who are struggling with their identity. We see the effects this has on people. Some people look as if they are thriving, they are principals, doctors, lawyers, teachers, guards, but how must it be for them to live and work in a society where Travellers are openly spoken about in degrading terms? How must it be for them if they feel someone they teach or a client of theirs recognises they are Travellers? Could their whole world fall apart if their identity is revealed? The unfortunate answer is yes. So while we have some really positive role models who are open about their identity, we have many more that conceal it”

At our AGM in 2009, former CEO of the Equality Authority gave the keynote address called “ Ethnicity – the Key to Equality ” concluded that “equality encompasses a range of different objectives. These include:

• Equality in the distribution of resources in society, resources such as incomes, jobs, health, education and accommodation. Travellers experience serious inequalities in this regard with high levels of unemployment, a low presence in third level education, low life expectancy and many families still living on the side of the road with basic facilities.
• Equality in relation to who holds power or has influence in Irish society. There are no Travellers in the Dail, Seanad, or judiciary for example. Traveller organizations are represented in social partnership but express increasing frustration at their lack of influence within social partnership.
• Equality in access to relationships of care, respect and solidarity with the wider society. Travellers’ experience is one of relationships characterized by tension, disrespect, abuse and conflict with the wider settled society.
• Equality in the status and standing afforded to different groups in society. The denial of Traveller ethnicity undermines any status and standing for Travellers in Irish society.

It is important to understand that these different equality objectives are interlinked. Where a group does not have status or standing it will not enjoy relationships of respect with the wider society, it will find it hard to exercise any influence over decisions and it will experience barriers in seeking to access resources. In this way the recognition of Traveller ethnicity can be seen as a key to unlocking the struggle for equality for Travellers. The recognition of Traveller ethnicity will secure a new status and standing for Travellers that will shape new terms on which resources are made available to Travellers, that will shape new relationships of mutual respect with the settled community and that will underpin a new influence for Travellers in their dealings with the state. The recognition of Traveller ethnicity won’t secure equality for Travellers. However it provides a new and solid foundation from which to pursue equality for Travellers.”

ITM’s ethnicity Campaign The ITM formed to campaign for Traveller ethnicity recognition- it was one of the central aims and reasons for our formation. Analysis of what ethnicity meant, what recognition would mean, lobbying nationally and internationally for that recognition has been part of all our work. However, after a motion at our AGM in 2008 by Blanchardstown Traveller Development Group, a specific petition and campaign began. Launched on the 10th December 2008 (as part of ITM Celebration of UN International Human Rights Day ) Traveller organisations began conversations among the community on ethnicity, identity and getting Travellers to sign petitions calling for their ethnicity to be recognised.

Based on this, we began a specific lobbying campaign, and in conjunction with other Traveller groups, have built political allies to the point where in 2014 a joint party Oireachtas Committee agreed that Traveller ethnicity should be recognised and set out steps for how this should happen. ITM and other national Traveller groups continued to work with Government Departments to strengthen this call, including ensuring a second Joint Oireachtas Committee report at the end of 2016 would generate further momentum. ITM and others ensured that the Council of Europe and European Commission were lobbied to add their voices for ethnicity recognition.

• Traveller Homes Matter
• Anti Racism & Interculturalism – Key Issues

• Researching Irish Traveller Ancestors

Tracing Irish Traveller family history can be extra challenging due to the lack of written records. However, there are clues to be found that can point to Irish Traveller ancestry, and a number of resources to help people discover more.

​ This resource is a work in progress; please feel free to add recommendations and suggestions to this message board thread .

An Lucht Siúil  ( Traveling Folk  lit. the Walking People) or Travellers can refer to a variety of people who lived life on the road. Irish Travellers aka Mincéir aka Pavee are a distinct Irish ethnic group with their own customs, language and traditions. Many live in the UK for all or part of the year. They are a recognised ethnic minority group.

Irish Traveller culture and ancestry

Irish Travellers are a separate cultural group that started migrating to Britain in the early 19th century and can be traced back to 12th century Ireland. 

Population structure & History of Irish travellers

Genetic research found that Irish Travellers are of Irish origin and have significant genetic makeup compared to their settled community. An estimated 40,000 Travellers (less than 1% of the population) are living in Ireland today. Although sometimes called gypsies, they have no genetic relation to  Romani . 

Gene study reveals Irish Travellers' ancestry

The Celtic Travellers DNA project is for descendants and members and of  Irish Travellers , Highland Scottish Travellers, Lowland Scottish Travellers, Fairground Travellers and other  Non-Romani  travelling families. However, Roma or mixed Traveller heritage are also welcome to join.

Celtic Travellers DNA Project

Searching Census & Vital Records for clues

Clues that can suggest Traveller ancestry include:

Occupations: tinker, tinman, tinsmith, whitesmith, dealer, pedlar, horse dealer, basket maker,  peg maker , knife grinder/ sharpener, hawker , musician , and sometimes labourer.

Place of Birth : All the children in the family being born in different places is also a big clue. 

Residence : Unusual residences such as "tent on common"

Irish Gypsies and Irish Travellers are distinct ethnic groups often referred to in parish registers as 'Pavees' or 'Minceir'. 

Irish Traveller Genealogy Resources

Here is a list of useful resources to help you trace Irish Traveller or Mincéir ancestors:

TravellerHeritage.ie

https://www.paveepoint.ie/ PaveePoint.ie

The Romany & Traveller Family History Society

Travellers Times

RomaHeritage.co.uk  |  GypsyWagons.co.uk  |  Gypsy Genealogy

Special Collections:  Liverpool  |  Leeds  |  Reading  |  Surrey  |  Sussex 

IrelandXO Message Board

The IrelandXO message board can be a great resource for finding out more about Irish Traveller family histories and connecting with other descendants. Click on the links to read some interesting message board threads:

Need Information on "Tinkers", "Travelers"

McDonough/McDonagh family from Killedan

O'Brien/O'Leary

Doran in Galway

IrelandXO Traveller Timelines

• Traveling Folk in the 1930s

Irish Traveller Buildings & Places

• St Nicholas of Myra, Francis St, DUBLIN
• Long Mile Road WALKINSTOWN

Irish Traveller Photo Collections

UCD Digital Collection

Common Irish Traveller Family Names

Berry, Brown, Cash , Carmody, Carthy, Casey, Cassidy, Cawley , Clark, Collins, Connors , Conroy, Corcoran, Cunningham, Delaney, Doherty , Donoghue/ O’Donoghue, Donovan , Doran, Dunne , Flynn, Furey , Gallagher, Green, Hanafin/ Hannifin , Hand, Hanley, Hanrahan, Harper, Hennessey, Joyce , Keating, Keenan, Kerrigan, Kiely, Lawrence, Lee, Lynch, Maguire, Malone, Maloney, Maughan , Mongan, Moorehouse McCarthy , MacDonald, McDonagh , MacDonnell, MacAleer, McCann, McDonnell, McGinley, McInerney, MacLoughlin, McRea, Nevin, Nolan, O’Donnell, O’Reilly / Reilly, Power, Purcell, Price, Quinn, Stokes , Sweeney, Ward , Wall, Windrum.

​Famous Irish Traveller Ancestors 

Sean Connery's ancestor: James Connery born circa 1840

Margaret Barry born 1917

The Duchás Folklore Collection

Between 1937 and 1939, primary school pupils across the Republic of Ireland interviewed the elderly in their neighborhood to collect and record local stories and folklore from the 19th century. "The Schools Collection" as it became known is held by the Dúchas Folklore Collection in UCD and is and has been digitized online at duchas.ie. One of the topics schoolchildren were asked to write about were "Travelling Folk" or An Lucht Siúil. Click here  to read a selection of what "settled" children wrote about travelers in the late 1930s.

Are you descended from Irish Travellers? Add their story to the IrelandXO website and connect with other descendants living all around the world. 

Additional Advice from our IrelandXO Community

My great-grandmother was from Galway Travellers, it took me years to put together the best family history I could manage.  If you are not sure the name you are looking for is a Traveling People name you might go to the Pavee Point site and search other sites under Traveller History, names, etc.   There are different groups of people who seem to come under the category of "Traveller", Irish, English,  UK, Scotland & Wales),  Roma, Romania & South Eastern European, Carnival & Show Travelers, and I'm sure others. Families often marry within particular other families, I saw an online list of which families marry into which other name families and first names are repeated thru generations like the Irish naming pattern used to be, these lists are usually individual observations and quite old.  In addition to the name on UK census records you might find the address listed as "in Tents",  "in Lanes", etc.  The occupation might be listed, such as it was for my great grandfather, as Tinman , as the Traveling people used to do pot mending and such things as they moved from place to place.  Location can be difficult because of moving from place to place,  often within a particular area, such as only Munster,  or Scotland to Ireland, I spent years finding a family member who had gone to Wales.  Then of course someone you are searching may have gotten Transportation to Australia or be in prison in England, sometimes waiting several years there before transportation. This might be a bit of luck for you as records for prison and transportation are online.   Of course you can always search the parish registers in a particular area you are interested in, as Traveling People are likely to be Roman Catholic and very likely to have their children baptized which would be recorded along with other church sacramental records, marriage etc.  Also consider that many people with Irish Travelling people heritage were settled and maybe had not been going from place to place for years, if not generations.   As far as DNA sites I recommend My Heritage , this site has more Irish, UK, English than any other I have seen.  If your DNA is on another site you probably can transfer it to My Heritage for free, its very worthwhile.  Make good use of your higher number DNA matches by checking the shared matches for repeat names. 

Elaine Walsh

** originally published in 2022

We hope you have found the information we have shared helpful. While you are here, we have a small favour to ask. Ireland Reaching Out is a non-profit organisation that relies on public funding and donations to ensure a completely free family history advisory service to anyone of Irish heritage who needs help connecting with their Irish place of origin. If you would like to support our mission, please click on the donate button and make a contribution. Any amount, big or small, is appreciated and makes a difference. 

National Traveller Women's Forum Ireland

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Membership is open to Traveller Women and Traveller Women’s organisations who subscribe to the aims and objectives of the organisation.

NTWF aims to raise awareness of the issues effecting Traveller women, and to work towards ensuring these issues are recognised and reflected in policy development.

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