"Irish travellers" in the news

Lorenzo · Post by **Lorenzo** » Wed Oct 02, 2002 10:04 am

The lady who was caught on tape last week, in the states, and beating her child, tearfully confessed she was just an "Irish Traveller" whatever and all that is suppose to mean.

We know Jonny Doran and others carried the lable too, but are they really some secret society, as the new clips say...

"..that speak a broken mixture of Galic and English, some marriages are configured in advance, like gypsies, with girls marrying as young as 11 yrs. old while many work the internet nowdays, travelling abroad, making money through tax-exempt schemes. This lady had serval identifications in several states..." -NBC news (paraphrased)

Know anyone with this stigma or are they just part of the rest of the traveling musicians we all know so well?

(Now "The Traveller" reel means a little more to me)

Dionys · Post by **Dionys** » Wed Oct 02, 2002 10:34 am

Her English was terrible, but she didn't have a trace of an Irish accent, a traveler accent or a gypsy accent. My guess is that it's some ploy to get off easy.

My understanding of the Irish Travelers is that they're much like Gypsies(Rom/Romany), possibly related to the Rom in a recent past.
From what I have seen, heard from friends and read, in Ireland they're typically treated as lepers. Thrown out of towns, made to move on from camp sites, &c.

Dionys

Paul · Post by **Paul** » Wed Oct 02, 2002 10:44 am

Check out this thread on The Whistle Board

http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php ... forum=1&59

-Paul

Kevin Popejoy · Post by **Kevin Popejoy** » Wed Oct 02, 2002 11:20 am

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Wed Oct 02, 2002 2:11 pm

On 2002-10-02 13:20, Kevin Popejoy wrote:
Irish Travellers (sometimes known as "itinerants" or "Tinkers") are a very small minority group in Ireland. They make up less than 1% of the population with approximately 3,000 people in the Republic and another 1,500 in the North
Kevin Popejoy

Actually the latest census returned a lot more people who considered themselves members of the travelling community in the republic.

Facts & Figures
The Demographic situation of the Traveller Community1 in April 1996
The Traveller population in Ireland is at least 24,000. The figure given by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) of 10,891 has been acknowledged by the CSO, the Task Force on Travellers and the Government that it is not a true representation as the CSO figures only took Travellers to be people living in Trailers / Caravans on the roadside, they did not include Travellers living in group housing, or County Council / City Council provided housing. All groups involved in the study agreed it was at least 24,000, if not more. (taking this into consideration the following figures are based on figure of 10,891, although it is acknowledged that while the figures are not correct the percentages are).
Source: 1996 Census CSO

The numbers Kevin quotes are most likely only those actually living on the roadsides and halting sites.

'Tinker' or 'knacker' are considered very heavy insults by the way.

A particularly ugly thread on the whistle board just died down. Better leave it at that.

[edited to update numbers, mine had a fierce typo as well]

[ This Message was edited by: Peter Laban on 2002-10-03 13:43 ]

Dionys · Post by **Dionys** » Wed Oct 02, 2002 2:23 pm

Nice to see we stop, ask and consider thoughtfully. Must be that 21 year patience hard at work.

Dionys

P.s. Thanks Kevin.

marcpipes · Post by **marcpipes** » Wed Oct 02, 2002 2:46 pm

Just out of curiosity: Has the recent phenomenon among members of the Brittish "rave" culture (living in fields and calling themselves travellers) had any affect or interchange with the older tinker culture? I've known a couple of ravers who had said they lived as travellers, but knew nothing of the culture they had lifted their name from. These two kids were more concerned with E's and wiz than whether they were mocking a cultural group.
Marc

rhodeirish · Post by **rhodeirish** » Wed Oct 02, 2002 2:59 pm

Here's a decent link dealing with Irish travelers in America.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/Daily ... 20927.html

They largely stick to the midwestern US. I've hardly ever heard of them coming around New England.

Like the travelers in in Ireland, they tend to have a bad reputation, though not all of them are scam artists from what I've gathered. That said, there isn't a lot of information out there seeing as all of them, good or bad, prefer to fly under the radar.

It's sort of interesting that Madelyne Toogood identified herself as a traveler. It's not exactly a sympathy-building move out in the midwest.

John Harvey

Kevin Popejoy · Post by **Kevin Popejoy** » Wed Oct 02, 2002 3:32 pm

Steampacket · Post by **Steampacket** » Thu Oct 03, 2002 8:02 am

On 2002-10-02 12:04, Lorenzo wrote:
The lady who was caught on tape last week, in the states, and beating her child, tearfully confessed she was just an "Irish Traveller" whatever and all that is suppose to mean.

We know Jonny Doran and others carried the lable too, but are they really some secret society, as the new clips say...

What in the world has a woman beating her child in the US got to do with Johnny Doran or any other Traveller musician. Seems like you're trying to stir the manure Lorenzo. I assume that the uilleann pipers on this list have have more sense than some of the types on the whistle list

Kevin Popejoy · Post by **Kevin Popejoy** » Thu Oct 03, 2002 8:22 am

Steampacket · Post by **Steampacket** » Thu Oct 03, 2002 9:13 am

On 2002-10-03 10:02, Steampacket wrote:

What in the world has a woman beating her child in the US got to do with Johnny Doran or any other Traveller musician. Seems like you're trying to stir the manure Lorenzo. I assume that the uilleann pipers on this list have have more sense than some of the types on the whistle list

I apologise Lorenzo. I thought I saw your name on the whistle list in connection with the Traveller thread there. I've checked again and the name was Loren, not Lorenzo.
Kevin I was angry as I also thought that the Traveller thread on the whistle forum was a nasty one

Lorenzo · Post by **Lorenzo** » Thu Oct 03, 2002 10:56 am

Steam...not a problem kind sir. Thanks Kev. I had never visited the Whistle Forum until the link mentioned above, and after reading 1st & last page...was sorry I had raised the question.

I have learned something and appreciate all the scholarly comments.

Patrick D'Arcy · Post by **Patrick D'Arcy** » Thu Oct 03, 2002 11:32 am

Hi Marcpipes,

It sounds like your friends are part of the "New Age Traveller" movement in Britain. I used to know a bunch of these guys before I moved over here. The Glastonbury Festival http://www.glastonbury-festivals.co.uk/ was the annual event, sort of similar to die hard Dead Heads in the States. There was a band called "The Levellers" everyone was into back then that epitomised the whole thing. Anti nuclear and anti establishment was pretty much the rule of thumb. "Ozric Tentacles" http://www.ozrics.com/ were another band of note.

New Age Travellers hold a close affinity with Stone Henge and tend to be experimental with drugs that induce religious type experiences.

Great days!

Patrick.

[ This Message was edited by: Patrick D'Arcy on 2002-10-03 13:40 ]

Paul · Post by **Paul** » Thu Oct 03, 2002 11:59 am

I would like to apologise for putting that link. I only did so because on the first page there was some interesting stuff that I'd never heard about the Travellers. I honestly almost didn't put it up because it turned so nasty right after.

-Paul

[ This Message was edited by: paul on 2002-10-03 14:18 ]