{"history":[],"article":{"id":"7285c657-f6ba-4356-b880-50c123c5f0b9","title":"Irish Travellers","slug":"irish-travellers","content":":::summary\n![Mincéirí](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Travellers///Decorated///Caravan///%286136023633%29.jpg)\n**Group:** Irish Travellers \n**Native Name:** An lucht siúil · Mincéirí \n**Image Caption:** Irish Travellers in 1954 \n**Region 1:** [Republic of Ireland](https://bliptext.com/articles/republic-of-ireland) \n**Pop 1:** 30,987 (2016) \n**Region 2:** [Northern Ireland](https://bliptext.com/articles/northern-ireland) \n**Pop 2:** 2,609 (2021) \n**Region 3:** [United States](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-states) \n**Pop 3:** 10-40,000 (2010s-20s estimate) \n**Region 4:** [United Kingdom](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-kingdom) \n**Pop 4:** 65,000 \n**Regions:** Throughout Ireland, especially in [Counties Galway](https://bliptext.com/articles/county-galway), [Mayo](https://bliptext.com/articles/county-mayo), [Longford](https://bliptext.com/articles/county-longford), and [Limerick](https://bliptext.com/articles/county-limerick), and [Dublin](https://bliptext.com/articles/dublin) • [Northern Ireland](https://bliptext.com/articles/northern-ireland) • [London](https://bliptext.com/articles/london), [UK](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-kingdom) • [Memphis](https://bliptext.com/articles/memphis-tennessee) and [Dallas areas](https://bliptext.com/articles/dallas-fort-worth-texas), [US](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-states) \n**Languages:** [Hiberno-English](https://bliptext.com/articles/hiberno-english), [Irish](https://bliptext.com/articles/irish-language), [Shelta](https://bliptext.com/articles/shelta) \n**Religions:** Predominantly [Roman Catholic](https://bliptext.com/articles/catholic-church) \n**Related Groups:** [Irish](https://bliptext.com/articles/irish-people), [Irish](https://bliptext.com/articles/irish-people) Traveller Americans \n:::\n\n# \n**Irish Travellers** (, meaning the walking people), also known as **Pavees** or **Mincéirs** ([Shelta](https://bliptext.com/articles/shelta): **Mincéirí**), are a traditionally [peripatetic](https://bliptext.com/articles/list-of-nomadic-peoples) [indigenous](https://bliptext.com/articles/indigenous-peoples) [ethno-cultural group](https://bliptext.com/articles/ethnic-group) originating in Ireland.\nThey are predominantly [English](https://bliptext.com/articles/english-language)-speaking, though many also speak [Shelta](https://bliptext.com/articles/shelta), a language of mixed [English](https://bliptext.com/articles/english-language) and [Irish](https://bliptext.com/articles/irish-language) origin.\nThe majority of Irish Travellers are [Roman Catholic](https://bliptext.com/articles/catholic-church), the [predominant religion in the Republic of Ireland](https://bliptext.com/articles/religion-in-the-republic-of-ireland).\nThey are one of several groups identified as \"[Travellers](https://bliptext.com/articles/itinerant-groups-in-europe)\" in the UK and Ireland.\nDespite often being incorrectly referred to as \"[Gypsies](https://bliptext.com/articles/names-of-the-romani-people)\", Irish Travellers are not genetically related to the [Roma people](https://bliptext.com/articles/romani-people), who are of [Indo-Aryan](https://bliptext.com/articles/indo-aryan-peoples) origin.\nGenetic analysis has shown [Irish](https://bliptext.com/articles/irish-people) Travellers to be of [Irish](https://bliptext.com/articles/irish-people) extraction, and that they likely diverged from the settled [Irish](https://bliptext.com/articles/irish-people) population in the 1600s, probably during the time of the [Cromwellian conquest of Ireland](https://bliptext.com/articles/cromwellian-conquest-of-ireland).\nCenturies of cultural isolation have led Travellers to become genetically distinct from the settled Irish.\nTraveller rights groups long advocated for ethnic status from the Irish government, succeeding in 2017.\nIrish Traveller communities are located in [Ireland](https://bliptext.com/articles/republic-of-ireland), the [United Kingdom](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-kingdom), the [United States](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-states) and [Canada](https://bliptext.com/articles/canada).\nAs of 2016, there were 32,302 Travellers within Ireland.\nThey represent 0.7% of the total population of the Republic of Ireland.\nThere are different estimates about the size of the total population of people with Traveller ancestry, because many people of Traveller descent do not declare themselves Travellers.\nThe United Kingdom alone is believed to be home to up to 300,000 Roma and Traveller people (including [Romanichal](https://bliptext.com/articles/romanichal)).\nThe British Government considers Travellers resident in the UK to form part of the [Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) community](https://bliptext.com/articles/gypsy-roma-and-traveller-people-uk).\n\n# Nomenclature\nTravellers refer to themselves in [Gammon](https://bliptext.com/articles/) as minkiers or in Irish as an lucht siúil (\"the walking people\").\n\n# Origins\nThere are numerous theories and oral histories surrounding the origins of Irish Travellers as a distinct group.\nResearch has been complicated by the fact that the group appears to have no written records of its own, with [oral tradition](https://bliptext.com/articles/oral-tradition) through storytelling being the primary method through which the Traveller community disseminates its own history and culture.\nDeeper documentation of Shelta and the Travellers dates to the 1830s, but knowledge of Irish Travellers has been seen from the 1100s, as well as the 1500s–1800s.\nMany decrees against begging in England were directed at Travellers, passed by King [Edward VI](https://bliptext.com/articles/edward-vi) around 1551; for example the \"Acte for tynckers and pedlers\".\nThe culture of Irish Travellers resembles the culture of other itinerant communities with regard to self-employment, family networks, birth, marriage, and burial rituals, taboos, and folklore.\nThey worked with metal and travelled throughout Ireland working at making items such as ornaments, jewellery, and horse harnesses to earn a living.\nAs a result, they (along with other itinerant groups) were referred to as \"[tinkers](https://bliptext.com/articles/tinker)\" or \"tinklers\" (meaning \"[tin smiths](https://bliptext.com/articles/tin-smith)\"), terms regarded in later years as derogatory.\n\n## Origin theories\nMany different theories have been put forward to explain the origins of Ireland's itinerant population.\nIt has been suggested Travellers are related to [Romani](https://bliptext.com/articles/romani-people) due to a similarly itinerant lifestyle, but [genetic testing](https://bliptext.com/articles/genetic-testing) has shown no evidence for a recent ancestral component between Irish Travellers and [Romani](https://bliptext.com/articles/romani-people) Travellers.\nThere is also a theory that an indigenous, itinerant community of craftsmen are the ancestors of Travellers, who never settled down.\nOther speculations on their origin are that they were descended from those Irish who were made homeless during the [Cromwellian conquest](https://bliptext.com/articles/cromwellian-conquest-of-ireland) in the 1650s, or made homeless in either the 1741 or the [1840s famine](https://bliptext.com/articles/great-famine-ireland), or due to [eviction](https://bliptext.com/articles/highland-clearances).\nAccording to Helleiner (2003), current scholarship is investigating the background of [Gaelic Ireland](https://bliptext.com/articles/gaelic-ireland) before the [English Tudor conquest](https://bliptext.com/articles/tudor-conquest-of-ireland).\nThe mobile nature and traditions of a Gaelic society based on [pastoralism](https://bliptext.com/articles/pastoralism) rather than land tenure before this event implies that Travellers represent descendants of the Gaelic social order marginalised during the change-over to an English landholding society.\nAn early example of this mobile element in the population, and how displacement of clans can lead to increased nomadism within aristocratic warrior societies, is the displacement of the [Clan Murtough O'Connors](https://bliptext.com/articles/clan-muircheartaigh-u-conchobhair) after the [Norman invasion](https://bliptext.com/articles/norman-invasion-of-ireland).\n\n## Population genetics\nGenetic evidence reported in 2000 regarding Irish Travellers supported Irish ancestry; several distinct subpopulations; and the distinctiveness of the midland counties due to Viking influence.\nIn 2011, researchers at the [Royal College of Surgeons](https://bliptext.com/articles/royal-college-of-surgeons-in-ireland) in Dublin and the [University of Edinburgh](https://bliptext.com/articles/university-of-edinburgh) analysed DNA samples from 40 Travellers.\nThe study provided evidence that Irish Travellers are a genetically separate Irish ethnic minority which has been distinct from the settled Irish community for at least 1,000 years: The report claimed that Travellers are as distinct from the settled community as [Icelanders](https://bliptext.com/articles/icelanders) are from [Norwegians](https://bliptext.com/articles/norwegians).\nIn 2017 a further genetic study using profiles of 50 Irish Travellers, 143 European Roma, 2,232 settled Irish, 2,039 British and 6,255 European or worldwide individuals, confirmed ancestral origins from within the general population of Ireland.\nAn estimated time of divergence between the settled population and Travellers was set at a minimum of 8 generations ago, with generations at 30 years, hence 240 years and a maximum of 14 generations or 420 years ago.\nThe best fit was estimated at 360 years ago, giving an approximate date in the 1650s.\nIrish Travellers are not an entirely homogeneous group, instead reflecting some of the variation also seen in the settled population.\nFour distinct genetic clusters were identified in the 2017 study, and these match social groupings within the community.\nIrish Travellers, particularly those that experienced a life of nomadism prior to the 2002 Irish legislation that altered living conditions, exhibit distinct gut microbiota compared to other Irish citizens, which is comparable to gut microbiomes observed in non-industrialized societies.\n\n### Genetic disease studies\nGenetic studies by Miriam Murphy, David Croke, and other researchers identified certain genetic diseases such as [galactosemia](https://bliptext.com/articles/galactosemia) that are more common in the Irish Traveller population, involving identifiable [allelic](https://bliptext.com/articles/allele) mutations that are rarer among the rest of the community.\nTwo main hypotheses have arisen, speculating whether:\nor\nIn their conclusion Murphy, McHugh, et al write that:\nMore specifically, they found that Q188R was found in 100% of Traveller samples, and in 89% of other Irish samples, indicating that the Traveller group was typical of the larger Irish population.\n\n# Language\nIrish Travellers speak English and sometimes one of two dialects of [Shelta](https://bliptext.com/articles/shelta) — Gammon (or Gamin) and Irish Traveller [Cant](https://bliptext.com/articles/cant-language).\nShelta has been dated back to the 18th century but may be older.\nCant, which derives from [Irish](https://bliptext.com/articles/irish-language), is a combination of English and Shelta.\nwrites that the Irish Traveller Gammon [vocabulary](https://bliptext.com/articles/vocabulary) is derived from pre-13th-century Gaelic [idioms](https://bliptext.com/articles/idiom) with ten per cent Indian origin [Romani language](https://bliptext.com/articles/romani-language) [vocabulary](https://bliptext.com/articles/vocabulary).\nSince Shelta is a mixture of English and Irish grammar, the etymology is not straightforward.\nThe language is made up mostly of Irish lexicon, being classified as a grammar-lexicon language with the grammar being English-based.\nGaelic language expert [Kuno Meyer](https://bliptext.com/articles/kuno-meyer) and Romani language linguist [John Sampson](https://bliptext.com/articles/john-sampson-linguist) both asserted that Shelta existed as far back as the 13th century, 300 years before the first Romani populations arrived in Ireland or Britain.\nShelta is a [cryptolect](https://bliptext.com/articles/cryptolect) (secret language).\nIrish Travellers do not like to share the language with outsiders, named \"Buffers\", or non-Travellers.\nWhen speaking Shelta in front of Buffers, Travellers will disguise the structure so as to make it seem like they are not speaking Shelta at all.\nThere is fear that if outsiders know the entirety of the language, it will be used to bring further discrimination to the Traveller community.\n\n# The Irish state and Irish Travellers\nThere was no specific [state](https://bliptext.com/articles/irish-free-state) focus on Travellers prior to the creation of an independent Irish [state](https://bliptext.com/articles/irish-free-state) in 1922.\nIssues with traditional travelling groups came under loosely defined [vagrancy laws](https://bliptext.com/articles/vagrancy-laws), from when Ireland was part of the [United Kingdom](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-kingdom).\nIn 1959 the [1959–1963 government of Ireland](https://bliptext.com/articles/government-of-the-17th-d-il) established a \"Commission on Itinerancy\" in response to calls to deal with the \"itinerant problem\".\nThis was made up of senior representatives of the Irish state, judges, [Gardaí](https://bliptext.com/articles/garda-s-och-na) (Irish police), religious organisations and numerous farming lobby groups such as [Macra na Feirme](https://bliptext.com/articles/macra-na-feirme).\nThe commission had no Traveller representatives, and while attempts were made to consult Travellers, these were \"bizarre\" unannounced visits which resulted in little input into the report.\nThe commission had the following terms of reference:\n

to enquire into the problem arising from the presence in the country of itinerants in considerable numbers;
to examine the economic, educational, health and social problems inherent in their way of life;
to consider what steps might be taken—\n
to provide opportunities for a better way of life for itinerants,
to promote their absorption into the general community,
pending such absorption, to reduce to a minimum the disadvantages to themselves and to the community resulting from their itinerant habits and
to improve the position generally; and

to make recommendations.

\nThe commission's 1963 report defined \"itinerant\" as \"a person who had no fixed place of abode and habitually wandered from place to place, but excluding [travelling show-people](https://bliptext.com/articles/carny) and travelling entertainers\".\nIt recommended [assimilation](https://bliptext.com/articles/cultural-assimilation) of Travellers by settling them in fixed dwellings with the ultimate aim being that of essentially ending Traveller identity, viewing the Netherlands' approach to its travelling minority as a model.\nThis assimilation was to be achieved by the effective criminalisation of nomadism, and the report paved the way for an increasing state emphasis on criminal laws and penalties for trespass.\nAt the time, about 60% of Irish Travellers lived in barrel-roofed horse-drawn wagons, with almost 40% still using tents in summer (fewer in winter).\nThe Travelling People Review Body (1981–1983) advocated [integration](https://bliptext.com/articles/social-integration) rather than assimilation, with provision for serviced halting sites.\nThe Body's membership included Travellers.\nThe Task Force on the Travelling Community (1993–1995) moved to an [intercultural](https://bliptext.com/articles/multiculturalism) paradigm.\nOn 30 May 2019 the [Oireachtas](https://bliptext.com/articles/oireachtas) (Irish parliament) established a [joint committee](https://bliptext.com/articles/joint-committee-legislative) \"on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community\".\nIn May 2021, the [Ombudsman for Children](https://bliptext.com/articles/children-s-ombudsman), Niall Muldoon, published a report that was highly critical of the standards of accommodation provided for Travellers, describing some accommodation issues as \"deplorable\".\n\n# Population\nIrish Travellers have a higher [fertility rate](https://bliptext.com/articles/fertility-rate) than the general Irish population; the [Central Statistics Office](https://bliptext.com/articles/central-statistics-office-ireland) of Ireland recorded in 2016 that 44.5% of Traveller women aged 40–49 had five or more children, compared to 4.2% of women overall in this age group.\nThis gap has dramatically reduced over time; in 1987 the Irish Traveller birth rate was at 5.3 children per woman compared to the general Irish population's 2.3, while in 2008 the Irish Traveller birth rate was at 2.9 children per woman compared to the general Irish population's 2.1.\n# [Travellers near the Four Masters monument in Donegal Town, 1958 | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Gypsies///near///the///Four///Masters///Monument%2C///Donegal///Town///%28geograph///3749126%29.jpg]\n\n## Ireland\nThe 2016 census in the [Republic of Ireland](https://bliptext.com/articles/republic-of-ireland) reported the number of Irish Travellers as 30,987, up from 29,495 in 2011.\nIn 2006 the number was 22,369.\nA further 1,700 to 2,000 were estimated to live in [Northern Ireland](https://bliptext.com/articles/northern-ireland).\nFrom the 2006 Irish census, it was determined that 20,975 dwell in urban areas and 1,460 were living in rural areas.\nWith an overall population of just 0.5% some areas were found to have a higher proportion, with high Traveller concentrations in Clare, Dublin, Galway and Limerick.\nThere were found to be 9,301 Travellers in the 0–14 age range, comprising 41.5% of the Traveller population, and a further 3,406 of them were in the 15–24 age range, comprising 15.2%.\nChildren of the age range 0–17 comprised 48.7% of the Traveller population.\nFollowing the findings of the All Ireland Traveller Health Study (estimates for 2008), the figure for Northern Ireland was revised to 3,905 and that for the Republic to 36,224.\nThe rural community of [Rathkeale](https://bliptext.com/articles/rathkeale), [County Limerick](https://bliptext.com/articles/county-limerick), has one of the largest populations of any towns percentage-wise, with around half of its residents having Irish Traveller ancestry.\nTraveller clans, gangs, and associations or events linked to the Traveller community and culture may often have the name Rathkeale linked with it, such as the [Rathkeale Rovers](https://bliptext.com/articles/rathkeale-rovers).\nIt is sometimes considered a rural mecca of Travellers in this regard.\nThere are other communities, including in Dublin as well.\n[Tuam](https://bliptext.com/articles/tuam) (c. 5% Traveller) and [Longford](https://bliptext.com/articles/longford) both have abundant Traveller communities in rural areas as well.\nWhile not as high proportion-wise, due to its high population in general, [Dublin](https://bliptext.com/articles/dublin) and its suburbs have over 5,000 Travellers, whom make up a scant 0.4% of [Dublin](https://bliptext.com/articles/dublin)'s population proper and 0.2-0.3% of the Greater [Dublin](https://bliptext.com/articles/dublin) population.\n[Ballyfermot](https://bliptext.com/articles/ballyfermot), Dublin has a large Traveller community, mostly located in the Labre Park area.\nCounty Longford has the highest Traveller percentage rate for the 0-24 age group, of any Irish county, at 5%, followed by County Galway at 3%.\n\n## Diaspora\n\n### United Kingdom\nIn 2011, for the first time, the census category \"Irish Traveller\" was introduced as part of the broader Gypsy/Traveller section.\nWhile Irish Travellers and Romani Gypsy people are genetically distant from each other, with Travellers having Irish roots, and Roma Gypsies having alleged South Asian heritage, they are conflated in the UK Census, so the number of Travellers may be lower than what is reported in this category.\nThe self reported figure for collective Gypsy/Traveller populations were 63,193 but estimates of Irish Travellers living in Great Britain range are about 15,000 as part of a total estimation of over 300,000 Romani and other Traveller groups in the UK.\nIn the [2021 Census of England and Wales](https://bliptext.com/articles/2021-united-kingdom-census), the Gypsy/Irish Traveller community numbered 67,757, or 0.1% of the population.\nThe [London Boroughs](https://bliptext.com/articles/london-boroughs) of [Harrow](https://bliptext.com/articles/london-borough-of-harrow) and [Brent](https://bliptext.com/articles/london-borough-of-brent) contain significant Irish Traveller populations.\nIn addition to those on various official sites, there are a number who are settled in local authority housing.\nThese are mostly women who wish their children to have a chance at formal education.\nThey and the children may or may not travel in the summer but remain in close contact with the wider Irish Traveller community.\nThere are also a number of Irish Traveller communities in the [Home counties](https://bliptext.com/articles/home-counties).\n\n### United States\nAn estimated 10,000 people in the United States are descendants of Travellers who left Ireland, mostly between 1845 and 1860 during the [Great Famine](https://bliptext.com/articles/great-famine-ireland).\nHowever, there are no official population figures regarding Irish Travellers in the United States as the [US census](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-states-census) does not recognise them as an ethnic group.\nWhile some sources estimate their population in the U.S. to be 10,000, others suggest their population is 40,000.\nAccording to research published in 1992, Irish Travellers in the U.S. divide themselves up into groups that are based on historical residence: Ohio Travellers, Georgia Travellers, Texas Travellers, and Mississippi Travellers.\nThe Georgia Travellers' camp is made up of about eight hundred families, the Mississippi Travellers, about three hundred families, and the Texas Travellers, under fifty families.\"\nThe largest and most affluent population of about 2,500 lives in Murphy Village, outside of the town of [North Augusta, South Carolina](https://bliptext.com/articles/north-augusta-south-carolina).\nOther communities exist in [Memphis, Tennessee](https://bliptext.com/articles/memphis-tennessee); [Hernando, Mississippi](https://bliptext.com/articles/hernando-mississippi); and near [White Settlement, Texas](https://bliptext.com/articles/white-settlement-texas); where the families stay in their homes during the winter, and leave during the summer, while smaller enclaves can be found across Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi.\nIrish Travellers in the U.S. are said to speak English and Shelta, a form of Cant.\nThe Cant spoken in the U.S. is similar to the Cant spoken in Ireland, but differs in some respects in that the language has transformed into a type of [pidgin](https://bliptext.com/articles/pidgin) English over the generations.\nThey typically do construction work, such as asphalting, spray-painting, and laying linoleum, or as [itinerant workers](https://bliptext.com/articles/migrant-worker).\n\n# Religion\nTravellers have a distinctive approach to [religion](https://bliptext.com/articles/religion); the vast majority of them are practising [Roman Catholics](https://bliptext.com/articles/catholic-church), and they also pay particular attention to issues of [healing](https://bliptext.com/articles/faith-healing).\nMany have been known to follow a strict code of behaviour that dictates some of their moral beliefs and influences their actions.\nIrish Travellers are known to practice their Catholic faith at holy wells and shrines across Ireland.\nTravellers were excluded in the past from everyday parish activities in Ireland.\nRichard O'Brien of the Kerry diocese is a member of the Traveller community who started a groundbreaking initiative to reach out to the Irish Traveller community and help them to be more involved in parish life.\nThe Irish Bishops Conference released a statement to every parish, asking them to welcome Irish Travellers to their towns and villages throughout Ireland.\n\n# Education\nIn 2004, it was reported that Traveller children often grow up outside educational systems.\nTraveller children were reported in 2017 to leave education at a younger age than children in the settled community, with 28% leaving the education system by age 13.\nOne of the causes identified is the historical marginalisation of the community within the educational system.\nThe segregation of Traveller children from their settled peers led to worse outcomes in regard to undertaking state examinations, and levels of numeracy and literacy.\nThe [Irish Traveller Movement](https://bliptext.com/articles/irish-traveller-movement), a community advocacy group, promotes equal access to education for Traveller children.\nIn the Census of Ireland 2016, 167 Travellers are enumerated as having a third level educational qualification, a rise from 89 in 2011.\nIn December 2010, the Irish Equality Tribunal ruled in favour of a Traveller child in an anti-discrimination suit which covered the admission practices of [CBS High School Clonmel](https://bliptext.com/articles/cbs-high-school-clonmel) in [County Tipperary](https://bliptext.com/articles/county-tipperary).\nIn July 2011, the secondary school in Clonmel successfully appealed the decision of the Equality Tribunal that its admission criteria were indirectly discriminatory against children from the Traveller community.\n\n# Sports\nIrish Travellers have a long history of [bare-knuckle boxing](https://bliptext.com/articles/bare-knuckle-boxing).\nToughness and the ability to fight are viewed as particularly important among Traveller men, and their involvement in boxing has extended to traditional [amateur](https://bliptext.com/articles/amateur-boxing) and [professional boxing](https://bliptext.com/articles/professional-boxing).\nIrish Traveller [Francie Barrett](https://bliptext.com/articles/francie-barrett) represented Ireland at the 1996 Olympics, while [Andy Lee](https://bliptext.com/articles/andy-lee-boxer) fought for Ireland at the 2004 Olympics and later became the first Traveller to win a professional boxing world championship when he won the WBO middleweight title in 2014.\n[Tyson Fury](https://bliptext.com/articles/tyson-fury) is of Irish Traveller heritage and defeated long-reigning [Wladimir Klitschko](https://bliptext.com/articles/wladimir-klitschko) in 2015 to become the unified heavyweight world champion.\nIn the Traveller community, bare-knuckle boxing is seen as a way to resolve disputes and uphold family honour, as shown in the 2011 documentary [Knuckle](https://bliptext.com/articles/knuckle-film).\nThis can lead to injuries, notably \"fight bite\" where, when punching an opponent, a tooth may cut the hand and bacteria in the opponent's mouth may infect the wound.\nSuch infections can lead to permanent disability if left untreated.\nApart from boxing, Irish Travellers, including women, are involved in sports such as football (soccer) and [Gaelic handball](https://bliptext.com/articles/gaelic-handball).\n\n# Health\nThe health of Irish Travellers is significantly poorer than that of the general population in Ireland.\nThis is evidenced in a 2007 report published in Ireland, which states that over half of Travellers do not live past the age of 39 years.\n(By comparison, median life expectancy in Ireland is 81.5 years.) Another government report of 1987 found:\n\"From birth to old age, they have high mortality rates, particularly from accidents, metabolic and congenital problems, but also from other major causes of death. Female Travellers have especially high mortality compared to settled women.\"\nIn 2007, the [Department of Health and Children](https://bliptext.com/articles/department-of-health-ireland) in the Republic of Ireland, in conjunction with the [Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety](https://bliptext.com/articles/department-of-health-social-services-and-public-safety) in Northern Ireland, commissioned the [University College Dublin](https://bliptext.com/articles/university-college-dublin)'s School of Public Health and Population Science to conduct a major cross-border study of Travellers' welfare.\nThe study, including a detailed census of Traveller population and an examination of their health status, was expected to take up to three years to complete.\nThe main results of the study were published in 2010.\nThe [birth rate](https://bliptext.com/articles/birth-rate) of Irish Travellers has decreased since the 1990s, but they still have one of the highest [birth rate](https://bliptext.com/articles/birth-rate)s in Europe.\nThe birth rate for the Traveller community for the year 2005 was 33.32 per 1,000, possibly the highest birth rate recorded for any community in Europe.\nOn average there are ten times more driving fatalities within the Traveller community.\nAt 22%, this represents the most common cause of death among Traveller males.\nSome 10% of Traveller children die before their second birthday, compared to just 1% of the general population.\nIn Ireland, 2.6% of all deaths in the total population were for people aged under 25, versus 32% for Travellers.\nIn addition, 80% of Travellers die before the age of 65.\nAccording to the National Traveller Suicide Awareness Project, Traveller men are over six times more likely to die by suicide than the general population.\n# [Irish Travellers in 1946 | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Moeder///en///kind///voor///een///tent%2C///Bestanddeelnr///191-0828.jpg]\n\n# Marriage\nMarriage among Travellers in their late teens is common.\nAs of the Census of Ireland 2016 58.1% of Irish Travellers were under the age of 25, with 31.9% of this age group married.\nAs of 2016, 201 enumerated Irish Travellers aged 15 to 19 identified themselves as married, down from 250 in 2011.\nIrish Travellers generally marry other Irish Travellers.\n[Consanguineous](https://bliptext.com/articles/consanguinity) marriage is common among Irish Travellers.\nAccording to [Judith Okely](https://bliptext.com/articles/judith-okely)'s work on Travellers in Britain in the 1970s, \"there is no large time span between puberty and marriage\", and the typical marriage age was 16–17 for females and 18–19 for males.\nIrish Travellers lived as [cohabiters](https://bliptext.com/articles/cohabiters) who \"married at one time without religious or civil ceremony.\"\nInto the early 20th century about one-third of Irish Travellers were \"married according to the law.\"\nAccording to Christopher Griffin, sociology and anthropology lecturer at [Edith Cowan University](https://bliptext.com/articles/edith-cowan-university), arranged Irish Traveller marriages in the early 21st century \"safeguard the girl's by securing a man who won't mistreat her.\"\nAccording to [Julie Bindel](https://bliptext.com/articles/julie-bindel), in [Standpoint](https://bliptext.com/articles/standpoint-magazine), some Irish Traveller females in the UK are forced into marriages, but Bindel points out that data is difficult to obtain because \"the line between an arranged marriage and a forced one is not always clear.\"\n\n# Social conflict\n\n## Discrimination and prejudice\nTravellers are often reported as the subject of explicit political and cultural discrimination, with politicians being elected on promises to block Traveller housing in local communities and individuals frequently refusing service in pubs, shops and hotels.\nA 2011 survey by the Economic and Social Research Institute of Ireland concluded that there is widespread ostracism of Travellers in Ireland, and the report concluded that it could hurt the long-term prospects for Travellers, who \"need the intercultural solidarity of their neighbours in the settled community. ... They are too small a minority, i.e., 0.5 per cent, to survive in a meaningful manner without ongoing and supportive personal contact with their fellow citizens in the settled community.\"\nThe general prejudice against Travellers hinders efforts by the central government to integrate Travellers into Irish society.\nBecause Travellers are a minority group within Ireland and the United Kingdom, they have always faced discrimination on the basis of their ethnicity as Travellers.\nThey experience discrimination in not having equal access to education, being denied service in pubs, shops, and hotels, and being subject to derogatory language.\nIn 2016, the USA's [Country Reports on Human Rights Practices](https://bliptext.com/articles/country-reports-on-human-rights-practices) for the United Kingdom stated that Irish Travellers reported receiving discrimination on \"racial or ethnic grounds\" in the country, and stated that the High Court had ruled that the [government](https://bliptext.com/articles/government-of-the-united-kingdom) had illegally discriminated against Travellers by unlawfully subjecting planning applications to special scrutiny.\n\n## Work and income\nAccording to the 2016 Irish census, 4,524 of 9,055 Travellers over the age of 15 (50%) were \"Unemployed having lost or given up previous job\".\nWhile 10,653 Travellers were in the labour force, the vast majority, 8,541 (80.2%), were unemployed.\nAlmost 1 in 8 Travellers (11.3%) stated that they were unable to work due to a disability, which was almost three times the rate of the general population (4.3%).\nMany Travellers are breeders of dogs such as [lurchers](https://bliptext.com/articles/lurcher) and have a long-standing interest in horse trading.\nThe main fairs associated with them are held annually at [Ballinasloe](https://bliptext.com/articles/ballinasloe-fair) (County Galway), Puck Fair (County Kerry), Ballabuidhe Horse Fair (County Cork), the twice-yearly Smithfield Horse Fair (Dublin inner city) and [Appleby](https://bliptext.com/articles/appleby-horse-fair) (England).\nThey are often involved in dealing scrap metals, e.g., 60% of the raw material for Irish steel is sourced from scrap metal, approximately 50% (75,000 metric tonnes) segregated by the community at a value of more than £1.5 million.\nSuch percentages for more valuable non-ferrous metals may be significantly greater.\nSince the majority of Irish Travellers' employment is either [self-employment](https://bliptext.com/articles/self-employment) or [wage labour](https://bliptext.com/articles/wage-labour), income and financial status varies greatly from family to family.\nMany families choose not to reveal the specifics of their finances, but when explained it is very difficult to detect any sort of pattern or regular trend of monthly or weekly income.\nTo detect their financial status many look to the state of their possessions: their [trailer](https://bliptext.com/articles/travel-trailer), [motor vehicle](https://bliptext.com/articles/motor-vehicle), domestic utensils, and any other valuables.\n\n## Social identity\nIrish Travellers are recognised in [British](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-kingdom-law) and [Irish law](https://bliptext.com/articles/law-in-the-republic-of-ireland) as an [ethnic group](https://bliptext.com/articles/ethnic-group).\nAn ethnic group is defined as one whose members identify with each other, usually on the basis of a presumed common genealogy or ancestry.\nEthnic identity is also marked by the recognition from others of a group's distinctiveness and by common cultural, linguistic, religious, behavioural or biological traits.\nThe [European Parliament](https://bliptext.com/articles/european-parliament) Committee of Enquiry on Racism and [Xenophobia](https://bliptext.com/articles/xenophobia) found them to be among the most discriminated-against [ethnic](https://bliptext.com/articles/ethnic) groups in Ireland and yet their status remains insecure in the absence of widespread legal endorsement.\nTravellers are often viewed by settled people in a negative light, perceived as insular, anti-social, 'drop-outs' and 'misfits', or believed to be involved in criminal and [mendicant](https://bliptext.com/articles/mendicant) behaviour, or settling illegally on land owned by others.\n# [The Traveller Ethnicity pin was created to celebrate the Irish State's formal acknowledgment on 1 March 2017 of Travellers as a distinct ethnic group in Irish society. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/Traveller///Ethnicity///pin.jpg]\n\n## Violence and crime\nIn 1960 a government body was set up to conduct research into the Travelling Community in the Republic of Ireland.\nThe Commission on Itinerancy operated under the auspices of the Department of Justice, the persons were appointed by the Junior Minister [Charles Haughey](https://bliptext.com/articles/charles-haughey).\nOne finding was: that \"public brawling fuelled by excessive drinking further added to settled people's fear of Travellers\".\nFurthermore \"feuding was felt to be the result of a dearth of pastimes and [of] illiteracy, historically comparable to features of rural Irish life before the Famine\".\nA 2011 report, conducted by the Irish Chaplaincy in Britain, Voices Unheard: A Study of Irish Travellers in Prison (Mac Gabhann, 2011) found that social, economic and educational exclusion were contributing factors to the \"increasingly high levels of imprisonment\" of Irish Travellers.\n\n## Travellers' sites in the United Kingdom\nThe passing of the [Caravan Sites Act 1968](https://bliptext.com/articles/caravan-sites-act-1968) safeguarded Travellers' right to a site, but the [Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994](https://bliptext.com/articles/criminal-justice-and-public-order-act-1994) repealed part II of the 1968 act, removing the duty on local authorities in the UK to provide sites for Travellers and giving them the power to close down existing sites.\nIn Northern Ireland, opposition to Travellers' sites has been led by the [Democratic Unionist Party](https://bliptext.com/articles/democratic-unionist-party).\nHowever, Travellers make frequent use of other, non-authorised sites.\nThese include public [common land](https://bliptext.com/articles/common-land) and private plots such as large fields and other privately owned lands.\nA famous example was the occupation of [Dale Farm](https://bliptext.com/articles/dale-farm) in Essex in 2010.\nThe Travellers claim that there is an under-provision of authorised sites.\nThe Gypsy Council estimates under-provision amounts to insufficient sites for 3,500 people.\n\n# List of Travellers' organisations\nThe following are some of the Travellers' representative organisations formed since the 1960s:\n# [The flag of the Irish Traveller Movement | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Irish///Traveller///Movement///flag.svg]\n# [logo for Minceirs Whiden Ireland, the all-Traveller Forum | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/Minceirs///Whiden///logo.jpg]\n\n# Depictions and documentaries\nIrish Travellers have been depicted, usually negatively but sometimes with some care and sympathy, in film, radio, print, and television.\nShows like [The Riches](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-riches) (2007–2008), the American television series featuring [Eddie Izzard](https://bliptext.com/articles/eddie-izzard) and [Minnie Driver](https://bliptext.com/articles/minnie-driver), take a deeper look into the Traveller lifestyle.\nThe documentary series [Big Fat Gypsy Weddings](https://bliptext.com/articles/big-fat-gypsy-weddings) (2010, 2011, and 2012) has been commercially successful in the United Kingdom, offering glimpses of Traveller life as viewed at real-life weddings.\nA 1997 American film, [Traveller](https://bliptext.com/articles/traveller-1997-film), starring [Bill Paxton](https://bliptext.com/articles/bill-paxton) and [Mark Wahlberg](https://bliptext.com/articles/mark-wahlberg), also explored the [Traveller](https://bliptext.com/articles/traveller-1997-film)s in America.\nIn his 1993 documentary Rules of the Road German filmmaker [Oliver Herbrich](https://bliptext.com/articles/oliver-herbrich) portrayed the Travellers in Ireland and the UK as a nomadic ethnic group forced to adapt to a settled lifestyle.\nSome of the main characters in the Irish sitcom [Derry Girls](https://bliptext.com/articles/derry-girls) encounter a group of Travellers in an episode that aired on 19 March 2019.\n[Brad Pitt](https://bliptext.com/articles/brad-pitt) played a bare-knuckle Traveller boxer in the movie [Snatch](https://bliptext.com/articles/snatch-film).\nThe 2005 Irish horror film [Isolation](https://bliptext.com/articles/isolation-2005-film) has Traveller characters in its plot.\n\n# Explanatory notes\n\n# Citations\n\n# General and cited references","current_revision":null,"created_by":"kACnuQmH5k9Nr5VNVEpVeg7XpvUmMctD","created_at":"2025-01-25T17:51:00.665Z","updated_at":"2025-01-25T17:51:00.665Z","search_vector":"'irish':1 'travel':2","search_content":" \n \n**Group:** Irish Travellers \n**Native Name:** An lucht siúil · Mincéirí \n**Image Caption:** Irish Travellers in 1954 \n**Region 1:** [Republic of Ireland](https://bliptext.com/articles/republic-of-ireland) \n**Pop 1:** 30,987 (2016) \n**Region 2:** [Northern Ireland](https://bliptext.com/articles/northern-ireland) \n**Pop 2:** 2,609 (2021) \n**Region 3:** [United States](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-states) \n**Pop 3:** 10-40,000 (2010s-20s estimate) \n**Region 4:** [United Kingdom](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-kingdom) \n**Pop 4:** 65,000 \n**Regions:** Throughout Ireland, especially in [Counties Galway](https://bliptext.com/articles/county-galway), [Mayo](https://bliptext.com/articles/county-mayo), [Longford](https://bliptext.com/articles/county-longford), and [Limerick](https://bliptext.com/articles/county-limerick), and [Dublin](https://bliptext.com/articles/dublin) • [Northern Ireland](https://bliptext.com/articles/northern-ireland) • [London](https://bliptext.com/articles/london), [UK](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-kingdom) • [Memphis](https://bliptext.com/articles/memphis-tennessee) and [Dallas areas](https://bliptext.com/articles/dallas-fort-worth-texas), [US](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-states) \n**Languages:** [Hiberno-English](https://bliptext.com/articles/hiberno-english), [Irish](https://bliptext.com/articles/irish-language), [Shelta](https://bliptext.com/articles/shelta) \n**Religions:** Predominantly [Roman Catholic](https://bliptext.com/articles/catholic-church) \n**Related Groups:** [Irish](https://bliptext.com/articles/irish-people), [Irish](https://bliptext.com/articles/irish-people) Traveller Americans \n \n\n# \n**Irish Travellers** (, meaning the walking people), also known as **Pavees** or **Mincéirs** ([Shelta](https://bliptext.com/articles/shelta): **Mincéirí**), are a traditionally [peripatetic](https://bliptext.com/articles/list-of-nomadic-peoples) [indigenous](https://bliptext.com/articles/indigenous-peoples) [ethno-cultural group](https://bliptext.com/articles/ethnic-group) originating in Ireland.\nThey are predominantly [English](https://bliptext.com/articles/english-language)-speaking, though many also speak [Shelta](https://bliptext.com/articles/shelta), a language of mixed [English](https://bliptext.com/articles/english-language) and [Irish](https://bliptext.com/articles/irish-language) origin.\nThe majority of Irish Travellers are [Roman Catholic](https://bliptext.com/articles/catholic-church), the [predominant religion in the Republic of Ireland](https://bliptext.com/articles/religion-in-the-republic-of-ireland).\nThey are one of several groups identified as \"[Travellers](https://bliptext.com/articles/itinerant-groups-in-europe)\" in the UK and Ireland.\nDespite often being incorrectly referred to as \"[Gypsies](https://bliptext.com/articles/names-of-the-romani-people)\", Irish Travellers are not genetically related to the [Roma people](https://bliptext.com/articles/romani-people), who are of [Indo-Aryan](https://bliptext.com/articles/indo-aryan-peoples) origin.\nGenetic analysis has shown [Irish](https://bliptext.com/articles/irish-people) Travellers to be of [Irish](https://bliptext.com/articles/irish-people) extraction, and that they likely diverged from the settled [Irish](https://bliptext.com/articles/irish-people) population in the 1600s, probably during the time of the [Cromwellian conquest of Ireland](https://bliptext.com/articles/cromwellian-conquest-of-ireland).\nCenturies of cultural isolation have led Travellers to become genetically distinct from the settled Irish.\nTraveller rights groups long advocated for ethnic status from the Irish government, succeeding in 2017.\nIrish Traveller communities are located in [Ireland](https://bliptext.com/articles/republic-of-ireland), the [United Kingdom](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-kingdom), the [United States](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-states) and [Canada](https://bliptext.com/articles/canada).\nAs of 2016, there were 32,302 Travellers within Ireland.\nThey represent 0.7% of the total population of the Republic of Ireland.\nThere are different estimates about the size of the total population of people with Traveller ancestry, because many people of Traveller descent do not declare themselves Travellers.\nThe United Kingdom alone is believed to be home to up to 300,000 Roma and Traveller people (including [Romanichal](https://bliptext.com/articles/romanichal)).\nThe British Government considers Travellers resident in the UK to form part of the [Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) community](https://bliptext.com/articles/gypsy-roma-and-traveller-people-uk).\n\n# Nomenclature\nTravellers refer to themselves in [Gammon](https://bliptext.com/articles/) as minkiers or in Irish as an lucht siúil (\"the walking people\").\n\n# Origins\nThere are numerous theories and oral histories surrounding the origins of Irish Travellers as a distinct group.\nResearch has been complicated by the fact that the group appears to have no written records of its own, with [oral tradition](https://bliptext.com/articles/oral-tradition) through storytelling being the primary method through which the Traveller community disseminates its own history and culture.\nDeeper documentation of Shelta and the Travellers dates to the 1830s, but knowledge of Irish Travellers has been seen from the 1100s, as well as the 1500s–1800s.\nMany decrees against begging in England were directed at Travellers, passed by King [Edward VI](https://bliptext.com/articles/edward-vi) around 1551; for example the \"Acte for tynckers and pedlers\".\nThe culture of Irish Travellers resembles the culture of other itinerant communities with regard to self-employment, family networks, birth, marriage, and burial rituals, taboos, and folklore.\nThey worked with metal and travelled throughout Ireland working at making items such as ornaments, jewellery, and horse harnesses to earn a living.\nAs a result, they (along with other itinerant groups) were referred to as \"[tinkers](https://bliptext.com/articles/tinker)\" or \"tinklers\" (meaning \"[tin smiths](https://bliptext.com/articles/tin-smith)\"), terms regarded in later years as derogatory.\n\n## Origin theories\nMany different theories have been put forward to explain the origins of Ireland's itinerant population.\nIt has been suggested Travellers are related to [Romani](https://bliptext.com/articles/romani-people) due to a similarly itinerant lifestyle, but [genetic testing](https://bliptext.com/articles/genetic-testing) has shown no evidence for a recent ancestral component between Irish Travellers and [Romani](https://bliptext.com/articles/romani-people) Travellers.\nThere is also a theory that an indigenous, itinerant community of craftsmen are the ancestors of Travellers, who never settled down.\nOther speculations on their origin are that they were descended from those Irish who were made homeless during the [Cromwellian conquest](https://bliptext.com/articles/cromwellian-conquest-of-ireland) in the 1650s, or made homeless in either the 1741 or the [1840s famine](https://bliptext.com/articles/great-famine-ireland), or due to [eviction](https://bliptext.com/articles/highland-clearances).\nAccording to Helleiner (2003), current scholarship is investigating the background of [Gaelic Ireland](https://bliptext.com/articles/gaelic-ireland) before the [English Tudor conquest](https://bliptext.com/articles/tudor-conquest-of-ireland).\nThe mobile nature and traditions of a Gaelic society based on [pastoralism](https://bliptext.com/articles/pastoralism) rather than land tenure before this event implies that Travellers represent descendants of the Gaelic social order marginalised during the change-over to an English landholding society.\nAn early example of this mobile element in the population, and how displacement of clans can lead to increased nomadism within aristocratic warrior societies, is the displacement of the [Clan Murtough O'Connors](https://bliptext.com/articles/clan-muircheartaigh-u-conchobhair) after the [Norman invasion](https://bliptext.com/articles/norman-invasion-of-ireland).\n\n## Population genetics\nGenetic evidence reported in 2000 regarding Irish Travellers supported Irish ancestry; several distinct subpopulations; and the distinctiveness of the midland counties due to Viking influence.\nIn 2011, researchers at the [Royal College of Surgeons](https://bliptext.com/articles/royal-college-of-surgeons-in-ireland) in Dublin and the [University of Edinburgh](https://bliptext.com/articles/university-of-edinburgh) analysed DNA samples from 40 Travellers.\nThe study provided evidence that Irish Travellers are a genetically separate Irish ethnic minority which has been distinct from the settled Irish community for at least 1,000 years: The report claimed that Travellers are as distinct from the settled community as [Icelanders](https://bliptext.com/articles/icelanders) are from [Norwegians](https://bliptext.com/articles/norwegians).\nIn 2017 a further genetic study using profiles of 50 Irish Travellers, 143 European Roma, 2,232 settled Irish, 2,039 British and 6,255 European or worldwide individuals, confirmed ancestral origins from within the general population of Ireland.\nAn estimated time of divergence between the settled population and Travellers was set at a minimum of 8 generations ago, with generations at 30 years, hence 240 years and a maximum of 14 generations or 420 years ago.\nThe best fit was estimated at 360 years ago, giving an approximate date in the 1650s.\nIrish Travellers are not an entirely homogeneous group, instead reflecting some of the variation also seen in the settled population.\nFour distinct genetic clusters were identified in the 2017 study, and these match social groupings within the community.\nIrish Travellers, particularly those that experienced a life of nomadism prior to the 2002 Irish legislation that altered living conditions, exhibit distinct gut microbiota compared to other Irish citizens, which is comparable to gut microbiomes observed in non-industrialized societies.\n\n### Genetic disease studies\nGenetic studies by Miriam Murphy, David Croke, and other researchers identified certain genetic diseases such as [galactosemia](https://bliptext.com/articles/galactosemia) that are more common in the Irish Traveller population, involving identifiable [allelic](https://bliptext.com/articles/allele) mutations that are rarer among the rest of the community.\nTwo main hypotheses have arisen, speculating whether:\nor\nIn their conclusion Murphy, McHugh, et al write that:\nMore specifically, they found that Q188R was found in 100% of Traveller samples, and in 89% of other Irish samples, indicating that the Traveller group was typical of the larger Irish population.\n\n# Language\nIrish Travellers speak English and sometimes one of two dialects of [Shelta](https://bliptext.com/articles/shelta) — Gammon (or Gamin) and Irish Traveller [Cant](https://bliptext.com/articles/cant-language).\nShelta has been dated back to the 18th century but may be older.\nCant, which derives from [Irish](https://bliptext.com/articles/irish-language), is a combination of English and Shelta.\nwrites that the Irish Traveller Gammon [vocabulary](https://bliptext.com/articles/vocabulary) is derived from pre-13th-century Gaelic [idioms](https://bliptext.com/articles/idiom) with ten per cent Indian origin [Romani language](https://bliptext.com/articles/romani-language) [vocabulary](https://bliptext.com/articles/vocabulary).\nSince Shelta is a mixture of English and Irish grammar, the etymology is not straightforward.\nThe language is made up mostly of Irish lexicon, being classified as a grammar-lexicon language with the grammar being English-based.\nGaelic language expert [Kuno Meyer](https://bliptext.com/articles/kuno-meyer) and Romani language linguist [John Sampson](https://bliptext.com/articles/john-sampson-linguist) both asserted that Shelta existed as far back as the 13th century, 300 years before the first Romani populations arrived in Ireland or Britain.\nShelta is a [cryptolect](https://bliptext.com/articles/cryptolect) (secret language).\nIrish Travellers do not like to share the language with outsiders, named \"Buffers\", or non-Travellers.\nWhen speaking Shelta in front of Buffers, Travellers will disguise the structure so as to make it seem like they are not speaking Shelta at all.\nThere is fear that if outsiders know the entirety of the language, it will be used to bring further discrimination to the Traveller community.\n\n# The Irish state and Irish Travellers\nThere was no specific [state](https://bliptext.com/articles/irish-free-state) focus on Travellers prior to the creation of an independent Irish [state](https://bliptext.com/articles/irish-free-state) in 1922.\nIssues with traditional travelling groups came under loosely defined [vagrancy laws](https://bliptext.com/articles/vagrancy-laws), from when Ireland was part of the [United Kingdom](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-kingdom).\nIn 1959 the [1959–1963 government of Ireland](https://bliptext.com/articles/government-of-the-17th-d-il) established a \"Commission on Itinerancy\" in response to calls to deal with the \"itinerant problem\".\nThis was made up of senior representatives of the Irish state, judges, [Gardaí](https://bliptext.com/articles/garda-s-och-na) (Irish police), religious organisations and numerous farming lobby groups such as [Macra na Feirme](https://bliptext.com/articles/macra-na-feirme).\nThe commission had no Traveller representatives, and while attempts were made to consult Travellers, these were \"bizarre\" unannounced visits which resulted in little input into the report.\nThe commission had the following terms of reference:\n to enquire into the problem arising from the presence in the country of itinerants in considerable numbers; \n to examine the economic, educational, health and social problems inherent in their way of life; \n to consider what steps might be taken—\n to provide opportunities for a better way of life for itinerants, \n to promote their absorption into the general community, \n pending such absorption, to reduce to a minimum the disadvantages to themselves and to the community resulting from their itinerant habits and \n to improve the position generally; and \n \n to make recommendations. \nThe commission's 1963 report defined \"itinerant\" as \"a person who had no fixed place of abode and habitually wandered from place to place, but excluding [travelling show-people](https://bliptext.com/articles/carny) and travelling entertainers\".\nIt recommended [assimilation](https://bliptext.com/articles/cultural-assimilation) of Travellers by settling them in fixed dwellings with the ultimate aim being that of essentially ending Traveller identity, viewing the Netherlands' approach to its travelling minority as a model.\nThis assimilation was to be achieved by the effective criminalisation of nomadism, and the report paved the way for an increasing state emphasis on criminal laws and penalties for trespass.\nAt the time, about 60% of Irish Travellers lived in barrel-roofed horse-drawn wagons, with almost 40% still using tents in summer (fewer in winter).\nThe Travelling People Review Body (1981–1983) advocated [integration](https://bliptext.com/articles/social-integration) rather than assimilation, with provision for serviced halting sites.\nThe Body's membership included Travellers.\nThe Task Force on the Travelling Community (1993–1995) moved to an [intercultural](https://bliptext.com/articles/multiculturalism) paradigm.\nOn 30 May 2019 the [Oireachtas](https://bliptext.com/articles/oireachtas) (Irish parliament) established a [joint committee](https://bliptext.com/articles/joint-committee-legislative) \"on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community\".\nIn May 2021, the [Ombudsman for Children](https://bliptext.com/articles/children-s-ombudsman), Niall Muldoon, published a report that was highly critical of the standards of accommodation provided for Travellers, describing some accommodation issues as \"deplorable\".\n\n# Population\nIrish Travellers have a higher [fertility rate](https://bliptext.com/articles/fertility-rate) than the general Irish population; the [Central Statistics Office](https://bliptext.com/articles/central-statistics-office-ireland) of Ireland recorded in 2016 that 44.5% of Traveller women aged 40–49 had five or more children, compared to 4.2% of women overall in this age group.\nThis gap has dramatically reduced over time; in 1987 the Irish Traveller birth rate was at 5.3 children per woman compared to the general Irish population's 2.3, while in 2008 the Irish Traveller birth rate was at 2.9 children per woman compared to the general Irish population's 2.1.\n# [Travellers near the Four Masters monument in Donegal Town, 1958 | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Gypsies///near///the///Four///Masters///Monument%2C///Donegal///Town///%28geograph///3749126%29.jpg]\n\n## Ireland\nThe 2016 census in the [Republic of Ireland](https://bliptext.com/articles/republic-of-ireland) reported the number of Irish Travellers as 30,987, up from 29,495 in 2011.\nIn 2006 the number was 22,369.\nA further 1,700 to 2,000 were estimated to live in [Northern Ireland](https://bliptext.com/articles/northern-ireland).\nFrom the 2006 Irish census, it was determined that 20,975 dwell in urban areas and 1,460 were living in rural areas.\nWith an overall population of just 0.5% some areas were found to have a higher proportion, with high Traveller concentrations in Clare, Dublin, Galway and Limerick.\nThere were found to be 9,301 Travellers in the 0–14 age range, comprising 41.5% of the Traveller population, and a further 3,406 of them were in the 15–24 age range, comprising 15.2%.\nChildren of the age range 0–17 comprised 48.7% of the Traveller population.\nFollowing the findings of the All Ireland Traveller Health Study (estimates for 2008), the figure for Northern Ireland was revised to 3,905 and that for the Republic to 36,224.\nThe rural community of [Rathkeale](https://bliptext.com/articles/rathkeale), [County Limerick](https://bliptext.com/articles/county-limerick), has one of the largest populations of any towns percentage-wise, with around half of its residents having Irish Traveller ancestry.\nTraveller clans, gangs, and associations or events linked to the Traveller community and culture may often have the name Rathkeale linked with it, such as the [Rathkeale Rovers](https://bliptext.com/articles/rathkeale-rovers).\nIt is sometimes considered a rural mecca of Travellers in this regard.\nThere are other communities, including in Dublin as well.\n[Tuam](https://bliptext.com/articles/tuam) (c. 5% Traveller) and [Longford](https://bliptext.com/articles/longford) both have abundant Traveller communities in rural areas as well.\nWhile not as high proportion-wise, due to its high population in general, [Dublin](https://bliptext.com/articles/dublin) and its suburbs have over 5,000 Travellers, whom make up a scant 0.4% of [Dublin](https://bliptext.com/articles/dublin)'s population proper and 0.2-0.3% of the Greater [Dublin](https://bliptext.com/articles/dublin) population.\n[Ballyfermot](https://bliptext.com/articles/ballyfermot), Dublin has a large Traveller community, mostly located in the Labre Park area.\nCounty Longford has the highest Traveller percentage rate for the 0-24 age group, of any Irish county, at 5%, followed by County Galway at 3%.\n\n## Diaspora\n\n### United Kingdom\nIn 2011, for the first time, the census category \"Irish Traveller\" was introduced as part of the broader Gypsy/Traveller section.\nWhile Irish Travellers and Romani Gypsy people are genetically distant from each other, with Travellers having Irish roots, and Roma Gypsies having alleged South Asian heritage, they are conflated in the UK Census, so the number of Travellers may be lower than what is reported in this category.\nThe self reported figure for collective Gypsy/Traveller populations were 63,193 but estimates of Irish Travellers living in Great Britain range are about 15,000 as part of a total estimation of over 300,000 Romani and other Traveller groups in the UK.\nIn the [2021 Census of England and Wales](https://bliptext.com/articles/2021-united-kingdom-census), the Gypsy/Irish Traveller community numbered 67,757, or 0.1% of the population.\nThe [London Boroughs](https://bliptext.com/articles/london-boroughs) of [Harrow](https://bliptext.com/articles/london-borough-of-harrow) and [Brent](https://bliptext.com/articles/london-borough-of-brent) contain significant Irish Traveller populations.\nIn addition to those on various official sites, there are a number who are settled in local authority housing.\nThese are mostly women who wish their children to have a chance at formal education.\nThey and the children may or may not travel in the summer but remain in close contact with the wider Irish Traveller community.\nThere are also a number of Irish Traveller communities in the [Home counties](https://bliptext.com/articles/home-counties).\n\n### United States\nAn estimated 10,000 people in the United States are descendants of Travellers who left Ireland, mostly between 1845 and 1860 during the [Great Famine](https://bliptext.com/articles/great-famine-ireland).\nHowever, there are no official population figures regarding Irish Travellers in the United States as the [US census](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-states-census) does not recognise them as an ethnic group.\nWhile some sources estimate their population in the U.S. to be 10,000, others suggest their population is 40,000.\nAccording to research published in 1992, Irish Travellers in the U.S. divide themselves up into groups that are based on historical residence: Ohio Travellers, Georgia Travellers, Texas Travellers, and Mississippi Travellers.\nThe Georgia Travellers' camp is made up of about eight hundred families, the Mississippi Travellers, about three hundred families, and the Texas Travellers, under fifty families.\"\nThe largest and most affluent population of about 2,500 lives in Murphy Village, outside of the town of [North Augusta, South Carolina](https://bliptext.com/articles/north-augusta-south-carolina).\nOther communities exist in [Memphis, Tennessee](https://bliptext.com/articles/memphis-tennessee); [Hernando, Mississippi](https://bliptext.com/articles/hernando-mississippi); and near [White Settlement, Texas](https://bliptext.com/articles/white-settlement-texas); where the families stay in their homes during the winter, and leave during the summer, while smaller enclaves can be found across Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi.\nIrish Travellers in the U.S. are said to speak English and Shelta, a form of Cant.\nThe Cant spoken in the U.S. is similar to the Cant spoken in Ireland, but differs in some respects in that the language has transformed into a type of [pidgin](https://bliptext.com/articles/pidgin) English over the generations.\nThey typically do construction work, such as asphalting, spray-painting, and laying linoleum, or as [itinerant workers](https://bliptext.com/articles/migrant-worker).\n\n# Religion\nTravellers have a distinctive approach to [religion](https://bliptext.com/articles/religion); the vast majority of them are practising [Roman Catholics](https://bliptext.com/articles/catholic-church), and they also pay particular attention to issues of [healing](https://bliptext.com/articles/faith-healing).\nMany have been known to follow a strict code of behaviour that dictates some of their moral beliefs and influences their actions.\nIrish Travellers are known to practice their Catholic faith at holy wells and shrines across Ireland.\nTravellers were excluded in the past from everyday parish activities in Ireland.\nRichard O'Brien of the Kerry diocese is a member of the Traveller community who started a groundbreaking initiative to reach out to the Irish Traveller community and help them to be more involved in parish life.\nThe Irish Bishops Conference released a statement to every parish, asking them to welcome Irish Travellers to their towns and villages throughout Ireland.\n\n# Education\nIn 2004, it was reported that Traveller children often grow up outside educational systems.\nTraveller children were reported in 2017 to leave education at a younger age than children in the settled community, with 28% leaving the education system by age 13.\nOne of the causes identified is the historical marginalisation of the community within the educational system.\nThe segregation of Traveller children from their settled peers led to worse outcomes in regard to undertaking state examinations, and levels of numeracy and literacy.\nThe [Irish Traveller Movement](https://bliptext.com/articles/irish-traveller-movement), a community advocacy group, promotes equal access to education for Traveller children.\nIn the Census of Ireland 2016, 167 Travellers are enumerated as having a third level educational qualification, a rise from 89 in 2011.\nIn December 2010, the Irish Equality Tribunal ruled in favour of a Traveller child in an anti-discrimination suit which covered the admission practices of [CBS High School Clonmel](https://bliptext.com/articles/cbs-high-school-clonmel) in [County Tipperary](https://bliptext.com/articles/county-tipperary).\nIn July 2011, the secondary school in Clonmel successfully appealed the decision of the Equality Tribunal that its admission criteria were indirectly discriminatory against children from the Traveller community.\n\n# Sports\nIrish Travellers have a long history of [bare-knuckle boxing](https://bliptext.com/articles/bare-knuckle-boxing).\nToughness and the ability to fight are viewed as particularly important among Traveller men, and their involvement in boxing has extended to traditional [amateur](https://bliptext.com/articles/amateur-boxing) and [professional boxing](https://bliptext.com/articles/professional-boxing).\nIrish Traveller [Francie Barrett](https://bliptext.com/articles/francie-barrett) represented Ireland at the 1996 Olympics, while [Andy Lee](https://bliptext.com/articles/andy-lee-boxer) fought for Ireland at the 2004 Olympics and later became the first Traveller to win a professional boxing world championship when he won the WBO middleweight title in 2014.\n[Tyson Fury](https://bliptext.com/articles/tyson-fury) is of Irish Traveller heritage and defeated long-reigning [Wladimir Klitschko](https://bliptext.com/articles/wladimir-klitschko) in 2015 to become the unified heavyweight world champion.\nIn the Traveller community, bare-knuckle boxing is seen as a way to resolve disputes and uphold family honour, as shown in the 2011 documentary [Knuckle](https://bliptext.com/articles/knuckle-film).\nThis can lead to injuries, notably \"fight bite\" where, when punching an opponent, a tooth may cut the hand and bacteria in the opponent's mouth may infect the wound.\nSuch infections can lead to permanent disability if left untreated.\nApart from boxing, Irish Travellers, including women, are involved in sports such as football (soccer) and [Gaelic handball](https://bliptext.com/articles/gaelic-handball).\n\n# Health\nThe health of Irish Travellers is significantly poorer than that of the general population in Ireland.\nThis is evidenced in a 2007 report published in Ireland, which states that over half of Travellers do not live past the age of 39 years.\n(By comparison, median life expectancy in Ireland is 81.5 years.) Another government report of 1987 found:\n\"From birth to old age, they have high mortality rates, particularly from accidents, metabolic and congenital problems, but also from other major causes of death. Female Travellers have especially high mortality compared to settled women.\"\nIn 2007, the [Department of Health and Children](https://bliptext.com/articles/department-of-health-ireland) in the Republic of Ireland, in conjunction with the [Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety](https://bliptext.com/articles/department-of-health-social-services-and-public-safety) in Northern Ireland, commissioned the [University College Dublin](https://bliptext.com/articles/university-college-dublin)'s School of Public Health and Population Science to conduct a major cross-border study of Travellers' welfare.\nThe study, including a detailed census of Traveller population and an examination of their health status, was expected to take up to three years to complete.\nThe main results of the study were published in 2010.\nThe [birth rate](https://bliptext.com/articles/birth-rate) of Irish Travellers has decreased since the 1990s, but they still have one of the highest [birth rate](https://bliptext.com/articles/birth-rate)s in Europe.\nThe birth rate for the Traveller community for the year 2005 was 33.32 per 1,000, possibly the highest birth rate recorded for any community in Europe.\nOn average there are ten times more driving fatalities within the Traveller community.\nAt 22%, this represents the most common cause of death among Traveller males.\nSome 10% of Traveller children die before their second birthday, compared to just 1% of the general population.\nIn Ireland, 2.6% of all deaths in the total population were for people aged under 25, versus 32% for Travellers.\nIn addition, 80% of Travellers die before the age of 65.\nAccording to the National Traveller Suicide Awareness Project, Traveller men are over six times more likely to die by suicide than the general population.\n# [Irish Travellers in 1946 | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Moeder///en///kind///voor///een///tent%2C///Bestanddeelnr///191-0828.jpg]\n\n# Marriage\nMarriage among Travellers in their late teens is common.\nAs of the Census of Ireland 2016 58.1% of Irish Travellers were under the age of 25, with 31.9% of this age group married.\nAs of 2016, 201 enumerated Irish Travellers aged 15 to 19 identified themselves as married, down from 250 in 2011.\nIrish Travellers generally marry other Irish Travellers.\n[Consanguineous](https://bliptext.com/articles/consanguinity) marriage is common among Irish Travellers.\nAccording to [Judith Okely](https://bliptext.com/articles/judith-okely)'s work on Travellers in Britain in the 1970s, \"there is no large time span between puberty and marriage\", and the typical marriage age was 16–17 for females and 18–19 for males.\nIrish Travellers lived as [cohabiters](https://bliptext.com/articles/cohabiters) who \"married at one time without religious or civil ceremony.\"\nInto the early 20th century about one-third of Irish Travellers were \"married according to the law.\"\nAccording to Christopher Griffin, sociology and anthropology lecturer at [Edith Cowan University](https://bliptext.com/articles/edith-cowan-university), arranged Irish Traveller marriages in the early 21st century \"safeguard the girl's by securing a man who won't mistreat her.\"\nAccording to [Julie Bindel](https://bliptext.com/articles/julie-bindel), in [Standpoint](https://bliptext.com/articles/standpoint-magazine), some Irish Traveller females in the UK are forced into marriages, but Bindel points out that data is difficult to obtain because \"the line between an arranged marriage and a forced one is not always clear.\"\n\n# Social conflict\n\n## Discrimination and prejudice\nTravellers are often reported as the subject of explicit political and cultural discrimination, with politicians being elected on promises to block Traveller housing in local communities and individuals frequently refusing service in pubs, shops and hotels.\nA 2011 survey by the Economic and Social Research Institute of Ireland concluded that there is widespread ostracism of Travellers in Ireland, and the report concluded that it could hurt the long-term prospects for Travellers, who \"need the intercultural solidarity of their neighbours in the settled community. ... They are too small a minority, i.e., 0.5 per cent, to survive in a meaningful manner without ongoing and supportive personal contact with their fellow citizens in the settled community.\"\nThe general prejudice against Travellers hinders efforts by the central government to integrate Travellers into Irish society.\nBecause Travellers are a minority group within Ireland and the United Kingdom, they have always faced discrimination on the basis of their ethnicity as Travellers.\nThey experience discrimination in not having equal access to education, being denied service in pubs, shops, and hotels, and being subject to derogatory language.\nIn 2016, the USA's [Country Reports on Human Rights Practices](https://bliptext.com/articles/country-reports-on-human-rights-practices) for the United Kingdom stated that Irish Travellers reported receiving discrimination on \"racial or ethnic grounds\" in the country, and stated that the High Court had ruled that the [government](https://bliptext.com/articles/government-of-the-united-kingdom) had illegally discriminated against Travellers by unlawfully subjecting planning applications to special scrutiny.\n\n## Work and income\nAccording to the 2016 Irish census, 4,524 of 9,055 Travellers over the age of 15 (50%) were \"Unemployed having lost or given up previous job\".\nWhile 10,653 Travellers were in the labour force, the vast majority, 8,541 (80.2%), were unemployed.\nAlmost 1 in 8 Travellers (11.3%) stated that they were unable to work due to a disability, which was almost three times the rate of the general population (4.3%).\nMany Travellers are breeders of dogs such as [lurchers](https://bliptext.com/articles/lurcher) and have a long-standing interest in horse trading.\nThe main fairs associated with them are held annually at [Ballinasloe](https://bliptext.com/articles/ballinasloe-fair) (County Galway), Puck Fair (County Kerry), Ballabuidhe Horse Fair (County Cork), the twice-yearly Smithfield Horse Fair (Dublin inner city) and [Appleby](https://bliptext.com/articles/appleby-horse-fair) (England).\nThey are often involved in dealing scrap metals, e.g., 60% of the raw material for Irish steel is sourced from scrap metal, approximately 50% (75,000 metric tonnes) segregated by the community at a value of more than £1.5 million.\nSuch percentages for more valuable non-ferrous metals may be significantly greater.\nSince the majority of Irish Travellers' employment is either [self-employment](https://bliptext.com/articles/self-employment) or [wage labour](https://bliptext.com/articles/wage-labour), income and financial status varies greatly from family to family.\nMany families choose not to reveal the specifics of their finances, but when explained it is very difficult to detect any sort of pattern or regular trend of monthly or weekly income.\nTo detect their financial status many look to the state of their possessions: their [trailer](https://bliptext.com/articles/travel-trailer), [motor vehicle](https://bliptext.com/articles/motor-vehicle), domestic utensils, and any other valuables.\n\n## Social identity\nIrish Travellers are recognised in [British](https://bliptext.com/articles/united-kingdom-law) and [Irish law](https://bliptext.com/articles/law-in-the-republic-of-ireland) as an [ethnic group](https://bliptext.com/articles/ethnic-group).\nAn ethnic group is defined as one whose members identify with each other, usually on the basis of a presumed common genealogy or ancestry.\nEthnic identity is also marked by the recognition from others of a group's distinctiveness and by common cultural, linguistic, religious, behavioural or biological traits.\nThe [European Parliament](https://bliptext.com/articles/european-parliament) Committee of Enquiry on Racism and [Xenophobia](https://bliptext.com/articles/xenophobia) found them to be among the most discriminated-against [ethnic](https://bliptext.com/articles/ethnic) groups in Ireland and yet their status remains insecure in the absence of widespread legal endorsement.\nTravellers are often viewed by settled people in a negative light, perceived as insular, anti-social, 'drop-outs' and 'misfits', or believed to be involved in criminal and [mendicant](https://bliptext.com/articles/mendicant) behaviour, or settling illegally on land owned by others.\n# [The Traveller Ethnicity pin was created to celebrate the Irish State's formal acknowledgment on 1 March 2017 of Travellers as a distinct ethnic group in Irish society. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/Traveller///Ethnicity///pin.jpg]\n\n## Violence and crime\nIn 1960 a government body was set up to conduct research into the Travelling Community in the Republic of Ireland.\nThe Commission on Itinerancy operated under the auspices of the Department of Justice, the persons were appointed by the Junior Minister [Charles Haughey](https://bliptext.com/articles/charles-haughey).\nOne finding was: that \"public brawling fuelled by excessive drinking further added to settled people's fear of Travellers\".\nFurthermore \"feuding was felt to be the result of a dearth of pastimes and [of] illiteracy, historically comparable to features of rural Irish life before the Famine\".\nA 2011 report, conducted by the Irish Chaplaincy in Britain, Voices Unheard: A Study of Irish Travellers in Prison (Mac Gabhann, 2011) found that social, economic and educational exclusion were contributing factors to the \"increasingly high levels of imprisonment\" of Irish Travellers.\n\n## Travellers' sites in the United Kingdom\nThe passing of the [Caravan Sites Act 1968](https://bliptext.com/articles/caravan-sites-act-1968) safeguarded Travellers' right to a site, but the [Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994](https://bliptext.com/articles/criminal-justice-and-public-order-act-1994) repealed part II of the 1968 act, removing the duty on local authorities in the UK to provide sites for Travellers and giving them the power to close down existing sites.\nIn Northern Ireland, opposition to Travellers' sites has been led by the [Democratic Unionist Party](https://bliptext.com/articles/democratic-unionist-party).\nHowever, Travellers make frequent use of other, non-authorised sites.\nThese include public [common land](https://bliptext.com/articles/common-land) and private plots such as large fields and other privately owned lands.\nA famous example was the occupation of [Dale Farm](https://bliptext.com/articles/dale-farm) in Essex in 2010.\nThe Travellers claim that there is an under-provision of authorised sites.\nThe Gypsy Council estimates under-provision amounts to insufficient sites for 3,500 people.\n\n# List of Travellers' organisations\nThe following are some of the Travellers' representative organisations formed since the 1960s:\n# [The flag of the Irish Traveller Movement | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Irish///Traveller///Movement///flag.svg]\n# [logo for Minceirs Whiden Ireland, the all-Traveller Forum | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/Minceirs///Whiden///logo.jpg]\n\n# Depictions and documentaries\nIrish Travellers have been depicted, usually negatively but sometimes with some care and sympathy, in film, radio, print, and television.\nShows like [The Riches](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-riches) (2007–2008), the American television series featuring [Eddie Izzard](https://bliptext.com/articles/eddie-izzard) and [Minnie Driver](https://bliptext.com/articles/minnie-driver), take a deeper look into the Traveller lifestyle.\nThe documentary series [Big Fat Gypsy Weddings](https://bliptext.com/articles/big-fat-gypsy-weddings) (2010, 2011, and 2012) has been commercially successful in the United Kingdom, offering glimpses of Traveller life as viewed at real-life weddings.\nA 1997 American film, [Traveller](https://bliptext.com/articles/traveller-1997-film), starring [Bill Paxton](https://bliptext.com/articles/bill-paxton) and [Mark Wahlberg](https://bliptext.com/articles/mark-wahlberg), also explored the [Traveller](https://bliptext.com/articles/traveller-1997-film)s in America.\nIn his 1993 documentary Rules of the Road German filmmaker [Oliver Herbrich](https://bliptext.com/articles/oliver-herbrich) portrayed the Travellers in Ireland and the UK as a nomadic ethnic group forced to adapt to a settled lifestyle.\nSome of the main characters in the Irish sitcom [Derry Girls](https://bliptext.com/articles/derry-girls) encounter a group of Travellers in an episode that aired on 19 March 2019.\n[Brad Pitt](https://bliptext.com/articles/brad-pitt) played a bare-knuckle Traveller boxer in the movie [Snatch](https://bliptext.com/articles/snatch-film).\nThe 2005 Irish horror film [Isolation](https://bliptext.com/articles/isolation-2005-film) has Traveller characters in its plot.\n\n# Explanatory notes\n\n# Citations\n\n# General and cited references","revisionCount":0},"hasMore":false,"nextCursor":null}

History