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Jul 10, 2020 · There are believed to be anywhere from 7,000 to 40,000 Irish Travellers in the US, though most estimates lie closer to the 10,000 mark. The Travellers here descended from groups who left...
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According 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.
There are an estimated 7,000-40,000 Irish Traveller Americans. [1] Irish Travellers are an ethnic group with origins in Ireland; they may or may not consider themselves to be Irish or Irish American. Most Irish Travellers are in South Carolina and Texas, especially in the North Augusta and Fort Worth/White Settlement areas specifically. Irish ...
Aug 18, 2013 · It’s estimated there are as many as 10,000 people in the states who identify themselves as part of the community, although that number could be far greater – the problem being the US Census...
- Overview
- Language, culture, and society
- History
Irish Travellers, a traditionally nomadic ethnic minority indigenous to Ireland. Irish Travellers live in Ireland and throughout Great Britain, with smaller communities in Canada and the United States. They have lived as a distinct ethnic group with their own culture, language, and values, distinguished from settled Irish communities, for centuries...
Irish Travellers speak English as well as their own language, known variously as Cant, Gammon, or Shelta. Cant is influenced by Irish and Hiberno-English and remains a largely unwritten language. According to the 2016 census, there were nearly 31,000 Irish Travellers living in the Republic of Ireland, representing 0.7 percent of the population. Historically associated with rural Ireland, Travellers today live mainly in cities, the majority living in Dublin and the surrounding suburbs, followed by Galway and Cork.
Overwhelmingly Roman Catholic, Irish Travellers tend to be devout with strong beliefs in traditional folk healing practices. They also tend to marry younger and have larger families. More than 25 percent of Irish Traveller households have six or more persons, compared with about 5 percent in the general population, and Travellers have nearly triple the amount of multiple-family households. Large loyal family networks are of major importance in Irish Traveller communities, providing support and protection against social exclusion and anti-Traveller discrimination.
Irish Travellers are sometimes mistakenly called gypsies. They have no genetic relation with the Roma people. In Ireland Travellers were also commonly known as tinkers, derived from the sound their tools made hitting metal when many Travellers worked as tinsmiths. Both gypsies and tinkers are considered pejorative terms today.
Depictions of Irish Travellers, from positive to negative or romantic stereotypes, have long figured in Irish music, literature, and film. Many traditional Irish folk singers, musicians, and storytellers credit Travellers as being a substantial source of their repertoires. Well-known Travellers in Irish music include singers Margaret Barry and Pecker Dunne and uilleann pipers Felix Doran, Finbar Furey, and Paddy Keenan. The playwright J.M. Synge’s two-act comedy The Tinker’s Wedding (1907) was based on a story he collected from rural Irish in County Wicklow. Irish Traveller characters have appeared in films such as Into the West (1992) and Snatch (2000) and in TV shows such as Peaky Blinders. Scottish film star Sean Connery was descended from Irish Travellers through a great-grandfather born in County Wexford who emigrated to Britain.
In sport, many Irish Travellers or people of Irish Traveller descent have become champion boxers, including Olympic bantamweight boxer John Joe Nevin, Irish middleweight champion Andy Lee, and British world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.
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The origin of Irish Travellers is unknown, although nomadism existed in Gaelic culture in Ireland for centuries before the English conquest. Genetic studies in 2017 revealed that Travellers are descended from the same ancestors as the settled Irish population, but the two populations split approximately 12 generations (or 360 years) ago, leading to some genetic differences. These findings disprove a long-held myth that Travellers originated during the Great Famine in the 1840s when many people were displaced from their homes. The Famine theory was perpetuated into the 21st century in order to try and force Travellers to settle and assimilate.
Apart from nomadism, Irish Traveller culture has a long association with music, trading, and the preeminence of family and kinship ties. As Travellers moved from town to town, they brought with them songs and stories and worked as tinsmiths, thatchers, weavers, farm laborers, animal traders, and flower sellers. Bare-knuckle boxing was especially popular, and fairs and markets were important meeting places. A well-known symbol of Traveller culture was the colorfully painted, horse-drawn, barrel-top wagon in which many lived and traveled.
In the 20th century, increasing industrialization in Ireland made many Traveller customs and means of making a living obsolete, with plastics replacing the metalware household objects that Travellers traded and repaired and farm machinery replacing the need for agricultural labourers and draft animals. More and more Travellers emigrated to England or migrated to cities in Ireland for work, turning to selling scrap metal or working on construction sites. Caravans (trailers) replaced the horse-drawn wagons. Due to a combination of social and legal discrimination against Travellers, particularly in housing, education, and employment, many camped alongside roads, in fields, and on empty building sites.
In 1963 the Irish government published its Commission on Itinerancy Report, which promoted a national policy of assimilating Travellers into settled communities. A resulting consequence was the removal of Travellers from roadsides and campsites to county council-run halting sites. The halting sites quickly became notorious for their poor facilities located on the fringes of communities, which isolated Travellers from many necessary services. In the 1970s Traveller children were segregated into separate schools, an issue still being contested today.
Beginning in the 1980s, a Travellers’ rights movement emerged that demanded recognition of their ethnic minority status as well as alternative, culturally appropriate accommodation and better access to health care and education. Advocacy groups such as the Irish Traveller Movement, Pavee Point, and the National Travellers’ Women Forum formed. In Northern Ireland, Irish Travellers were formally recognized as an ethnic minority in 1997, followed by recognition in Britain in 2000.
The Equal Status Act of 2000 made discrimination against Travellers illegal in Ireland. However, other laws such as the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act of 2002 (sometimes called the Anti-Trespass Act) criminalized their traditional way of life. In 2017 Irish Travellers won ethnic minority status in the Republic of Ireland.
Feb 22, 2018 · Overall, Irish-Americans make up almost exactly one-tenth of the U.S. population, down from 15.6 percent in 1990. This is second only to German-Americans, at 13.9 percent (down from 23.3 percent...
Jan 24, 2019 · Irish-American Travellers have a distinct culture, customs, and traditions and are seen by themselves and others as different, a fact that has repeatedly been documented. They are recognised as a minority in Ireland their country of origin, and the United Kingdom (UK).
