im a traveller AMA

[TakeABreak2]

irish traveller ama

Do some groups of travellers move around more often?

There are a few sites near where I lived and they were permanent and I was never sure if the same people stayed there all the time

I’m sorry you have received some abuse on this thread. It’s strange how behaviour against some groups is still “acceptable”.

Some rigjt numpties on this thread still. Notacooldad being one of them. How can you ask a random
person who happens to have shared heritage with some people who pissed you off such questions?!

Great post - really interesting ! Thanks OP. Just wondering is there laundry facilities on site or again does it change site by site ? I remember working in a shop years ago and travellers coming in buying new clothes and leaving their old behind ? I always wondered why they didn't wash them as they would have been in every few weeks doing this so it wasn't that the clothes were particularly old or worn

Does it occur to your community that you would not be able to follow your way of life if everybody else did the same?

Do you pay income tax?
Do you use state health facilities?
Do you expect the law and it's enforcement to protect you?
What do you regard as discrimination and how does it affect your community?

I know it's several questions, TakeABreak2 but you said ask you anything, and I would like to understand your viewpoint.

@InionEile it was only a couple of years back a venue cancelled on my friend.

@TakeABreak2 I think you have been really patient and gracious with your answers on this thread.

I'm shocked by some of the posters here. How openly hateful are some of the posts?!

Do you watch Netflix and things like that?

Why don't you use a Portaloo in your caravans and have it emptied when necessary, like people do when they go caravanning? Why would you choose to poo and pee outside? Who cleans it all up?

forthecatlady
my husband is a born again christian too thank god!!

phaedeaschocolate
my husband or i will ask each other do u fancy shifting to xyz and ill say yes but wait untill xyz till i get things sorted

inion we still speak the cant english have their own cant too an also was only 2 year ago a wedding dress had a shop in barnsley with a sign in the window saying no gypsy or travellers allowed i ignored this as i wanted to buy a dress in the window and put on an accent she still kicked me out - being refursed from pubs shops venue is a VERY normal thing still

calledyoulastnightfrom glasgow
yeah they will be the same people that will be there permanent adress they might move away in the summer

meansyoumake2
on my site nearly everyone has a washer/dryer plugged outside mines in my shed
council sites have them in the sheds on transit camps or illegal camps they wont have washing facillities toilet facillities or water facillities they have electric of a generator but that only gets switched on in the noght time because it eats ALOT of petrol

we pay our taxes yes
we use state health facilities if needed obviously
we dont really rely on the law tbh
discrimination to me is being evil/calling names ect to someone because of the colour/race and it effects me about twice a week in RL

evilmorty i used to have netflix never liked it i used to prefer showbox but since becoming a christian i use my time where i used to watch tv i now read my bible

georgeousshazydaysofsummer
as already mentioned we do usually hire portaloos if possible - we dont use the toilet in caravans because it would need emptying alot and cost a fortune so in the end we would have to empty and i wouldnt do that! we dont go outside like i mentioned if theres no portaloos we will go to a supermarket/garage only if we cant hold a piss we will run to a forrest

What would you like life to be like for your daughter when she is grown up? If you could choose her future what would it look like?

amilesweetly
id like her to be a christian with a christian husband who is loving a caring and her to be happy

Notacooldad being one of them. How can you ask a random
person who happens to have shared heritage with some people who pissed you off such questions?!
Well it is called AMA!

OP genuine question. If on your travels your group decides to park up some where such as a factory ground, a brewery, a park etc where you have to force entry who has the final say? Of course you wouldn't agree to it, I get that but time and time it happens. In our area 3 times a year.

It's ok people saying you can't blame one person but how many times on MN do we hear its a village that make a community, not one person alone.
I am angry with travelers. I won't lie. This hasn't been over one incident or two but nearly 30 years of abuse I am mixed race so I experience racism from both sides a lot. I get it I get shouted at in the street. Normal abuse is things like 'I see your mum was a P* lover' and much worse.
The recent serious incident was a few weeks ago. The other was months previous. It's constant.

I was on a diversity panel and worked with the liaison team that supported travelers. We have things thrown at us ( planks, shit etc) dogs set on us etc when we were supporting with site facilities i.e. trying to make the place nice. My windscreen was smashed in. We hadn't just rocked up, arrangements had been made for us to be there and we were threatened time and time again.
At the community centre that our team were based the lads would come in with rottweilers and frightened everyone, over turn tables at the seniors lunch time club ( I heard so much in briefings that travelers were respectful to older people, bollocks to that) or to the youth club picking fights with the local lads and throwing pool balls through the windows and there wasn't a thing we could do about it.

As I said, all those calling me, I hope you get some travelers on to your land soon and have to deal with the aftermath time and time again.Anyone can live with a one off incident and put it down to expiernce but when it is a constant threat it does color your view somewhat.
I don't doubt that you are a nice person OP and I honestly mean that but you are part of a community that constantly causes problems,damage, and misery when 'you' come to town that takes a while to recover only to go through it all again.
Our authority, like every other, is under enormous financial pressure so as well as the extra policing that is needed when the caravans rock up, there is additional cleaning up that is specialized. It's not a just a case of a few binmen turning up with a wagon and bin bags and having a quick hour tidying up ( and even if it was why should our authority do that - we have a tip that is free to use) Extra money needs to be spent on the buildings that have been damaged, fences that have been removed because someone wants to stay there ( even though it's not their place and they have no right to be there) replacing locks that have been cut off etc.

Maybe people could at least try to understand why people like me are upset but I expect people will just carry on insulting me with out seeing the flip side of the ' fascinating' 'interesting' life the OP is leading.

I understand why you’d be upset by the behaviour of that group of people, but the OP has clearly stated she doesn’t do that and doesn’t support it. Swap traveller for a different group of people, would you feel so justified asking these questions?
You objected when someone pointed out that you’re a man, and sweeping statements about the shortcomings of men was ridiculous. But...

There is no logic there. You seem to have made an assumption about me but crack on.

Are you not a man?

notacooldad
i know that happens and theyare the people my mother told me toatayaway from they are irish travellers and there 3 famillies of them
if we wanted to pull inro a place like you described it would be a group desision but like i said the other majority of travellers hire out fields the last one i went to end of may cost £1000 with portaloos and a skip and i seen the men going round picking rubbish up everyday... i wasnt the last person off so i couldnt tell you the end result but i can gaurentee it was left tidy! sorry for tour bad experience but that is litterally 3 families the whole travelling community knows about them

I live near Leeds also. There is a travellers camp in Esholt- if you know it? I know it isn't the one you are on.
There have been animal abuse cases there, stolen dogs found near there which have escaped from the site. The police and animal protection groups have to go in together for safety. Does anyone you know ever take dogs? I am not accusing you personally at all. I know someone who has had a dog stolen and was seen at this site and when questioned everyone on the site acted oblivious. The dog wasn't seen again and the dog owners have been devastated by this.

I'm glad the OP has continued to post (with a good deal of grace) despite the racism of some of the other posters on this thread.

We get it, @notacooldad - you've had bad experiences with travellers. I'm sure plenty travellers have had horrible experiences with settled people too. There was a large traveller site near my school growing up which meant we had around 4 or 5 traveller children in each of our year groups. Those children and their families were not particularly badly behaved compared to their settled peers but they were bullied a LOT because of who they were, in a way that children from other ethnic backgrounds were not and the schools did a shit job of addressing this imo. I hope things have changed since I was at school because it was awful how those kids were treated by their classmates.

Okay I have a question for the OP: I want to work with traveller women in the future (aspiring midwife). Is there anything useful for me to know about traveller attitudes to pregnancy, birth, and care of newborns so I don't go in with assumptions and make a tit out of myself?

Hi Op. This a great thread, thanks for posting it!

I have a couple of questions :

You mention a couple of times you are a born again Christian. Is this typical of the Irish traveller community? I had assumed the religion of travellers was catholicism. If not, any idea on if it ever was catholicism in the past, and why the move, if so? Do you mix with non traveler born again Christians?

Do you think of yourself as Irish? Or is it always in the context of being an Irish traveller? I'm second generation Irish and was aware in Ireland growing up of travellers visiting the village etc, but the attitudes of the Irish people towards them was not too dissimilar to the attitudes I see from English people here about them. Do you feel a difference from how you're perceived by the Irish and the English?