im a traveller AMA

[TakeABreak2]

irish traveller ama

dragongirl i dont because its not me so why should i feel guilty? do you feel guilty about the mess people leave at festivals or do you feel guilty about the mess teenagers often leave parks in ie no swings spray painted drink bottles everywhere?

or maybe actually change that to 25%

How do you register with doctors / medical care when you travel ? Do pregnant women go to regular ante natal appointments ? Are children vaccinated ?

No l don't feel guilty because it is not me making the mess! or causing the cost.

What l want to know is do you and your family/friends in the travelling community ever consider the cost of removing you community from illegal sites?

Who do you think should pay for it?

I think it’s fairly widely acknowledged that some sections of the travellers community cause significant problems for the settled population when they illegally occupy land and break other laws in an area. Do you know and mix with those groups or do they form a separate set of travellers who don’t mix with others?

Thanks OP. We don't always get that impression from programmes like My big fat gypsy wedding. It makes it seem as if every traveller is obsessed with getting married. I guess they just want to focus on one thing.

So many travellers get divorced?

Thanks for the tread op.
Why don't you have traveller schools? Like some religious groups.

How does your community feel about homosexuality?

anasnake we have a fixed adress children are vaccinated and all antenatal appts are attended

well irish travellers imigrated to england years about probably 50/60 years ago and english gypsys imigrated from roamania hundreds of years ago

This is not correct. Roma originated in the Punjab area of India/Pakistan. One of the reasons for the relatively high population in Romania today is the extermination and fleeing of Roma from e.g. Germany and Poland. Huge numbers of Roma were murdered during the Holocaust.

dragongirl so why should i feel guilty if its not me or my family?

I know of a traveller who finds a word of an animal offensive. It's not a gorilla. Is this true of all travellers?

pandapiefortea i was told when i was younger not to mix with xyz because there rough people ie drinking fighting causing problems usually 2 or 3 families

We’ve some illegally pitched on our playing fields at the minute. The kids have abused a cat and a pigeon for fun, tried to steal a disabled man’s bag and tried to steal take out food. The mess is incredible.

I’m not especially well disposed to these Irish travelers. When I was a child up north some came yearly to work the fields and were so clean and conscientious with stunning caravans and horses.

brendathebarber a few get divorced most just get a seperation though

dixie im not a romany gypsy so only going by what im told im irish and know that our grandparents came here 50:60 year ago

amazinggrace i have no idea what your going on about tbh so i guess not

fishywishy of course some people are like that just like non travellers abuse things.. but if its anythint im orginally from newcastle so

Hi OP I'm a 'settled' Irish traveller.

I feel proud of my heritage and culture but I do feel very privileged that my parents were a not as 'strict' as some of my other family. My sisters and I all went to college and university and mixed with non-travellers and we all have very good jobs, one of is a barrister!
It frustrates me when people say things like "well all the travellers I've ever met we're like that" to support their prejudiced views. The truth is that these people have most likely met many more travellers but fortunately we don't have to wear signs to identify ourselves.
We are hiding in plain sight, working in shops, schools, hospitals etc but we don't always feel the need to tell everybody we come across that we are travellers.
Using anecdotal evidence to support discriminatory claims such as travellers being cruel to animals is extremely ignorant.

settledtraveller who are you? i hate it i mix out not much though because of this my family was very strict with me but when i got married i started to mix a little bit

I agree NATALT, but it’s not an anecdote when it happens to you. When I moved down south I was amazed at the vitriol against travellers but seeing it first hand over the last few days has made it clear why people are pissed off. I am.

I also can’t get behind the lack of education and opportunities for travellers in general and there’s no way it’s fair to pitch up on private land just because it’s not locked up.

dixie im not a romany gypsy so only going by what im told im irish and know that our grandparents came here 50:60 year ago

That's OK, I'm just correcting misinformation. A lot of people would assume you magically know more than them about gypsies just because you're a traveller and plenty of people think they're the same thing!

Would you talk to us in a park or supermarket?

Are we allowed to talk to you or your children?