I come from a gypsy / travelling family AMA

[TowerTumble]

I have name changed for this. I see so much misconception and ignorance around the travelling community and towards families like mine. I've started an AMA so if you have any questions to try and stop this misconception I'll answer everything I can!

How can someone know why others do what they do? You’re asking for one person to answer questions about why others don’t clean up their mess. To me this minor compared to what goes on in your community of non travellers or gypsy’s.
Why are your men raping kids in nurseries?
Why are so many of you pedos?

What hair, fashion and makeup? How is it different? As for a "facial look", that seems impossible - I mean, they're just Irish people like any others. There's no ethnic difference.

@babylamb4 so no male sexual violence/crimes in your community then?

Not sure about the men or older women but younger women often dress a bit differently to the settled community. Sometimes it’s more like dressing for a night out but they might be in a kid’s playground or in the park iyswim. Also some younger traveller women have very deep fake tans. Darker than most considering their natural Irish skintone is usually quite pale. It’s a particular look and obvious certainly if there’s a group together.
The accent is distinctive too.

Nothing to that extent. No ones raping babies here.

Irish Travellers are now considered a separate ethnic group in Ireland as they split from the settled community centuries ago.

@babylamb4 you told me off for generalising, how can you speak for everyone in your community?

That is absolutely lovely. I can imagine how much you needed that help and that hug!!!!

Because in my 41 years I never heard such filth. And word spreads fast in our communities. A couple of years ago a group of sisters took their father to court for abuse they suffered as teenagers, that another similar case might be the only ones I know of. Compared to your lot I’d say that’s quite low in comparison.

Well exactly, and if was my AMA I’d offer some theories as to why I think this is in my experience of my community.

What’s you theory then on baby rapists in your community?

The touring caravans are pristine usually but not lovely for a family of 6. Children are expected to stay outside because there is no room to move inside. They have no running water or hooked up gas/electric. They don't have a toilet inside by choice. They pull onto sports pitches/carparks illegally, so the likelihood of a designated clean up officer to stay behind could lead him to arrest. They also tend to travel in a convoy to the next destination and need to stay together for safety/practical reasons.

Di they have toilets in houses if they don’t have them in their caravans? What is the difference? And why is it not dirty to leave shit outside their caravan?

@babylamb4 and how much gets hidden, not spoken about in your community?

There are lots of stereotypes about how Travellers look/dress and they are not all true. What is usually typical though is that the women go out as a group, even shopping, and they have some style characteristics that might give it away. Girls tend to nearly always have very long hair and be dressed very similarly, with outfits that are coordinated, eg knee high socks with a ruffle in the same material as their skirt and hair bobble. Young boys are often dressed up as "young men" and often wear visible gold jewellery. There are some new mums on Tiktok who do 'dress my baby for the day' with me videos and the comments often describe the style as chavvy or tacky. The younger generation put a great emphasis on high end designer brands now.

Do you think they'd be arrested for trying to clean up after themselves?

No idea can’t speak for others that’s my point. But the point I’m making is the traveller/ gypsy community is tiny compared to your community and you don’t hear the despicables things that yous do going in our community. I’m not saying we are innocent and nothing happens but compared to what yous get upto is not on the same level.
Everday there’s news about elderly raped in nursing homes, children raped in nursery’s, child abuse in the home. Baby’s being shaken and killed by their parent, Jesus some woman put her baby in a microwave fgs. When have you ever heard of such vile despicable things in our community? But you’ve got the cheek to chirp on about rubbish on the ground being left 😂 sort your own house out before coming for ours.

Yes they do have toilets in houses, they don't like them in trailers because of the proximity to the food prep area. It is considered very unhygienic. When people pull up illegally I assume they go to the toilet outside, but I've never spoken to any women about this (they are all settled) so can't be 100% sure.
There are very few halting sites in the UK, and the ones that exist are often not fit for purpose. I saw a 'cooking shed' in one once and it was absolutely disgusting with rat infestation and falling apart in general. I certainly wouldn't be dealing with food in their either. Apparently it's the same with toilet blocks. If there were adequate hanging sites they wouldn't have to pull up illegally. Some families are land owners but they usually get denied planning permission due to local objections. So they will be damned either way.

Traveller men have been convicted of raping their own children and family members, it's not as if it doesn't happen. It is kept very hidden and due to taboos around speaking about private parts, girls don't always know it is wrong or how to express it. Survivors of abuse have said this as women, and they can get scandalised for speaking against family members. If your grandfather was a rapist the shame can be passed down to the generations after. There have been two cases in the news in the last year of uncles killing their young nieces/nephews in a family feud. There are a lot of Traveller children in care due to neglect. These things happen in all communities.

Not to mention that even if they were to choose to use the toilet inside the caravan, the cassette would need emptying at least daily or more frequently, into a designated chemical disposal point. Travellers on "official", designated sites will use the toilet and shower blocks, and also there may be a kitchen/cooking/dining area for that purpose. A lot seem to use their vans chiefly for sleeping in.

As for saying, why don't they use campsites, they are for holiday makers, not travellers, and many sites try to deter them by banning twin axles, German makes, caravans towed by obvious work vans with signage etc. The code is obvious when you know.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe councils used to have legal obligation to provide land for traveller sites, often in undesirable brown field areas like the approaches to major railway stations, so by no means always lovely green fields. That obligation was removed some years ago and since then many sites have been repurchased for more lucrative building and the travellers evicted.
I don't know if the council obligation has since changed again.

I don't agree at all with the mess etc. but there's clearly a lot of resentment and suspicion from both sides, and until something changes I don't see that going away anytime soon.

Obviously I'm not addressing all the above to you tvw as you'll be aware of all this, but to others on the thread.

They aren't 'just Irish people like any others', though. They are recognised as an ethnic minority by the Irish government, and although their origins, and when they separated off from the majority of the Irish population are still debated, though some studies suggest they split off some 1200 years ago, some rather more recently -- there is 'a considerable genetic distance between the Traveller and settled Irish populations' (source a big genotype study linked below) and because of endogamous marriage in a small population, they have a specific subset of recessive genetic diseases.

https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/35314239/srep42187.pdf

Therefore hardly surprising that a small ethnic group where exogamous marriage is comparatively rare will look obviously distinct.

Yes I’ve heard of the cases but they are very very rare, this doesn’t happen on the same scale as non travellers. I’m not saying they are not despicable crimes but they are not on the same level of depravity as what I listed in my last post.

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Working in the NHS I’ve only ever had bad experiences with the travelling community. Every time staff have shown kindness politeness and care it has been taken advantage of, facilities abused and property stolen from the wards. Such a shame as it gives the wider community a bad name.

Parents putting babies in microwaves and men raping babies in nurseries are also very, very rare crimes, they're not epidemic as you're suggesting - thank goodness. Firstly, you can't know something like that hasn't happened in the traveller community (not saying it has but you can't know) and secondly the traveller community is tiny compared to the general population, so obviously more extreme crimes will very, very unusually be committed in the wider society.

Making out people raping babies happens as frequently as travellers leaving sites in a disgusting mess is a ridiculous apples and oranges comparison. I - and many on this thread - understand that councils don't make it easy for travellers to settle but we're not seeing any explanation from anyone within the community (really helpful, measured explanations from @transitvanwoes, in comparison) as to how this might be sorted. As far as I can see it's the main issue people have with the travelling community and a willingness to engage with that rather than retorting well, you rape babies so shut up isn't helping the cause.