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!

Yes I can know that those vile crimes have never happened because it’s not been plastered all over the news and papers with the word TRAVELLER as the first word.
Anyway the point I was making in my original comment is that I or anyone else in my community can not answer the questions your putting forward because we are not those people that do that, hence why I asked why your lot are raping babies. You can’t possibly answer that because I’m guessing you don’t do that? So how the hell are we meant to answer it. Have a brain there’s far worse going on in the world

Two wrongs don't make a right.

OF COURSE there is far worse going on in the world. But this thread is called I come from a gypsy/travelling family AMA, so what is happening elsewhere in the world isn't relevant to it. Whereas people asking about filth left behind by travellers is relevant, because it appears to happen far more often than people in the general population raping babies in nurseries. We (at least I) understand you don't do it personally, but you say 'nor anyone else in my community' - when clearly someone in your community could answer the question if they chose to. It's the one question that seems to trigger you and the original OP. People are just curious, but many are also very upset at the desecration they see and want to understand the process.

I'm happy to answer. Some people are just scumbags who don't give a shit about anyone or anything but themselves. Those people exist in all communities. As do law breakers etc.

It just happens to be the case that the individuals who behave in the way you describe spread their selfishness up and down the country. This obviously means it affects more people. I think there might be a certain amount of disregard from some towards those who they are affecting due to being so marginalised and hated. Some people choose to prove that say are not like the stereotype and others think why should they bother because you only hate us anyway.

What I will say is that everybody on this thread has encountered many many gypsy people in everyday life. They just don't notice them because they are normal people going about their normal lives. Why would you notice someone doing their food shopping or on a school run? Obviously only the bad stuff is highlighted.

Thanks @ThejoyofNC that's a really, really helpful answer

Honestly I needed it more than anything was so grateful to them and the only ones that actually physically and emotionally helped ❤️

but if they don’t do it personally how can they answer for the ones that do is what I am saying. When the op started this thread it was one of the first questions asked and she answered by saying she’d never done it so wouldn’t know the answer. Cue every other poster asking the same question she already answered. If I was to guess why people leave filth I’d say it’s because they don’t respect the land their living on and they couldn’t give too fucks for the local community because their a load of prejudice fucks so their sticking two fingers up at them

Also helpful

Yes totally this. The media has portrayed the Traveller as the one who leaves a trail of mess and destruction and this is what the people see as Traveller identity. I have worked for many years with women from all backgrounds and I've seen all sorts of behaviour, the good, bad and the ugly. As a general rule, people at the very bottom of the economic ladder (regardless as to what community/group they belong to) are usually vilified and cast as feckless, lawless and irresponsible. Travellers have historically generally been at the bottom and that largely hasn't changed. There are pockets of wealth, but it isn't the norm. Criminality and lack of adherence to 'civilized' behaviour is massively tied in to poverty and illiteracy. Until that is addressed, nothing will change sadly.

Interesting thread. I’m sorry the OP felt they had to leave but I can’t blame them. I was totally ignorant about travellers/gypsys until I started reading. I daresay there are many of them that live and work amongst us but hide this due to shame and stereotypes. In my mind this makes the problem worse but I don’t see how it can ever be resolved.
We only ever hear about the bad, never the good so it’s refreshing to read positive experiences. I have no idea if there are travellers near where I live but if there are then it’s all to their credit that they don’t stand out in a negative way if that makes sense.

Also wish to add that my married name is one listed on this thread and one in the eye to exMIL who would not cope!

The Travellers who have council houses round our way have children who all have local accents. (They leave the area periodically, but come back and live with the mother only for most of the year.)

I've encountered Traveller men with local accents, Irish accents and a particular English accent.

The Traveller kids at school would stick together if they happened to have cousins there in the same year group, but there was nothing truly distinctive about their appearance - although I do remember a fad for Burberry at one time.

As they got older, the girls used to go for fake nails, hair extensions and fake eyelashes - but so did many of the other girls.

I do remember some of he younger boys coming in wearing gold chains when the other boys were wearing silver.

In all honesty, however, you really couldn't tell Travellers apart from anyone else by just looking at them. Different when they came to the door and used their sales patter.

All I can say is that they weren’t those listed. I can’t give information that I learned while working in the NHS. Also as I believe that they are local names, I won’t give them in case they identify the area I am talking about.

The Traveller kids that I knew all had very luxurious caravans.

There are a few Traveller caravan sites round our way and they all have toilet blocks. (Some owned by the council and a couple privately owned by Travellers who have bought land. They got retrospective planning permission.)

Nevertheless, there are places where Travellers sometimes suddenly appear. They're not set up with facilities or bins and mess is left behind there - there seems to be no concept of taking refuse to one of the many recycling centres or using the facilities in the caravans and then burying waste matter.

I don't want to out myself by giving the specific location, but many years ago I worked in a new high school which was across the road from a then illegal site. (It's since been given the necessary planning permission.)

I had to challenge a man who said that he was looking for a public phone. (This was before we all had mobiles - the late 1980s.) A colleague from the PE department found a strange man in the boys' changing area "looking for the showers".

A couple of days later, the pipework in the PE block had been removed.

Totally understandable.

If you were interested you could quickly google to see if they were Irish names by origin. I’m a name nerd though and appreciate that others probably don’t care 😁

But ehen they were talking about all their teachers?

But some travellers feed into this and perpetuate it. We had some travellers pitch up on our local school playing fields and others on green open spaces not far from us and the absolute crap that was left scattered around when they moved on was absoutely disgusting and why pitch up on a school playing field for goodness sake.

We've had a few problems around the Traveller sites in Fife. There was a running battle between two Traveller groups around Thornton a few years ago, but I can't find the footage.

Much to the amusement of locals, the police only got there after all the fighting was over, though it was all filmed and on FB.

This seems to be related to that incident.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/watch-riot-break-out-scottish-12972166

The teachers.

It's when the Daily Mail post a picture of a 23 year old British woman who has five kids with the headline "MY £590 WEEKLY BENEFITS ISN'T ENOUGH" and go on to talk as if this is the typical British stereotype. Yes it happens, but most people understand this isn't representative. You don't see the newspapers publishing stories about Travellers raising money for hospitals or buying toys for terminally I'll children. They are quite mundane activities so not really newsworthy.

That's why i said some and not all. Regardless of whether it is your example or mine the worst will always get reported that's just the way that is and if people didn't do it there wouldn't be anything to report

Yes true, but I don't think there has ever been a time in history where people haven't displayed undesirable behaviour. There are and will always be rogues.

I wish though the questions would move beyond littering. There are so many interesting aspects to the culture.

My mum taught kids from the travelling community and she said they often treated very poorly in the school setting (not by her).

Indeed.
Lets chat about misogyny, ‘grabbing’, restriction of education to start with…

If you are interested, just ask. If however you already hold prejudice that you just want validated then it's probably best not to.