Big fat gypsy weddings

[LittleDonkin]

So looking forward to this!!!! I loved it last time!

In-breeding - they all marry from within a very small gene pool. There must be a high incidence of congenital disorder leading to stillbirth and infant death I imagine, though what happens to all the disabled children, who knows?

I can't imagine they are big on keeping up with ante-natal care either, though I'm guessing now.

They live a third world life (don't know if that term is PC, but they might as well be living somewhere a long way from western Europe)

One study found higher than average levels of galactosemia in the Irish Traveller population; this probably presents more of a problem for the community than it might for the settled community because the lifestyle and isolation lend themselves to infections, irregular visits to clinics to weigh babies and check developmental milesones. Galactosemia can damage liver, kidney, brain and eyes. A baby with galactosemia would have poor feeding, lethargy, jaundiced appearance, poor weight gain, vomiting and irritability. Babies with galactosemia are more susceptible than others to e-coli infection - so I'm sure it takes a high toll among Traveller babies.

I remember a little group of Travellers coming to our door when I was growing up in Dublin - the women (with children in tow) used to go house to house begging for old clothes and junk or scrap - and my Dad got into conversation with one woman who had a horrible cough. She talked about her child whom she said had 'epidepsy' (epilepsy) and had had a seizure that morning; Dad tried to persuade her to take the child to the local cottage hospital but she was very suspicious of the medical system, and didn't think the medicine she had been given for the child was doing any good... We gave her a cuppa.

Hurler's Syndrome is one which particularly affects Traveller families. Cousins intermarry and this is a major contributing factor in this condition.
Infant mortality is very high, as uptake of vaccinations is so low, plus other factors. Measles is still quite common among Traveller babies. And still as fatal. Meningitis is another big killer.
Breastfeeding rates are very very low, but conversely hygiene for bottle feeding is not always as good as it could be (lack of running water in some cases, lack of education, lack of role models). Antenatal classes are not attended well by Traveller women, which fits in with their overall lack of attendance in primary care settings (GP visits, etc).
I have worked with Traveller women on a primary health project aimed specifically at increasing breastfeeding and vaccination uptake - it was overwhelmingly well received by that group, the men were targeted in a separate programme and were the direct opposite. I found it very frustrating.
The main unspoken issue in my experience with this group is domestic violence. It is endemic and unchecked, as charges rarely pressed. My friend works in a local Women's Aid with a large Traveller population, and the vast majority of service users are Traveller women and their children.

The men are a huge stumbling block in any efforts to reach out to the community or effect any positive change - a cousin of my Dad's worked in outreach with a rural county council a long time ago in Ireland and used to bang her head against the table frequently at the pity of it all. And yes, DV and the attitude to women that is behind it was the elephant in the room. Men dominate the community to an extent that is almost unimaginable.

It's hard to even raise the issue of DV for fear of being called racist as the Pavee Point website indicates.

Cheyenne has a feature to a teen magazine my DD2 gets this month

She told them she has been grabbed 15 times so far, and that she hates it, finds it scary and hides the bruises and pretends it hasn't happened

If she failed to fight them off, she says a kiss would totally ruin her reputation so she wouldn't get a husband

lilka, you could totally tell she was terrified of it both when talking about it and while it was happening on the show. it is sickening tbh.

That's a bit more than just a rant there Loveitalia.

Loveitalia - So just because they dress with low cut tops etc, that means they must also go around sleeping with everyone?? I don't buy that. if you're raised in a community that always dresses like that, then you will as well, regardless of your morals

Actually, i could send you to an empty island...

Good luck with all that then Loveititalia.

So, Italian men are famed for their egalitarian approach to relationships then ?

No ?

thought not...

Personally I'd rather take my chances with your average Italian though AF...

Mmmm, Italian men.

damn you AF!

hadn't thought about it, tbh, FN

just making a point to "IloveItalia"

oh, I didn't say they weren't sexy ILIWYCMB (Italian men, that is)

just that they too can have rather fixed ideas about relationships and a woman's place within them

lilka I didn't say they all go sleeping around because of how they dress. The programme goes on about how strict their parents are regarding drink/sex etc but they are not portrayed that way from how they behave. I just thought they were so badly dressed and made up (which is fine if that's how they want to be) but don't pretend to be So high and mighty. They are not doing themselves any favours. Don't mean to sound so harsh

Well so can men from all sorts of cultures, AF, but as scary husband material goes Italian men are not that high on my list.

perhaps not, FN

I've never had one of that variety

But I know people who have

And no, not the scariest

Why did Italian men get brought into this?

because your name is I LOVE ITALIA.

sorry, LOVE ITALIA.

no I

I just love Italy and the men aren't too bad either
I feel bad for my comments and don't want to dislike anyone. Apologies if I've offended anyone and I hope the documentary was put across badly.

It saddens me to read some of the posts here and see the lack of understanding for these people and how they go about their everyday lives. The main reason these people travel is that since they appeared in Britian in the 1950/60s to build the motorways, canals and railways they were treated like rubbish and paid peanuts for their hard work. All the towns and cities displayed signs in their shop and house windows stating" No Indians, No Dogs, No Irish", seems it was ok for these people to do all the hard manual labour that built the country but they were not allowed to eat or sleep in proper houses or any sort of accomodation so they travelled from site to site in caravans which resulted in many of these hard working people dying due to lack of medical care, shame and disgrace I say.
As for the dress sense of the girls and they way they conduct themselves, has anyone took a look in any inner city /town on a Friday or Saturay night and see the state of some of the girls falling about the place half naked and drunk? In my opinion the traveller girls conducted themselves much better than most of the tennagers we see on our streets everyday. as for how they dress, well thats their business and no one elses but that "grabbing " incident was way out of order though I doubt it is an everyday activity.
In general I would say that these people do what they do as a result of the hostility against them since they appeared in Britian many years ago, they have always been treated as second class citizens imo so stick to their own kind and the only way of living they know or were ever allowed.
Sorry for long post..

conculainey totally get what you are saying and it's wrong if that's what happened. Shameful! Saying that a lot of people are still underpaid and not welcome in communities. I think the Travellers stand out more because most/some (scared of using wrong words now in case of backlash) still choose to live as they do. There is no need now for them to take their children out of school at say 11yrs old, surely if their parents have been badly treated in the past they would want better for their own dc. They seem to be choosing to continue to be different. But that's their choice and no-one elses I suppose. We only get one life, so good luck to all !