Big Fat Gypsy Weddings (8/2)

[juneybean]

Lack of vaccinations too I should imagine.

No the other boy was his cousin - they said he died along with 2 cousins, one of whom was buried alongside him.

Thingumy, would you like it if some twat was sat on your mums grave swigging a can of lager while the rest of them stood around having a disco????? I bloody wouldnt.

my thoughts too bubblewrap

In all honesty, i would think that should someone go to visit a grave near where Paddys son was buried whilst they were there, they would have the decency to be quiet and respectful whilst the other person was there.

Neither would I bubble wrapped.
Yes, let people grieve but not at the expense of other mourners.
Didn't realize swigging Fosters was a Romany tradition.

Isn't there a fair bit of intermarriage, so likely to be genetically more at risk?

Anyone visited Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris? Loads of other graves, even prominent ones, are graffitid with directions to Jim Morrison's grave.
I once walked through on the memorial of his death, and people were standing on headstones and memorial houses all over the place with booze, trying to get a better view of the party. Horrible in my opinion. Fine if it doesn't impinge on anyone else, but standing on graves etc...

'but "their way" is disprespectful to others who may be at the cemetery. I hate this idea that because it's anyone's "culture" or "way" or "tradition" that they can ride roughshod over other's people's sensibilities'

How do you know that they don't make sure that the time of their gathering is planned so that it DOESN'T co incide with a funeral ? Why are the cultures and traditions of travellers any less valid than those of anyone else ?

The snotty judgemental attitudes in some of these posts is sad - Violet had to keep her ethnicity hidden for '5' years becasue of fears about losing her job. Attitudes likes the ones on this thread perpetuate those prejudices. Does that make you proud?

I wouldnt imagine they father children with other women, in response to someones earlier post. I cant see that they would get away with it in the community.

this was linked on last week's thread, explains mortality rates a bit more ...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Traveller

I'd rather have a family up at cemetery celebrating a life than a group of pissed up teens shagging in a cemetery after dark.

Giraffe...there is a huge reluctance amongst men to go to Doctors or hospitals. Admitting you're ill is like admitting you are weak to them. You'll also rarely see a Traveller wearing glasses as they class poor eyesight as a failing.

Women are usually fine about accessing healthcare but the lifestyle of some can make it very difficult. If nomadic, it's difficult to get registered/stay registered with a GP. Hence, they are big users of acute (a&e) services because that can often be the only way they can see a doctor. Consequently, their medical history can have big gaps in it, deoending on the level of sevices they have been able to access.

Pregnancy care is better these days as a huge amount of work has been done to educate about the importance of ante natal care. The last official stastics that I am aware of were that infant mortality was about 10 times higher in Traveller population than in the general population but I expect that might be a bit lower now, or in the near future (hopefully...as that figure is horrific in this day and age).

Uptake of childhood vaccinations has also increased massively (almost 100% in my area, up from less than 50% a few years ago, due to the work of some very dedicated HVs).

Why such high infant mortality? Due to consanguinity or choosing not to access medical care?

Sorry, xposted

having a party at the graveside bloody hell what next

sassybeast - sorry if I've offended you, I'm only speaking from my own experience. I don't care how much money people spoend on their weddings or what they wear or whatever but I genuinely think that the idea that anything goes "because it's my culture" has a lot to answer for - in many diferent communities

Why not, sprouts?

Kangaroo...wish I could get some hard and fast stats on consanguinity affecting the infant mortality rate but it's just not acknowledged as an issue amogst most Travellers. Although, the HVs that I know would say that they can now predict the families where particualr syndromes will crop up so there must be something in it. It's an interesting area but nigh on impossible to study.

When a baby dies, Travellers, being a fiercely religious group, tend to say it's God's will; rather than calling for Post Mortems and looking for underlying reasons.

to me its disrepectfull ,and other ppl that may be there too

If it isn't disrespectful to them it isn't disrespectful.They live a completely different way we have no concept of that.

If it isn't disrespectful to them it isn't disrespectful

rubbish.. it was a public cemetary, not a private gypsy cemetary.

by all means do what you like on your own private land, but at least have some respect for other members of the public if your behaviour is likely to be offensive or disrespectful to them

My FIL had a Scottish traveller mother who left the travelling life when she married his father.

But she still had many traveller ways and one of those was that she had smoked tobacco (with a pipe) from a pretty young age.

As a result, she died of cancer quite young. She appears to have had a strong family history of diabetes, although she was probably one of the first to be diagnosed medically in her family.

FIL also smoked from the time he was young, although he quit age 28.

Despite a physically active/manual labour job, he developed Type II diabetes when he was about 40.

thank you bubblewrapped
(we're obviously singing from the same songsheet.....)

I'm sure I read a thread on the cost of weddings on here the other day where someone was going to have an "owl ringbearer"
Wow!