26 Facts About Irish Travellers

Irish Travellers, known as Pavees or Minceirs, are a traditionally peripatetic ethno-cultural group originating in Ireland.

The majority of Irish Travellers are Roman Catholic, the predominant religion in the Republic of Ireland.

The centuries of separation have led to Travellers becoming genetically distinct from the settled Irish.

Deeper documentation of Shelta and the Travellers dates to the 1830s, but knowledge of Irish Travellers has been seen from the 1100s, as well as the 1500s~1800s.

The culture of Irish Travellers resembles the culture of other itinerant communities with regard to self-employment; family networks; birth, marriage, and burial rituals; taboos; and folklore.

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The mobile nature and traditions of a Gaelic society based on pastoralism rather than land tenure before this event implies that Irish Travellers represent descendants of the Gaelic social order marginalised during the change-over to an English landholding society.

Genetic evidence reported in 2000 regarding Irish Travellers supported Irish ancestry; several distinct subpopulations; and the distinctiveness of the midland counties due to Viking influence.

Irish Travellers are not an entirely homogeneous group, instead reflecting some of the variation seen in the settled population.

Irish Travellers speak English and sometimes one of two dialects of Shelta—Gammon and Irish Traveller Cant.

Cant, which derives from Irish Travellers, is a combination of English and Shelta.

Irish Travellers do not like to share the language with outsiders, named "Buffers", or non-Travellers.

The commission had no Traveller representatives, and while attempts were made to consult Irish Travellers, these were "bizarre" unannounced visits which resulted in little input into the report.

In May 2021, the Ombudsman for Children, Dr Niall Muldoon, published a report that was highly critical of the standards of accommodation provided for Irish Travellers, describing some accommodation issues as "deplorable".

Irish Travellers have a higher fertility rate than the general Irish population; the Central Statistics Office of Ireland recorded in 2016 that 44.

Irish Travellers have a distinctive approach to religion; the vast majority of them are practising Roman Catholics and they pay particular attention to issues of healing.

Apart from boxing, Irish Travellers, including women, are involved in sports such as football and Gaelic handball.

Female Irish Travellers have especially high mortality compared to settled women.

Birth rate of Irish Travellers has decreased since the 1990s, but they still have one of the highest birth rates in Europe.

Irish Travellers are often reported as the subject of explicit political and cultural discrimination, with politicians being elected on promises to block Traveller housing in local communities and individuals frequently refused service in pubs, shops and hotels.

In 2016, the USA's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for the United Kingdom stated that Irish Travellers reported receiving discrimination on "racial or ethnic grounds" in the country, and stated that the High Court had ruled that the government had illegally discriminated against Travellers by unlawfully subjecting planning applications to special scrutiny.

Many Irish Travellers are breeders of dogs such as lurchers and have a long-standing interest in horse trading.

Since the majority of Irish Travellers' employment is either self-employment or wage labour, income and financial status varies greatly from family to family.

Irish Travellers are recognised in British and Irish law as an ethnic group.

In Northern Ireland, opposition to Irish Travellers' sites has been led by the Democratic Unionist Party.

The Irish Travellers claim that there is an under-provision of authorised sites.

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Irish Travellers have been depicted, usually negatively but sometimes with some care and sympathy, in film, radio, print, and television.