Irish Travellers

Nursing Students Student Assist

Published

I'm doing some research on a culture called the Irish Travellers. They are mainly in Europe but Wikipedia also has them in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. They are pretty similar to the Roma, although each group would probably have a different opinion.

Has anybody here had any experiences with Irish Travellers, or Roma, that they'd be willing to share with me? I'd love some nursing stories but even just seeing-them-in-a-restaurant's-parking-lot-type stories would help.

Thanks.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I know it's not really the sort of thing you're looking for, but are you familiar with the TV series from a few years ago, "The Riches"? It starred Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver and was about a community of Irish travellers (in the US).

Of course, I'm sure the show was really just as accurate as cop shows are about cops and hospital shows are about hospitals ... :D But the show did at least seem to take them seriously and portray them as complex, "real" people, not caricatures.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I remember when that show came out but I never had time to watch it. Time to check Netflix. Thanks.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I think I saw a news show like 60 Minutes or Dateline or one of those do a piece on them. It's been quite a few years ago, at least 10.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.

They are called Gypsy's in the UK but can be called Tinkers or Pykies, they travel around the country in large groups and they live in 'Caravans' which are campervans in the USA. They are Irish Catholic desent. They tend to be very unpopular as they leave behind a lot of junk and rubbish when they leave the current campside, when they are normally moved along by the police because they are normally trespassing on the land they stop and stay at.

Crime rates tend to raise when they are around so many people distrust them.

Healthcare is very difficult to manage due to their lifestyle

http://www.gypsy-traveller.org/your-family/health/health-status/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1011276/

Up Vote Up Vote ×

superV- Thanks. I'll see if they have some sort of repository for old shows.

madwife2002- Those are awesome links. Thanks.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

my sons father's family are gypsies. horrible dental care and health care.. for serious stuff they end up in an ER and get treated then skip out. i know a lot of them steal insurance (not a generalization, i mean HIS family). but a lot are weary of any professional, whether it be the police or a doctor. seemingly don't have much money but they're the richest people i know because of the lucrative scams :)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
my sons father's family are gypsies. horrible dental care and health care.. for serious stuff they end up in an ER and get treated then skip out. i know a lot of them steal insurance (not a generalization, i mean HIS family). but a lot are weary of any professional, whether it be the police or a doctor. seemingly don't have much money but they're the richest people i know because of the lucrative scams :)

Thanks for sharing. Do they live stateside or are they in the UK/Europe?

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I dont' think I'll be as helpful as madwife, but I did have experiences of a sort with the Travellers. I lived in Ireland off and on as a child, and my parents live there now. I only remember seeing their caravans, (they looked like mini airstreams, but not silver, usually brown and white), and my parents talking about them. In general, the Irish diet is not up to American standards of balanced nutrition. Lots of sugar, salt, cream, chocolate, meat and canned veg.

PM me. I might have more for you.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

There's a mobile home park filled with Irish Travellers in a place called White Settlement, which is a suburb or Fort Worth, Texas. I suspect that they own the mobile home park, too. Quite a few Irish Travellers live in Fort Worth and its western suburbs such as White Settlement. Some of the more prosperous Irish Travellers reside in large, spacious, newer single family houses in White Settlement. They tend to keep to themselves and disassociate with outsiders unless absolutely necessary.

Does anyone remember Madelyn Gorman Toogood, the young mother who was caught on videotape while beating her four-year-old daughter in a Kohl's parking lot in Indiana back in 2002? She was an admitted member of the Irish Travellers.

http://www.fact.on.ca/news/news0209/ap020928.htm

http://www.cuttingedge.org/news/n1707.cfm

Inside the world of Irish Travelers

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Thanks TheCommuter. I had read somewhere else that DFW was another placed where they hung out.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment