photo #8975582

A camp of Irish travellers in Ireland (1960s)... Irish Travellers are an indigenous ethnic group native to Ireland, with a distinct history, culture, and identity that is separate from Romani (“Gypsy”) peoples, despite the two often being incorrectly grouped together. Irish Travellers traditionally lived a nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyle, moving for seasonal work such as tinsmithing, horse trading, farm labor, and market trading. Family and kinship are central to Traveller culture, with strong emphasis on loyalty, oral storytelling, music, Catholic faith, and clearly defined social codes around marriage, honor, and privacy. They have been known by various names over time. “Travellers” is the preferred and respectful term today. Older or colloquial nicknames such as “Tinkers” (from tinsmithing) or “Pavee” (from the Cant/Gammon language Pavee Cant) exist, though some are considered outdated or offensive depending on context and usage. Their own language, Shelta (or Cant), blends Irish, English, and coded vocabulary used historically for privacy. While Romani people trace ancestry back to South Asia and spread across Europe centuries ago, Irish Travellers developed entirely within Ireland, a difference now formally recognized: in 2017, Ireland officially acknowledged Travellers as a distinct ethnic group. Traditional Traveller weddings were once major multi-day events that could involve hundreds of relatives traveling long distances—sometimes larger than weddings in settled Irish communities at the time. © Colorized History #archaeohistories