Yeah like you'd be the first to do that on here  At least you still have each other and always will have. I wouldn't labour too much on trying to understand it all, old people have old traditions and it never makes sense to anyone but them. I hated that when I was a child (religion stuffed down my throat as an i.e. ) but I am free of it all now 

I agree prom, catholic tradition and religion is my heritage, but I don't believe it and haven't since I was about 15.

 Pretty shocking language, Prom! 

Race is a man-made concept, we are all the human race. The only difference is in our cultures and, from watching the BFGW programme, it appears that Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers have ended up mixing their two cultures together, in Britain.

Seems a bit strange that you have romanticised ideas about the Roma and yet feel free to call Travellers a 'virus'!

Cardiff people talk funny. *nods*

I've tried to stay out of this debate because I agree with both sides of the argument.   Irish Travellers originated from when we were colonised by the British and thrown off our land.  There is also the theory that Cromwell's policy of To Hell or To Connacht left many Irish people travelling the roads to find a home.  Then some believe that during The Famine those that weren't evicted by their English Landlords either died or were left living in ditches.  So Prom if they're giving you some grief in the UK you're well due it.  
As someone who has worked behind a counter all my life I agree with everything Cupcake said in her long post.  I will also ask not to tar them all with the same brush and I do know some decent Travellers who disassociate themselves but  why should they have to?  
Changes in the law have left them untouchable and as a result they are out to 'get' what they can and have no respect for Law or decency.  It always makes me laugh when these TV programmes go on about the great morals they have.  Ok, they don't have sex before marriage but it's ok for a husband to beat the crap out of his young wife or get into a hospital bed when she has just had her baby and demand his rights - I've seen it.  
Gypsies are literally just a different gene pool from India or Egypt (depending on what you read) but they have been romanticised by literature.  I can't comment on their lifestyle because I don't have enough experience of them except from the media which isn't too kind to them either.

Well I don't think I have ever encountered a true gypsy going by the definitions in this thread,
I have however encountered travellers.
We had a patient a long time ago who was from a family of travellers. They used to come and visit him in packs.
They sat on other patients beds, they were noisy, rude and disruptive. All polite requests for them to leave were ignored. Their children ran up and down the ward unstopped.

A couple of them were caught in a patient's locker  and we regularly had to do a round of the ward to make sure they were not in the equipment rooms or even the staff room.

Most shocking of all was that we had a raffle going for the patients and they stole the prizes.
Travellers who come and stay in Bucks make residents lives a misery and cost us money when they leave because they invariably leave a dreadful mess.

However read the local paper and most people will say " well we realise they need somewhere to stop but do they have to leave the field in such a mess and do they have to be so rude?"

 So whilst I would not dream of tarring them all with the same brush,all the encounters I have ever had with these people have been negative. It seems that quite a few FMs on here have had similar experiences.

I could not watch that gypsy wedding programme because it just made me cross.

If that makes me intolerant and a racist then I suppose I am guilty as charged.

Hope you don't mind me saying but much of people's opinion on this seems to be based on v limited/one off bad personal experiences. But surely we can all tell stories of bad experiences of people within just about any particular culture, including our own? Doesn't make 'em all bad. Not unlike my views on some other cultures, (and indeed ours not so many years ago!) I struggle with the attitude towards women and for e.g. the bare knuckle fight which I found v difficult viewing. I also thought that a number of the people I saw on last night's programme seemed v nice, decent people too. (The party in the cemetery was a bit much mind!)

There is a particular bunch of travellers who occasionally inhabit the north side of the river soops. Anywhere from N Bridge to H Hill. Every time they return they cause mayhem, ranging from the attempted theft of the live supply line to "the wairks which resulted in processes having to be shut down n seconds. Very dangerous for the people of B. As a lone worker I was also surprised to find one of 'em in my restricted area trying to remove all the vehicle keys. You know me, I'm a softy Liberal in sandals with a copy of the Grauniad in my arse pocket, but I haven't got a good word for that particular bunch. Moin btw.

We have a huge settled traveller community in our town and I have never had any trouble from them. I suppose its because I treat them with the same respect as I treat everyone I meet.

I had a 'country' middle class family, mum, dad and 3 children. The 3 children ran around like loons screaming and shouting and no 'shhing' from mum or dad would stop those little terrors.
I also had a traveller family in mum,da, 5 kids. The kids starting playing up. One word from mum and there wasn't a peep out of them

Give me the traveller family any day.

People are simply going on their personal experiences with travellers, it's not about traveller-bashing, and I and everyone I know: like Issy, and a few others on here, have seen and experienced 'only' negative and poor behaviour from travellers.  So how are people supposed to say ANYthing positive when they have only ever seen and experienced dreadful behaviour from them?  And the gypsy wedding programme actually puts them in a terrible light too.  But having said that, that IS how they generally behave as far as I can see.  I would love for them to prove me wrong, but so far, I have yet to see considerate and reasonable and law abiding behaviour from travellers.

Maybe original 'romany gypsies' and the like aren't so disrespectful and don't display such appalling behaviour, but these modern day 'travellers' are really a dreadful example of a British citizen.  And to be honest, if I had a bunch of them moving close to me, (ven though some 'middle class people' are supposedly badly behaved sometimes, as someone on here has pointed out,) I would leave the area.

Really? I thought they seemed like nice people, certainly different to our 'norm' but nice, I liked how that Noirin girl explained things last week

Cromwell and the British did not make travellers, the earliest recording of travellers comes from the 5th century..my grandad and his family were great Seanachai's and passed down stories of the knackers and the tinkers....

Perhaps I worded it badly Sazbomb sorry....  They don't all come across as absolute scum, but most of them don't come across as lovely and charming on the whole to me. ..maybe a few are OK. but on the whole, they seem quite intimidating and controlling. The girls/women seem OK although I think a few of them would they'd punch your lights out if you crossed them.     But the behaviour from some of the blokes comes across as very aggressive, confrontational and highly inconsiderate to their women and other people. 

And as i said, like some others have mentioned, I have never met any travellers who have displayed decent and considerate behaviour.  And on the whole - in my opinion -  they don't come across as people I would want to live next to, when I see them on that programme or when I experience them in real life..

Norrin is lovely, she's a great example of the travelling community.

Another example; my father-in-law is renting a house to a traveller family. Rent paid on time and the house is spotless. The same can't be said for the previous 'country' tenant he had.

I wonder if BFGW would be as popular if it didn't show them warts and all??

I find the grabbing thing quite disturbing

It is a bit isn't it Sazbomb.  If I did that in my life or workplace, I think I would either get a backhander from the woman in question, or I would be arrested and taken to court and would almost definately lose my job.

Stonks, another theory is that a lot of Irish Travellers originated from Ulster when people were moved off the land by the Scottish Presbyterian colonists.  I remember the Tinkers/Tin Smiths who were camped along a road close to town and that wasn't in the 5th century.  
Mooonbeams, the rent is on time probably because it's being paid by the Health Board - if I'm wrong I apologise.  Yes, they are very house proud in their own homes but it's ok to dump their rubbish on other peoples land. 
I also treat people as I find them and they absolutely have Rights but I also have the same Rights to do my job without being abused or accused of 'iscrimination' if I ask them to stop stealing from our fridges or to pay their bill etc.    Anyone who knows me will confirm this.

To be fair I kinda see RiverRocks point....although the Gypsies here are nothing like the ones we've seen on Gypsy weddings so I'm not sure where 'our' Gypsies (I live in the same town as RR) are from or what they like to be called but I ain't asking them!  They don't live in trailers and they certainly don't have the 'no sex til marriage' code in their families and the majority would steal the eyeball out of your head and spit in the socket.  They are Trouble (yes, capital T) and I've been in bars on a night out and as soon as they enter half the bar leaves because they start fights for the smiplest thing like looking at one of them for a few seconds too long or accidently bumping into one while passing them.  I know this because my wee cousin and her best mate were hospitalized after my cousin had her handbag stolen and it was sat on the table of the crowd of gypsies and she asked if she could have it back. No, she couldn't.  But she could have a severe beating for even daring to ask.  Most of them live in a certain estate where the kids just go take other kids bikes and toys and the parents deny they have them while the kid stands behind them on the newly acquired bike.

So the Gypsies here are nothing like the ones on gypsy weddings so I have no idea whether they would be called travellers or a different type of Gypsy but they definitly give humans a bad name nevermind anything else.  I'm sure a lot of other Gypsy familes would be disgusted at the reputation this lot in our town have given them.

I have never had a positive experience with the travellers of the Irish variety. I live on a large very ethnically diverse sink estate in NW London and over the last 30 years there have been about a dozen times when the local council housed about two dozen of these families at a time here. After periods of up to a year each time they ended up having to evict them in vast numbers.
The properties that were reclaimed had been completely wrecked and gutted by the tenants. One person who had rented a house less than a year old to a family illegally went to claim it back as she wanted to exchange it and they refused to move and then burnt it to a shell when they moved out. We had a massive increase in burglaries, muggings, fly tipping and every other variety of anti social behaviour every single time numbers of these travellers were housed here - and I reiterate that this is a notorious sink estate with a lot of less than upstanding citizens housed here already so you can see just how bad the behaviour of these travellers was to incite the wrath of the residents. And that's before they decided to invite loads of their mates to bring caravans and camp on the only field that our kids had to play on
They are not disliked/despised/unwanted or whatever anyone wants to call it because they are travellers or Gypsies etc. It's because of their behaviour and the mayhem they seem to incite wherever they go.
Personally I couldn't give a monkeys if my opinions make anyone here label me as a racist - I have these opinions based on first hand experience over 30 years. If others have had a positive experience of travellers settling in their area then good on you - but you must be in a minority

No tates, he works in a factory she sews for a living.

Good for them Beamers and I apologise for jumping to conclusions.

tates, there does seem to be a lot of it happening around  here

The sell jolly nice heather

Now are you sure Tates, I'm sure I've seen your face on an old tapestry next to our Lady in Clarkes............

They are not disliked/despised/unwanted or whatever anyone wants to call it because they are travellers or Gypsies etc. It's because of their behaviour and the mayhem they seem to incite wherever they go.



That about sums it up

I think the safest thing to do, is 'ate the 'orrible ones and like the rest. 

Same as the rest of humanity.

No I think the safest thing to do is to hate everyone...

quote:

"They are not disliked/despised/unwanted or whatever anyone wants to call it because they are travellers or Gypsies etc. It's because of their behaviour and the mayhem they seem to incite wherever they go."

WELL SAID!

Apparently my 'uncle Bill' was a gypsy. He had romany roots, he wasn't even my real uncle. Anyway all I know is he never finished a drink, always left a little in the bottom of the glass. it was a superstition. It was my aunt (who was going out with him at the time for many years) who told me he was Romany  but she also told me that my cousin Paul was a monkey she stole from the zoo and shaved so I'm not sure whether to believe the gypsy claim.

The only time I've met Gypsies or Travellers in person was when I went to visit my sister in the Highlands. They'd set up camp on a roundabout (well...the path running round it) and they had dogs sleeping in wheelie bins, all their washing hanging out, bits of scrap metal everywhere etc. They were blocking the whole path which was the only way to walk to town from hers. If you wanted past you had to walk on the grass verge right beside the road. She works in the local supermarket and said they were always caught shoplifting. As we were walking to town one day one of the dogs came racing up to us barking and growling. One of them came out and gave the dog hell then apologised profusely and invited us in for tea. We said no but I did say it was not right for people to have to walk round them because of their dogs and mess. He apologised again, shouted about 10 kids to come out and start cleaning the place and walked us half way to town blethering about his life. So maybe a bit rough but very nice with it.