What exactly is the basic premise the traveler culture is based on??

Under_Graduate

I grew up in Ireland, but basically was oblivious to the presence of travelers, aside from occasionally seeing them parked on the side of the road when I was a kid, with gates and pieces of scrap metal and tin and stuff stacked beside their caravans.

About a year ago I return to Ireland after a long period over seas, and joined a boxing club.
This boxing club is, I have learned, owned and run by travelers.

Initially they were extremely welcoming, inviting me to their house, bringing me here and there to train and for sparring, and just generally cordial regarding their behavior.

Then there was a bit, shall we say, hot and cold, where I'd show up at the club, and be like the invisible man.
Then the hot - the coach would be on the blower the next day, arranging to collect me for sparring.

So on.

I am deeply curious what their source of income is, given the fact that they seem to have unlimited time to dedicate to boxing training - morning, noon or night, they are available to train.
I mean - do they not have work commitments of some kind?

I know my coach has several children also, so that's gotta be a drain on the finances.

I also couldn't help but notice, that their kids do not seemed to be confined to school hours of any kind, given the fact that they are also available, morning, noon or night, to train boxing.

I mean - for me it's great.

But stands in stark contrast to the routine of another average member of society.

I guy, some years ago, mentioned to me that, they don't believe in washing.
Apparently they feel this makes them more at one with mother nature...
Now the dudes I train with obviously don't adopt this principle cause, they actually present quite well, no odor issues etc.
But if that is a defining cultural principle for them, it would appear to me to be an inherently flawed one, cause personally, I believe as a human race, one of our main purposes is to transcend mother nature, given how it screws us over so regularly and carelessly, like a gold digging girlfriend.
That being said - I admire how they embrace the sport of boxing, where as, until I left my birth home, I was taught to believe that such a sport was brutal and barbaric, and had no place in a modern civilized society - something which I now understand was an inherently flawed ideal in itself.


So - what is it that defines their culture?
They certainly don't travel anywhere, despite their denotation.

Can anyone fill me in on this great mystery??

Under_Graduate

I've also heard, that they have an irresistible temptation for tin and copper piping, and will often go to great lengths to attain these precious metals.

Mod-Banned.

dd972

Euro 2016 is on, let's have a Traveller sabbatical.

demanufactured

Hard to say where it all comes from....they don't like to tell you.

Jim Bob Scratcher

demanufactured wrote: »

Hard to say where it all comes from....they don't like to tell you.

It's pretty obvious where it comes from, welfare, working on the side, along with a bit of theft..

johnruns

yawn

kumate_champ07

a boxing coach owns his own gym and you're wondering what his source of income is?

Strumms

why dont you ask them

kjl

You asking about the guys income right? Are you paying him for his boxing training or is he giving you that out of the goodness of his heart?

Esel

*gets popcorn

_Whimsical_

Under_Graduate wrote: »

I guy, some years ago, mentioned to me that, they don't believe in washing.
Apparently they feel this makes them more at one with mother nature...
Now the dudes I train with obviously don't adopt this principle cause, they actually present quite well, no odor issues etc.
But if that is a defining cultural principle for them, it would appear to me to be an inherently flawed one, cause personally, I believe as a human race, one of our main purposes is to transcend mother nature, given how it screws us over so regularly and carelessly, like a gold digging girlfriend.
That being said - I admire how they embrace the sport of boxing, where as, until I left my birth home, I was taught to believe that such a sport was brutal and barbaric, and had no place in a modern civilized society - something which I now understand was an inherently flawed ideal in itself.

You were willing to shift on one issue, maybe you'll take to the no washing too in time. You never know until you try!

I don't think not washing is integral to their culture. If there ever was an odour issue I'd imagine it was the result of living on halting sites with poor showering facilities shared among too many people. Equally likely the idea of them smelling was just the usual prejudice raising it's head with people calling those they don't like smelly, or assuming because they met one person who smelled that it was safe to tar everyone with the same brush.
Travellers tend to place quite a heavy emphasis on appearance and dressing up these days so I definitely don't think a close to nature ethos defines their culture.

ScumLord

I am actually kind of curious about the Irish traveller/gypsy history. I started watching some stuff on the history of gypsies and they kind of just got left behind, their lifestyle made redundant by national borders they could no longer cross.

My mother remembers that travellers were often welcomed into town because of their trades. I actually remember an old traveller tin smith when I was really young.

If you go back in history are Irish travellers related to that larger Gypsy community? Or just an Irish version of a similar way of life? I think that at one time Gypsy meant just about any mysterious stranger.

riffmongous

ibtl

riffmongous

ScumLord wrote: »

I am actually kind of curious about the Irish traveller/gypsy history. I started watching some stuff on the history of gypsies and they kind of just got left behind, their lifestyle made redundant by national borders they could no longer cross.

My mother remembers that travellers were often welcomed into town because of their trades. I actually remember an old traveller tin smith when I was really young.

If you go back in history are Irish travellers related to that larger Gypsy community? Or just an Irish version of a similar way of life? I think that at one time Gypsy meant just about any mysterious stranger.

One thing that interested me was the tradition of settling family feuds by a one on one fight at a ford.. before it turned into the mad shíte in a bucket that is modern bareknuckle boxing, it seemed like a relic of a much older tradition that I think was present in wider Irish society edit: it was actually from the cu chulainn stories

wakka12

You have a way with words

Mec27

As far as I'm aware there is like a mainland European and British gypsy that are all sort of related distantly, people like rafael van der vaart are part of the group, and then the travellers who have no connection with them, they are basically just ethnic Irish.

Duckworth_Luas

ScumLord wrote: »

If you go back in history are Irish travellers related to that larger Gypsy community? Or just an Irish version of a similar way of life? I think that at one time Gypsy meant just about any mysterious stranger.

No, as far as I know Irish travelers are unrelated to Gypsies.

Gypsy is actually short for Egyptian as that is where Europeans believed the originated (its actually India).

Travelers split off from the main body of the Irish population many centuries ago but their ancestry is 100% Irish as is evident from their common Irish surnames.

ricero

Under_Graduate wrote: »

I've also heard, that they have an irresistible temptation for tin and copper piping, and will often go to great lengths to attain these precious metals.

Crying with laughter after reading this.

The op is defo taking the piss

failinis

Did you also hear OP that they have claws as big as cups, four ears, two for listening and two "are sort of back-up ears. Some might be on the inside of its head.
A retractable leg so it can leap up at you better, magnets on its tail, so if you're made out of metal, it can attach itself to you, lights up at night, has a tremendous fear of stamps, yawn sounds like Liam Neeson chasing a load of hens around inside a barrel. no mouth, but instead has four arses only has eyebrows on Saturdays, lives on the place where there should be moors is the size of a jaguar, big white teeth, as sharp as knives and howls? Or did I miss any judgements there?

riffmongous

ricero wrote: »

Crying with laughter after reading this.

The op is defo taking the piss

It's a huge step up from his usual threads in fairness

Esel

failinis wrote: »

Did you also hear OP that they have claws as big as cups, four ears, two for listening and two "are sort of back-up ears. Some might be on the inside of its head.
A retractable leg so it can leap up at you better, magnets on its tail, so if you're made out of metal, it can attach itself to you, lights up at night, has a tremendous fear of stamps, yawn sounds like Liam Neeson chasing a load of hens around inside a barrel. no mouth, but instead has four arses only has eyebrows on Saturdays, lives on the place where there should be moors is the size of a jaguar, big white teeth, as sharp as knives and howls? Or did I miss any judgements there?

*regurgitates popcorn

Ken.

Mod-Yeah, this went about as well as expected. Locked