What is an Irish Traveller wedding?
Traditional Traveller families spend 10 months of the year travelling before returning home in December for wedding season – a period that can see up to 10 ceremonies a week, with families preparing wedding receptions and events.
Do Irish Travellers have arranged marriages?
An Irish traveller has spoken out about life within the community, including her experience of being forced into an arranged marriage on her 16th birthday – which she described as the “worst day of her life.”
What age do Irish Gypsies get married?
Couples marry young – girls at around 16 or 17, and boys between 18 and 19. They’re not supposed to marry non-travellers but marriage to second cousins in families is common.
Can Travellers marry non-Travellers?
“And to marry a non-Traveller depends on what family you have. Some families accept non-Travellers but others are very strict. We would probably have to stay with a Traveller. “But there is a difference between the Irish travelling community and the English gypsies.
Do Irish Travellers marry their cousins?
Consanguinity, or the marriage of first or second cousins, is quite common among Travellers because they have traditionally married within their own 31,000- strong community.
Do Irish Travellers get divorced?
Irish traveller, 26, forced to marry another teenager on her 16th birthday reveals it was the ‘worst day of her life’ – and was divorced with three children by 23.
Why do travellers not use toilets?
Similarly Gypsies will not have toilets inside their caravans- which they call trailers- because the trailer must be kept pure like the body’s inside. These inside/outside divisions can also be extended to territory over which Gypsies feel some form of control.
Are Irish Travellers actually Irish?
Population genetics The study provided evidence that Irish Travellers are a genetically distinct Irish ethnic minority which has been distinct from the settled Irish community for at least 1,000 years: The report claimed that Travellers are as distinct from the settled community as Icelanders are from Norwegians.