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Hidden World Of Girls

For traveller women in ireland, life is changing.

The Kitchen Sisters

Second of a yearlong series

Helen Connors (right), who is part of a Traveller family, says she started school when she was 4 years old. But the community didn't take Traveller girls very seriously — and she says she was called a "knacker" and a "pikey." Nikki Silva hide caption

Helen Connors (right), who is part of a Traveller family, says she started school when she was 4 years old. But the community didn't take Traveller girls very seriously — and she says she was called a "knacker" and a "pikey."

Travellers, "the people of walking," are often referred to as the Gypsies of Ireland. Mistrusted for the most part, their traditions and lifestyle are not well understood within the larger culture. Historically, they were nomads who moved in caravans and lived in encampments on the side of the road. Their tradition as "tinkers" or tinsmiths, and as the breeders and traders of some of Ireland's best horses, goes back hundreds of years.

As times change in Ireland and the notions of private and public space change and contract, the culture no longer accepts the Travellers on public and private lands and has begun to create "halts" where they can settle.

Helen Connors, 21, lives in Hazel Hill, a new government experiment in Traveller housing on the lower slopes of Dublin Mountain, with her husband and two children.

"Travellers got their name because they're so fond of traveling around the world in a caravan," she says. "They'd have their wagons and their horses. You'd see them along the roadside. You could be in Dublin today; you could be in Cork tomorrow. That's how Travellers got their name. We call you 'settled people.' "

"Travelling girls don't really mix much with settled girls," says Shirley Martin, a 23-year-old mother of three. "The way of living, caravans, by the side of the road. A come and go thing. My family is a Travelling family."

Life In School Hard For Travellers

There are similarities between Traveller and Romany Gypsy culture, but Travellers do not define themselves as Romany, says Mary Burke, associate professor of Irish literature at the University of Connecticut.

For many generations, Travellers -- the nomadic, indigenous Irish minority -- provided services to an Ireland that was predominantly agricultural: seasonal farm labor, tinsmithing, horse-trading, hawking, music and entertainment.

The Irish government is experimenting with housing for Travellers — the Gypsies of Ireland — on the lower slopes of Dublin Mountain. The houses are called "halts." Today, the majority of Travellers either live in houses permanently or live in houses at certain times of the year. Gerry O'Leary hide caption

The Irish government is experimenting with housing for Travellers — the Gypsies of Ireland — on the lower slopes of Dublin Mountain. The houses are called "halts." Today, the majority of Travellers either live in houses permanently or live in houses at certain times of the year.

In the early days Travellers moved from place to place with horses and carts. British Romany introduced Travellers to wagons. The wagons were overtaken by caravans, and the caravans were overtaken by mobile homes. But today the majority of Travellers either live in houses permanently or live in houses at certain times of the year.

"But that doesn't mean that prejudice or identity disappear when they settle in houses," Burke says.

Connors started school when she was about 4 years old. She says the community didn't take educating Traveller girls very seriously.

"I didn't learn very much in school because I was bullied a lot," Connors says. "You were a 'knacker' or a 'pikey.' That's all you'd hear every day. You'd be in trouble nearly every day for fighting. If I said to the teacher, 'I can't do that; can I have some help?' she'd say, 'Here's paper; just go down to the back of the class and draw whatever you want.' I had one teacher that said to me, 'Well, a Traveller won't do nothing with their life. Why would you want to know how to read and write? You're going to go off and marry young and have loads of children.' So I was just put down to the end of the class and everyone else was up on top."

Because school in Ireland is set up for kids who live in a house year-round, Burke says, a cultural attitude developed toward Traveller kids who moved around a lot for not being capable of -- or interested in -- learning.

"And that carries over into today," Burke says.

Traveller Girls Marry Young

Traveller families are especially strict with girls, according to Martin.

"Some mothers and fathers is too strict where you wouldn't be allowed to go anywhere," she says. "This is why most Travelling girls get married young, because they want to get away from that. Travelling girls, most of them today would be 16, 17, 18, which will want marriage."

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The girls travel in a pack, promenading.

"They look very glamorous," Burke says. "Lot's of makeup and heels and long hair."

Terry McCarthy, 16, was recently married.

"When I was 13, I met my husband at a festival," she says. "And the minute I met him, I knew I was in love. I got engaged when I was 15. I had a big do for that. I had a big engagement party. Just went from there then. I got married last month. I had a lovely big huge white dress."

"Whatever you want on your wedding day you have to get," Connors says. "When I got married, I got to design my own wedding dress -- my dream dress. It had a 50-foot train. It was all diamonds and lace. Travellers, too, they have a mini-bride. That's a girl you just dress up to look just like yourself for the day. Your mini-bride has to look like you."

Theresa Hughes and daughter Jennifer have been sewing wedding dresses for Traveller girls for more than 10 years.

"The Travelling community, they come over to us to get their outfits made for going to weddings -- even the mothers and grannies want bling," Theresa says. "Thick pink satin, sequins, beads, glitter. They go all out."

Jennifer shows off a white miniskirt with beads on it.

"I just go all out; I go for extremes," she says. "I kind of used Elvis as an inspiration -- Elvis' white Lycra suit, the flared one that he wears to his last concert."

There is a lot of money involved in Traveller weddings, both in terms of substantial dowry payments and in terms of putting on a good show.

Traveller Women Gain Power

As women age in Traveller culture, they gain power. They often outlive the men. They can become matriarchs in the culture, particularly if they have a large family. And there's prestige attached to being the mother of many.

Shirley Martin, 23, a resident at Hazel Hill, says that Traveller families are especially strict with girls — and that's why they marry young. Nikki Silva hide caption

Shirley Martin, 23, a resident at Hazel Hill, says that Traveller families are especially strict with girls — and that's why they marry young.

"When I was a kid, the Travellers, they used to come around our houses making pots and pans and doing odd jobs," says Paul Connelly, the caretaker of the Hazel Hill halting site. "And in return for that, they may get milk and bread and potatoes. People will not tolerate Travellers living on the side of the roads now. It's dangerous for themselves. The country's trying to get them settled. Set up halting sites and trying to get them to live in them."

Traveller life has changed, Helen Connors says.

"My mother and father had 17 children -- nine boys and eight girls," she says. "Myself, I left school when I was 11, but then I started a trainer course where I learned how to read and write. Then I did a child care course, and I passed all my exams. Now I can read and write what I never learned in school. I learned it by myself. Travellers are speaking up for themselves and being heard."

Produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva) in collaboration with Dublin producer, Nuala Macklin; mixed by Jim McKee

Web Resources

A Brief History of Irish Travellers, Ireland’s Only Indigenous Minority

After a long battle, Irish Travellers were finally officially recognised as an indigenous ethnic minority by Ireland’s government in early March 2017. Here, Culture Trip takes a look at the origins of the Irish Travelling community and how the historic ruling came about. At the time of the 2011 census , there were around 29,500 Irish Travellers in the Irish Republic , making up 0.6% of the population. The community was found to be unevenly distributed across the country, with the highest number living in County Galway and South Dublin. Although – as the name suggests – Irish Travellers have historically been a nomadic people, the census showed a majority living in private dwellings.

Throughout Irish history, the Travelling community has been markedly separated from the general Irish population, resulting in widespread stereotyping and discrimination. The same year as the census, a survey conducted by Ireland’s Economic and Social Research Institute found that Irish Travellers suffer widespread ostracism; this and other factors have been shown to contribute to high levels of mental health problems among Irish Travellers. Indeed, the 2010 All Ireland Traveller Health Study found their suicide rate to be six times the national average, accounting for a shocking 11% of Traveller deaths.

Through the 2011 census, members of the Travelling community were also found to have poorer general health, higher rates of disability and significantly lower levels of education as compared to the general population, with seven out of 10 Irish Travellers educated only to primary level or lower.

Because of a lack of written history, the exact origins of the Irish Travelling Community have been difficult to clarify. Although it had been hypothesised, until relatively recently, that Irish Travellers may be linked to the Romani people, a genetic study released in February of this year revealed this connection to be false.

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The study found that Travellers are of Irish ancestral origin, but split off from the general population sometime around the mid-1600s – much earlier than had been thought previously. In one widely quoted finding, the DNA comparisons conducted in the course of the research found that while Irish Travellers originated in Ireland, they are genetically different from ‘settled’ Irish people, to the same degree as people from Spain.

The results of the study, conducted by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, University College Dublin, the University of Edinburgh and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, contributed significantly to Irish Travellers being officially designated an ethnic minority, defined as a group within a community with different national or cultural traditions from the main population.

Speaking to RTE on the day of the ruling, former director of the Irish Traveller Movement Brigid Quilligan said, ‘We want every Traveller in Ireland to be proud of who they are and to say that we’re not a failed set of people. We have our own unique identity, and we shouldn’t take on all of the negative aspects of what people think about us. We should be able to be proud and for that to happen our State needed to acknowledge our identity and our ethnicity, and they’re doing that today.’

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Gypsy Roma and Traveller History and Culture

Gypsy Roma and Traveller people belong to minority ethnic groups that have contributed to British society for centuries. Their distinctive way of life and traditions manifest themselves in nomadism, the centrality of their extended family, unique languages and entrepreneurial economy. It is reported that there are around 300,000 Travellers in the UK and they are one of the most disadvantaged groups. The real population may be different as some members of these communities do not participate in the census .

The Traveller Movement works predominantly with ethnic Gypsy, Roma, and Irish Traveller Communities.

Irish Travellers and Romany Gypsies

Irish Travellers

Traditionally, Irish Travellers are a nomadic group of people from Ireland but have a separate identity, heritage and culture to the community in general. An Irish Traveller presence can be traced back to 12th century Ireland, with migrations to Great Britain in the early 19th century. The Irish Traveller community is categorised as an ethnic minority group under the Race Relations Act, 1976 (amended 2000); the Human Rights Act 1998; and the Equality Act 2010. Some Travellers of Irish heritage identify as Pavee or Minceir, which are words from the Irish Traveller language, Shelta.

Romany Gypsies

Romany Gypsies have been in Britain since at least 1515 after migrating from continental Europe during the Roma migration from India. The term Gypsy comes from “Egyptian” which is what the settled population perceived them to be because of their dark complexion. In reality, linguistic analysis of the Romani language proves that Romany Gypsies, like the European Roma, originally came from Northern India, probably around the 12th century. French Manush Gypsies have a similar origin and culture to Romany Gypsies.

There are other groups of Travellers who may travel through Britain, such as Scottish Travellers, Welsh Travellers and English Travellers, many of whom can trace a nomadic heritage back for many generations and who may have married into or outside of more traditional Irish Traveller and Romany Gypsy families. There were already indigenous nomadic people in Britain when the Romany Gypsies first arrived hundreds of years ago and the different cultures/ethnicities have to some extent merged.

Number of Gypsies and Travellers in Britain

This year, the 2021 Census included a “Roma” category for the first time, following in the footsteps of the 2011 Census which included a “Gypsy and Irish Traveller” category. The 2021 Census statistics have not yet been released but the 2011 Census put the combined Gypsy and Irish Traveller population in England and Wales as 57,680. This was recognised by many as an underestimate for various reasons. For instance, it varies greatly with data collected locally such as from the Gypsy Traveller Accommodation Needs Assessments, which total the Traveller population at just over 120,000, according to our research.

Other academic estimates of the combined Gypsy, Irish Traveller and other Traveller population range from 120,000 to 300,000. Ethnic monitoring data of the Gypsy Traveller population is rarely collected by key service providers in health, employment, planning and criminal justice.

Where Gypsies and Travellers Live

Although most Gypsies and Travellers see travelling as part of their identity, they can choose to live in different ways including:

• moving regularly around the country from site to site and being ‘on the road’
• living permanently in caravans or mobile homes, on sites provided by the council, or on private sites
• living in settled accommodation during winter or school term-time, travelling during the summer months
• living in ‘bricks and mortar’ housing, settled together, but still retaining a strong commitment to Gypsy/Traveller culture and traditions

Currently, their nomadic life is being threatened by the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, that is currently being deliberated in Parliament, To find out more or get involved with opposing this bill, please visit here

Although Travellers speak English in most situations, they often speak to each other in their own language; for Irish Travellers this is called Cant or Gammon* and Gypsies speak Romani, which is the only indigenous language in the UK with Indic roots.

*Sometimes referred to as “Shelta” by linguists and academics

New Travellers and Show People

There are also Traveller groups which are known as ‘cultural’ rather than ‘ethnic’ Travellers. These include ‘new’ Travellers and Showmen. Most of the information on this page relates to ethnic Travellers but ‘Showmen’ do share many cultural traits with ethnic Travellers.

Show People are a cultural minority that have owned and operated funfairs and circuses for many generations and their identity is connected to their family businesses. They operate rides and attractions that can be seen throughout the summer months at funfairs. They generally have winter quarters where the family settles to repair the machinery that they operate and prepare for the next travelling season. Most Show People belong to the Showmen’s Guild which is an organisation that provides economic and social regulation and advocacy for Show People. The Showman’s Guild works with both central and local governments to protect the economic interests of its members.

The term New Travellers refers to people sometimes referred to as “New Age Travellers”. They are generally people who have taken to life ‘on the road’ in their own lifetime, though some New Traveller families claim to have been on the road for three consecutive generations. The New Traveller culture grew out of the hippie and free-festival movements of the 1960s and 1970s.

Barge Travellers are similar to New Travellers but live on the UK’s 2,200 miles of canals. They form a distinct group in the canal network and many are former ‘new’ Travellers who moved onto the canals after changes to the law made the free festival circuit and a life on the road almost untenable. Many New Travellers have also settled into private sites or rural communes although a few groups are still travelling.

If you are a new age Traveller and require support please contact Friends, Families, and Travellers (FFT) .

Differences and Values

Differences Between Gypsies, Travellers, and Roma

Gypsies, Roma and Travellers are often categorised together under the “Roma” definition in Europe and under the acronym “GRT” in Britain. These communities and other nomadic groups, such as Scottish and English Travellers, Show People and New Travellers, share a number of characteristics in common: the importance of family and/or community networks; the nomadic way of life, a tendency toward self-employment, experience of disadvantage and having the poorest health outcomes in the United Kingdom.

The Roma communities also originated from India from around the 10th/ 12th centuries and have historically faced persecution, including slavery and genocide. They are still marginalised and ghettoised in many Eastern European countries (Greece, Bulgaria, Romania etc) where they are often the largest and most visible ethnic minority group, sometimes making up 10% of the total population. However, ‘Roma’ is a political term and a self-identification of many Roma activists. In reality, European Roma populations are made up of various subgroups, some with their own form of Romani, who often identify as that group rather than by the all-encompassing Roma identity.

Travellers and Roma each have very different customs, religion, language and heritage. For instance, Gypsies are said to have originated in India and the Romani language (also spoken by Roma) is considered to consist of at least seven varieties, each a language in their own right.

Values and Culture of GRT Communities

Family, extended family bonds and networks are very important to the Gypsy and Traveller way of life, as is a distinct identity from the settled ‘Gorja’ or ‘country’ population. Family anniversaries, births, weddings and funerals are usually marked by extended family or community gatherings with strong religious ceremonial content. Gypsies and Travellers generally marry young and respect their older generation. Contrary to frequent media depiction, Traveller communities value cleanliness and tidiness.

Many Irish Travellers are practising Catholics, while some Gypsies and Travellers are part of a growing Christian Evangelical movement.

Gypsy and Traveller culture has always adapted to survive and continues to do so today. Rapid economic change, recession and the gradual dismantling of the ‘grey’ economy have driven many Gypsy and Traveller families into hard times. The criminalisation of ‘travelling’ and the dire shortage of authorised private or council sites have added to this. Some Travellers describe the effect that this is having as “a crisis in the community” . A study in Ireland put the suicide rate of Irish Traveller men as 3-5 times higher than the wider population. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the same phenomenon is happening amongst Traveller communities in the UK.

Gypsies and Travellers are also adapting to new ways, as they have always done. Most of the younger generation and some of the older generation use social network platforms to stay in touch and there is a growing recognition that reading and writing are useful tools to have. Many Gypsies and Travellers utilise their often remarkable array of skills and trades as part of the formal economy. Some Gypsies and Travellers, many supported by their families, are entering further and higher education and becoming solicitors, teachers, accountants, journalists and other professionals.

There have always been successful Gypsy and Traveller businesses, some of which are household names within their sectors, although the ethnicity of the owners is often concealed. Gypsies and Travellers have always been represented in the fields of sport and entertainment.

How Gypsies and Travellers Are Disadvantaged

The Traveller, Gypsy, and Roma communities are widely considered to be among the most socially excluded communities in the UK. They have a much lower life expectancy than the general population, with Traveller men and women living 10-12 years less than the wider population.

Travellers have higher rates of infant mortality, maternal death and stillbirths than the general population. They experience racist sentiment in the media and elsewhere, which would be socially unacceptable if directed at any other minority community. Ofsted consider young Travellers to be one of the groups most at risk of low attainment in education.

Government services rarely include Traveller views in the planning and delivery of services.

In recent years, there has been increased political networking between the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller activists and campaign organisations.

Watch this video by Travellers Times made for Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month 2021:

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Travellers as ‘genetically different’ from settled Irish as Spanish

Study finds travellers emerged as distinct group up to 200 years before great famine.

John Ward, a Traveller making tinware near Galway, in 1971. Photograph: Pat Langan.

The emergence of Irish Travellers as a distinct group occurred long before the Great Famine, a genetic analysis shows.

The study also indicates that while Travellers originally descended from the general Irish population, they are now very distinct from it.

DNA analysis allowed the researchers to track when and how quickly Travellers arose. This occurred between eight and 14 generations ago, with the best fit suggesting 12 generations or 360 years ago, said Prof Gianpiero Cavalleri, who conducted the study with colleagues at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and the University of Edinburgh.

The 12 generations would push the emergence of Travellers back to 1657. This significantly predates the Great Famine of 1845-52, an event long thought to have caused the formation of a migratory community that became the Travellers.

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The research suggests that Traveller origins may in fact date as far back as 420 years to 1597. The Plantation of Ulster began around that time, with native Irish displaced from the land, perhaps to form a nomadic population.

Ethnic status

The findings provide strong evidence that Travellers should receive some form of ethnic status, according to Prof Cavalleri.

“We think this is a nice piece of evidence for that complex debate,” he said. The research group “would be supportive of some form of ethnic status”.

Travellers are now as genetically different from the settled Irish as are the Spanish, he said. And if the small Traveller population is taken into account, they are still as different from the Irish as are the Scots.

“Travellers cluster with the Irish but they are very definitely distinct from the Irish. There is a considerable genetic distance between them.”

The far-reaching study sought to understand the genetic connections between Travellers, the settled Irish and people further afield. It involved looking at the DNA of more than 11,000 people including Travellers, Roma Gypsies, settled Irish, British, Continental Europeans and individuals from the rest of the world.

It also sought to set a time for when the Traveller community began to form as a distinct and separate population.

Today there are between 29,000 and 40,000 Travellers in Ireland, representing 0.6 per cent of the total population.

The researchers did not try to connect the emergence of Travellers with any one historical event. “We tried to avoid speculating. You could point to Cromwellian times but it is speculation,” Prof Gianpiero said.

They did not however have to speculate about the genetics including an important analysis of the interrelatedness of Travellers, something the researchers say could have implications for disease mapping within Ireland.

It is common practice for Travellers to marry first and second cousins, leading to a situation where they have some of the highest rates of duplicated DNA in the world.

"The isolation and consanguinity (marrying cousins) have in turn led to an increased prevalence of recessive diseases, " the authors said.

They published their findings on Thursday in the Nature journal Scientific Reports , with the RCSI's Edmund Gilbert as lead author.

Genetic clusters

The DNA analysis also revealed that there are four “genetic clusters” or subdivisions within the Traveller community. These in turn tend to match up with their social grouping and use of language.

One cluster is associated with the “Rathkeale group” of Travellers. Two other clusters are linked to whether the Traveller speaks the Cant or Gammon dialects of the Traveller language Shelta.

The study clearly showed there was no significant genetic contribution made by Roma Gypsies to Traveller DNA. This disproves a view held by some that the two groups were genetically related.

Traveller origins have long been a “source of considerable debate” the authors write. There is also a lack of documentary evidence that reveals the history of the Irish Traveller population.

Dick Ahlstrom

Dick Ahlstrom, a contributor to The Irish Times, is the newspaper's former Science Editor.

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Fighting Gypsy discrimination: ‘What people ask me is insulting’

Gypsies and Travellers still face routine daily racism. A mother of six and a young student explain why they became the faces of a poster campaign aiming to change attitudes

M ena Mongan remembers her time at school in Ireland in the 1970s as a miserable experience. Her primary school had never admitted Traveller children before, and she was shunned by fellow pupils. “Our school lunch was walked on top of. We had a terrible time. It hit us straight away that we were different. You wouldn’t even tell your parents; you wouldn’t want them to go down the school and complain and make things worse,” she says.

School has been somewhat easier for her six children, brought up on Travellers’ sites in east London, but all of them have been bullied to some degree. Her oldest son would be shouted at by other children and never brought anyone back from school. “They called him names – you dirty Gypsy, you live in a caravan.” For the younger ones, anti-bullying rules have tackled casual abuse, but the discrimination has taken more subtle forms. None of the children have ever been invited to a birthday party by school friends and Mongan hasn’t had a lot of success at getting classmates to come to her children’s birthdays. “The mums say: ‘Oh no, we have things to do.’”

She has been careful to shield her youngest daughter, who is seven, from any awareness of a divide. “I know why it happens, but I am not going to put that into her head for the moment. She can learn that later.” Her 19-year-old daughter Leslie says she mostly stopped going to school at 14 because she was so unhappy; for years other students refused to sit next to her. “The teacher told them not to behave like that, but they didn’t get detentions, nothing meaningful was done,” she says.

Mongan’s awareness that discrimination towards Gypsies and Travellers remains widespread prompted her to abandon her normal reserve about her background and put herself forward for a striking poster campaign launched this month and designed to force people to reassess their attitudes. While similar campaigns in the past have tended to celebrate Gypsies and Travellers for their unique culture, this time the emphasis is on highlighting ordinariness. Her picture will be on billboards beneath the headline: “mother, receptionist, swimmer, taxpayer, volunteer, traveller”. The poster asks: “We are all so many things. So why only pick on one?”

It was a big step to put herself forward. Even now she hesitates before revealing her status as a Traveller to people she doesn’t know and she notes that a lot of other families were unwilling to get involved in the campaign because they were nervous about identifying themselves. Most of her neighbours and relatives think twice before revealing their Traveller background because experience has taught them the response is likely to be negative, even if politeness makes people attempt to conceal their suspicion.

“When I sit down to have a chat with new people, I still think: ‘Am I going to tell them I’m a Traveller?’ You don’t have to say it, but why should you hide it? They say: ‘Are you Irish?’ I say: ‘I’m an Irish Traveller.’ Some people are quite shocked; they look at me and say: ‘I would never know.’ It is a bit hurtful because I think: ‘But what was there to never know? What has changed in their aspect when I said that? Are they looking down on me now?’” she says, in the large, sunny kitchen of the brick bungalow where she lives, next to her parents’ caravan in east London. “There is still that stigma about Travellers. We work in London, we vote and we are a part of the London community, but it seems like we are always looking in from the outside.”

She is annoyed that political canvassers don’t come to the cul-de-sac in Hackney with around 12 bungalows and caravans where she and her family were rehoused after they lost their home to the Olympic redevelopment. Her children are fed up with being followed by security guards when they go shopping. “That’s still happening now. It makes you feel very low; they follow you to the checkout, they follow you to the front door.” She is outraged that her family has been refused service at pubs, and that her sons were denied entry to funfairs.

“They say: ‘We don’t want the likes of your type here.’ They don’t give you the benefit of the doubt.” She hopes the publicity will help people see a different side to the Traveller community. “I’m a mother, I’m a receptionist, I do the school run, I go to church. People don’t realise you are a working mum, that you cook, you clean, you do charity work, you volunteer your time – they don’t see that. I hope this campaign gives people another thing to look at.”

Debby Kennett, chief executive of the charity London Gypsies and Travellers , which is behind the campaign, says the posters were triggered by a sense that racism towards this group continues to be tolerated. Things have not improved much in the 13 years since Trevor Phillips, then chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality , said : “Discrimination against Gypsies and Travellers appears to be the last ‘respectable’ form of racism.”

“It has come from a recognition in the community that the level of racism experienced on a daily basis will only be challenged if people put their heads up,” says Kennett. “We want to get members of the public to question their prejudices. These are people who are making positive contributions. They have got lives, hobbies, jobs, they are active members of society. We want to change the narrative. The discussion previously has been about what is different about Travellers; this is focusing on what we have in common.”

She wants to move on from a binary approach that cast Gypsies either (anachronistically) as romantic free spirits, living in wagons and picking potatoes, or as criminals; she hopes to move away from unhelpful stereotypes perpetuated by programmes like the Channel 4 documentary My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding , which “portrayed people as somehow a bit exotic and made a mockery of the community”.

“No one would be stupid enough to think that everyone from Essex is like people on The Only Way is Essex but this does happen with the Gypsy and Traveller community,” she says.

The BBC apologised after Orlando Bloom repeatedly used the word “pikey” during a Radio 1 interview last month. The National Gypsy-Traveller-Roma Council said his use of the “racially abusive term is worrying”, and the incident was another indication that Travellers remain casually stigmatised.

Billy Smith, 19, also appears on the posters beneath the words: “brother, student, apprentice, boyfriend, gypsy”. He has finished A-levels in English, business studies and law and hopes to go to college to study computer science. He wanted to participate because he has been confronted with “racism and prejudice from a young age. You see all the hatred, and you think, ‘Where did they learn to hate like that?’”

At primary school he avoided telling anyone that he lived on a Gypsy Traveller site. “I would just say I lived in Stratford. I would panic that people would find out,” he says. Sometimes his grandfather, a scrap collector, would pick him up from school in the van with metal piled in the back. “I would be worried about that. I’d hope my mum would pick me up from school in a car. I hated myself; I didn’t even know why.”

Since then routine racism has punctuated his life: the teacher who knew nothing about his background, but described poor work as “pikey”; the people at school who would say, “You stink, you live in a bin”; the constant misconceptions thrown up by exaggerated media portrayal of Travellers and Gypsies.

“I hated My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding. A lot of people watched it and asked me: do you throw dogs in water all the time? People ask me: are you incestuous? It is embarrassing, it is insulting, it makes you very angry,” he says, at the kitchen table in “the shed” (his preferred word for the spacious council-built, semi-permanent bungalow) where he lives with his family and other English Romany Gypsies in east London. He tries to respond patiently. “I say: ‘Don’t be an idiot.’ Then I try and educate them. Everyone knows that you shouldn’t be racist, but people are much more accepting of this kind of discrimination.”

Government statistics show that Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children remain among the lowest-achieving pupils in school and Billy feels teachers did not expect him to do so well academically. Now, when he reveals his background, the first response is “shock and disbelief, because I’ve hidden it so well. I’m not their stereotypical Gypsy.

“This campaign is focusing on the positives, what we actually are instead of the negatives,” he says. “We want people to think: son, student instead of thief, dirty, uneducated.”

He thinks there is very little understanding of how hard people in the Traveller community work. His grandparents instilled a work ethic in him. “There’s a strong sense of having to graft to get something.”

As they are for most London residents, housing issues are extremely challenging for the Gypsy and Traveller community. Billy’s family was also rehoused after the Olympic redevelopment, to a stretch of road by an industrial estate 10 minutes from the stadium that feels increasingly threatened by the rapid spread of housing developments all around it. He worries that they could be moved on soon, and knows that finding a new place to live will be difficult, since sites are being closed and permission for new ones is being refused. Fifteen years ago, before London’s housing boom, there were more pockets of land where Travellers could settle, without attracting much attention, but now spots previously considered undesirable are ripe for redevelopment. Because it is hard to open new sites, 85% of the 30,000 Gypsies and Travellers living in London live in conventional houses, much of it insecure, short-term, temporary accommodation.

Billy hopes the campaign will change attitudes. “I want people to say: ‘Oh, that’s cool, I haven’t met a Gypsy before.’ I just want to be respected.”

Mongan gets angry when she sees pictures of fly-tipping left by Travellers who have been moved on. “Don’t paint us all as one picture. We’re not all like that. I want my children to grow to be able to say: ‘I am from the Traveller community’ and be proud of who they are.”

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Gypsy, Roma and Irish Traveller ethnicity summary

Updated 29 March 2022

1. About this page

2. the gypsy, roma and traveller group, 3. classifications, 4. improving data availability and quality, 5. population data, 6. education data, 7. economic activity and employment data.

• 8. Home ownership data data
• 9. Health data

This is a summary of statistics about people from the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller ethnic groups living in England and Wales.

It is part of a series of summaries about different ethnic groups .

Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) is a term used to describe people from a range of ethnicities who are believed to face similar challenges. These groups are distinct, but are often reported together.

This page includes:

• information about GRT data and its reliability
• some statistics from the 2011 Census
• other statistics on the experiences of people from the GRT groups in topics including education, housing and health

This is an overview based on a selection of data published on Ethnicity facts and figures or analyses of other sources. Some published data (for example, on higher education) is only available for the aggregated White ethnic group, and is not included here.

Through this report, we sometimes make comparisons with national averages. While in other reports we might compare with another ethnic group (usually White British), we have made this decision here because of the relatively small impact the GRT group has on the overall national average.

The term Gypsy, Roma and Traveller has been used to describe a range of ethnic groups or people with nomadic ways of life who are not from a specific ethnicity.

In the UK, it is common in data collections to differentiate between:

• Gypsies (including English Gypsies, Scottish Gypsies or Travellers, Welsh Gypsies and other Romany people)
• Irish Travellers (who have specific Irish roots)
• Roma, understood to be more recent migrants from Central and Eastern Europe

The term Traveller can also encompass groups that travel. This includes, but is not limited to, New Travellers, Boaters, Bargees and Showpeople. (See the House of Commons Committee report on Tackling inequalities faced by Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities .)

For the first time, the 2011 Census ethnic group question included a tick box for the ethnic group ‘Gypsy or Irish Traveller’. This was not intended for people who identify as Roma because they are a distinct group with different needs to Gypsy or Irish Travellers.

The 2021 Census had a ‘Gypsy or Irish Traveller’ category, and a new ‘Roma’ category.

A 2018 YouGov poll found that 66% of people in the UK wrongly viewed GRT not to be an ethnic group, with many mistaking them as a single group (PDF). It is therefore important that GRT communities are categorised correctly on data forms, using separate tick boxes when possible to reflect this.

The 2011 Census figures used in this report and on Ethnicity facts and figures are based on respondents who chose to identify with the Gypsy or Irish Traveller ethnic group. People who chose to write in Roma as their ethnicity were allocated to the White Other group, and data for them is not included here. Other data, such as that from the Department for Education, includes Roma as a category combined with Gypsy, with Irish Traveller shown separately.

The commentary in this report uses the specific classifications in each dataset. Users should exercise caution when comparing different datasets, for example between education data (which uses Gypsy/Roma, and Irish Traveller in 2 separate categories) and the Census (which uses Gypsy and Irish Traveller together, but excludes data for people who identify as Roma).

Finally, it should be noted that there is also a distinction that the government makes, for the purposes of planning policy, between those who travel and the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller ethnicities. The Department for Communities and Local Government (at the time, now the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities) planning policy for traveller sites (PDF) defines "gypsies and travellers" as:

"Persons of nomadic habit of life whatever their race or origin, including such persons who on grounds only of their own or their family’s or dependants’ educational or health needs or old age have ceased to travel temporarily, but excluding members of an organised group of travelling showpeople or circus people travelling together as such."

This definition for planning purposes includes any person with a nomadic habit, whether or not they might have identified as Gypsy, Roma or Traveller in a data collection.

The April 2019 House of Commons Women and Equalities Select Committee report on inequalities faced by Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities noted that there was a lack of data on these groups.

The next section highlights some of the problems associated with collecting data on these groups, and what is available. Some of the points made about surveys, sample sizes and administrative data are generally applicable to any group with a small population.

Improving data for the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller populations, as well as other under-represented groups in the population is part of the recommendations in the Inclusive Data Taskforce report and the key activities described in the ONS response to them. For example, in response to recommendation 3 of the report, ONS, RDU and others will "build on existing work and develop new collaborative initiatives and action plans to improve inclusion of under-represented population groups in UK data in partnership with others across government and more widely".

Also, the ONS response to recommendation 4 notes the development of a range of strategies to improve the UK data infrastructure and fill data gaps to provide more granular data through new or boosted surveys and data linkage. Recommendation 6 notes that research will be undertaken using innovative methods best suited to the research question and prospective participants, to understand more about the lived experiences of several groups under-represented in UK data and evidence, such as people from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller groups.

4.1 Classifications

In some data collections, the option for people to identify as Gypsy, Roma or Traveller is not available. Any data grouped to the 5 aggregated ethnic groups does not show the groups separately. Data based on the 2001 Census does not show them separately as there was no category for people identifying as Gypsy, Roma or Traveller. As part of our Quality Improvement Plan, the Race Disparity Unit (RDU) has committed to working with government departments to maintain a harmonised approach to collecting data about Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people using the GSS harmonised classification. The harmonised classification is currently based on the 2011 Census, and an update is currently being considered by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

In particular, RDU has identified working with DHSC and NHS Digital colleagues as a priority – the NHS classification is based on 2001 Census classifications and does not capture information on any of the GRT groups separately (they were categorised as White Other in the 2001 Census). Some of these issues have been outlined in the quarterly reports on progress to address COVID-19 health inequalities .

Research into how similar or different the aggregate ethnic groups are shows how many datasets are available for the GRT group.

Further information on the importance of harmonisation is also available.

4.2 Census data

A main source of data on the Gypsy and Irish Traveller groups is the 2011 Census. This will be replaced by the 2021 Census when results are published by the ONS. The statistics in this summary use information from Ethnicity facts and figures and the Census section of ONS’s NOMIS website.

4.3 Survey data

It is often difficult to conclude at any one point in time whether a disparity is significant for the GRT population, as the population is so small in comparison to other ethnic groups.

Even a large sample survey like the Annual Population Survey (APS) has a small number of responses from the Gypsy and Irish Traveller ethnic group each year. Analysis of 3 years of combined data for 2016, 2017 and 2018 showed there were 62 people in the sample (out of around 500,000 sampled cases in total over those 3 years) in England and Wales. Another large survey, the Department for Transport’s National Travel Survey, recorded 58 people identifying as Gypsy or Traveller out of 157,000 people surveyed between 2011 and 2019.

Small sample sizes need not be a barrier to presenting data if confidence intervals are provided to help the user. But smaller sample sizes will mean wider confidence intervals, and these will provide limited analytical value. For the 2016 to 2018 APS dataset – and using the standard error approximation method given in the LFS User Guide volume 6 with a fixed design factor of 1.6 (the formula is 1.6 * √p(1 − p)/n where p is the proportion in employment and n is the sample size.) – the employment rate of 35% for working age people in the Gypsy and Traveller group in England and Wales would be between 16% and 54% (based on a 95% confidence interval). This uses the same methodology as the ONS’s Sampling variability estimates for labour market status by ethnicity .

A further reason for smaller sample sizes might be lower response rates. The Women and Select Committee report on the inequalities faced by Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities noted that people in these groups may be reluctant to self-identify, even where the option is available to them. This is because Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people might mistrust the intent behind data collection.

The RDU recently published a method and quality report on working out significant differences between estimates for small groups using different analytical techniques.

4.4 Administrative data

While administrative data does not suffer from the same issues of sampling variability, small numbers of respondents can mean that data is either disclosive and needs to be suppressed to protect the identity of individuals, or results can fluctuate over time.

An example of this is the measure of students getting 3 A grades or better at A level . In 2019 to 2020, no Irish Traveller students achieved this (there were 6 students in the cohort). In 2017 to 2018, 2 out of 7 Irish Traveller students achieved 3 A grades, or 28.6% – the highest percentage of all ethnic groups.

Aggregating time periods might help with this, although data collected in administrative datasets can change over time to reflect the information that needs to be collected for the administrative process. The data collected would not necessarily be governed by trying to maintain a consistent time series in the same way that data collected through surveys sometimes are.

4.5 Data linkage

Linking datasets together provides a way of producing more robust data for the GRT groups, or in fact, any ethnic group. This might improve the quality of the ethnicity coding in the dataset being analysed if an ethnicity classification that is known to be more reliable is linked from another dataset.

Data linkage does not always increase the sample size or the number of records available in the dataset to be analysed, but it might do if records that have missing ethnicity are replaced by a known ethnicity classification from a linked dataset.

An example is the linking of the Census data to Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data and death registrations by the ONS. The ethnicity classifications for GRT groups are not included in the HES data, and are not collected in the death registrations process at the moment. So this data linking gives a way to provide some information for Gypsy and Irish Travellers and other smaller groups. The report with data up to 15 May 2020 noted 16 Gypsy or Irish Traveller deaths from COVID-19.

RDU will be working with ONS and others to explore the potential for using data linking to get more information for the GRT groups.

4.6 Bespoke surveys and sample boosts

A country-wide, or even local authority, boost of a sample survey is unlikely to make estimates for the GRT groups substantially more robust. This is because of the relatively small number in the groups to begin with.

Bespoke surveys can be used to get specific information about these groups. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities list of traveller sites available through their Traveller caravan count statistics can help target sampling for surveys, for example. Bespoke surveys might be limited in geographical coverage, and more suitable for understanding GRT views in a local area and then developing local policy responses. An example of a bespoke survey is the Roma and Travellers in 6 countries survey .

Another method that could be useful is snowball sampling. Snowball sampling (or chain-referral sampling) is a sampling technique in which the respondents have traits that are rare to find. In snowball sampling, existing survey respondents provide referrals to recruit further people for the survey, which helps the survey grow larger.

There are advantages to snowball sampling. It can target hidden or difficult to reach populations. It can be a good way to sample hesitant respondents, as a person might be more likely to participate in a survey if they have been referred by a friend or family member. It can also be quick and cost effective. Snowball sampling may also be facilitated with a GRT community lead or cultural mediator. This would help bridge the gap between the GRT communities and the commissioning department to encourage respondent participation.

However, one statistical disadvantage is that the sampling is non-random. This reduces the knowledge of whether the sample is representative, and can invalidate some of the usual statistical tests for statistical significance, for example.

All data in this section comes from the 2011 Census of England and Wales, unless stated otherwise.

In 2011, there were 57,680 people from the Gypsy or Irish Traveller ethnic group in England and Wales, making up 0.1% of the total population. In terms of population, it is the smallest of the 18 groups used in the 2011 Census.

Further ONS analysis of write-in responses in the Census estimated the Roma population as 730, and 1,712 people as Gypsy/Romany.

Table A: Gypsy, Roma and Traveller write-in ethnicity responses on the 2011 Census

Source: Census - Ethnic group (write-in response) Gypsy, Traveller, Roma, GypsyRomany - national to county (ONS). The figures do not add to the 57,680 classified as White: Gypsy/Traveller because Roma is included as White Other, and some people in the other categories shown will have classified themselves in an ethnic group other than White.

An ONS report in 2014 noted that variations in the definitions used for this ethnic group has made comparisons between estimates difficult. For example, some previous estimates for Gypsy or Irish Travellers have included Roma or have been derived from counts of caravans rather than people's own self-identity. It noted that other sources of data estimate the UK’s Gypsy, Roma and Traveller population to be in the region of 150,000 to 300,000 , or as high as 500,000 (PDF).

5.1 Where Gypsy and Irish Traveller people live

There were 348 local authorities in England and Wales in 2011. The Gypsy or Irish Traveller population was evenly spread throughout them. The 10 local authorities with the largest Gypsy or Irish Traveller populations constituted 11.9% of the total population.

Figure 1: Percentage of the Gypsy or Irish Traveller population of England and Wales living in each local authority area (top 10 areas labelled)

Basildon was home to the largest Gypsy or Irish Traveller population, with 1.5% of all Gypsy or Irish Traveller people living there, followed by Maidstone (also 1.5%, although it had a smaller population).

Table 1: Percentage of the Gypsy or Irish Traveller population of England and Wales living in each local authority area (top 10)

28 local authorities had fewer than 20 Gypsy or Irish Traveller residents each. This is around 1 in 12 of all local authorities.

11.7% of Gypsy or Irish Traveller people lived in the most deprived 10% of neighbourhoods , higher than the national average of 9.9% (England, 2019 Indices of Multiple Deprivation).

81.6% of people from the Gypsy or Irish Traveller ethnic group were born in England, and 6.1% in the other countries of the UK. 3.0% were born in Ireland and 8.3% were born somewhere else in Europe (other than the UK and Ireland). Less than 1.0% of Gypsy or Irish Traveller people were born outside of Europe.

5.2 Age profile

The Gypsy or Irish Traveller ethnic group had a younger age profile than the national average in England and Wales in 2011.

People aged under 18 made up over a third (36%) of the Gypsy or Irish Traveller population, higher than the national average of 21%.

18.0% of Gypsy or Irish Traveller people were aged 50 and above , lower than the national average of 35.0%.

Figure 2: Age profile of Gypsy or Irish Traveller and the England and Wales average

Table 2: age profile of gypsy or irish traveller and the england and wales average, 5.3 families and households.

20.4% of Gypsy or Irish Traveller households were made up of lone parents with dependent children , compared with 7.2% on average for England and Wales.

Across all household types, 44.9% of Gypsy or Irish Traveller households had dependent children, compared with an average of 29.1%.

8.4% of Gypsy or Irish Traveller households were made up of pensioners (either couples, single pensioners, or other households where everyone was aged 65 and over), compared with 20.9% on average.

All data in this section covers pupil performance in state-funded mainstream schools in England.

At all key stages, Gypsy, Roma and Irish Traveller pupils’ attainment was below the national average.

Figure 3: Educational attainment among Gypsy, Roma, Irish Traveller and pupils from all ethnic groups

Table 3: educational attainment among gypsy, roma, irish traveller and pupils from all ethnic groups.

Source: England, Key Stage 2 Statistics, 2018/19; Key Stage 4 Statistics, 2019/20; and A Level and other 16 to 18 results, 2020/21. Ethnicity facts and figures and Department for Education (DfE). Figures for Key Stage 2 are rounded to whole numbers by DfE.

6.1 Primary education

In the 2018 to 2019 school year, 19% of White Gypsy or Roma pupils, and 26% of Irish Traveller pupils met the expected standard in key stage 2 reading, writing and maths . These were the 2 lowest percentages out of all ethnic groups.

6.2 Secondary education

In the 2019 to 2020 school year, 8.1% of White Gypsy or Roma pupils in state-funded schools in England got a grade 5 or above in GCSE English and maths, the lowest percentage of all ethnic groups.

Gypsy or Roma (58%) and Irish Traveller (59%) pupils were the least likely to stay in education after GCSEs (and equivalent qualifications). They were the most likely to go into employment (8% and 9% respectively) – however, it is not possible to draw firm conclusions about these groups due to the small number of pupils in key stage 4.

6.3 Further education

Gypsy or Roma students were least likely to get at least 3 A grades at A level, with 10.8% of students doing so in the 2020 to 2021 school year. 20.0% of Irish Traveller students achieved at least 3 A grades, compared to the national average of 28.9%. The figures for Gypsy or Roma (61) and Irish Traveller (19) students are based on small numbers, so any generalisations are unreliable.

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the summer exam series was cancelled in 2021, and alternative processes were set up to award grades. In 2020/21 attainment is higher than would be expected in a typical year. This likely reflects the changes to the way A/AS level grades were awarded rather than improvements in student performance.

6.4 School exclusions

In the 2019 to 2020 school year, the suspension rates were 15.28% for Gypsy or Roma pupils, and 10.12% for Irish Traveller pupils – the highest rates out of all ethnic groups.

Also, the highest permanent exclusion rates were among Gypsy or Roma pupils (0.23%, or 23 exclusions for every 10,000 pupils). Irish Traveller pupils were permanently excluded at a rate of 0.14%, or 14 exclusions for every 10,000 pupils.

6.5 School absence

In the autumn term of the 2020 to 2021 school year, 52.6% of Gypsy or Roma pupils, and 56.7% of Irish Traveller pupils were persistently absent from school . Pupils from these ethnic groups had the highest rates of overall absence and persistent absence.

For the 2020 to 2021 school year, not attending in circumstances related to coronavirus (COVID-19) was not counted toward the overall absence rate and persistent absence rates.

Data in this section is from the 2011 Census for England and Wales, and for people aged 16 and over. Economic activity and employment rates might vary from other published figures that are based on people of working age.

47% of Gypsy or Irish Traveller people aged 16 and over were economically active, compared to an average of 63% in England and Wales.

Of economically active people, 51% of Gypsy or Irish Traveller people were employees, and 26% were self-employed. 20% of Gypsy or Irish Traveller people were unemployed, compared to an average for all ethnic groups of 7%.

7.1 Socio-economic group

Figure 4: socio-economic group of gypsy or irish traveller and average for all ethnic groups for people aged 16 and over, table 4: socio-economic group of gypsy or irish traveller and average for all ethnic groups for people aged 16 and over.

Source: 2011 Census

31.2% of people in the Gypsy or Irish Traveller group were in the socio-economic group of ‘never worked or long-term unemployed’. This was the highest percentage of all ethnic groups.

The Gypsy or Irish Traveller group had the smallest percentage of people in the highest socio-economic groups. 2.5% were in the ‘higher, managerial, administrative, professional’ group.

15.1% of Gypsy or Irish Traveller people were small employers and own account workers. These are people who are generally self-employed and have responsibility for a small number of workers.

For Gypsy or Irish Travellers, who were 16 and over and in employment, the largest group worked in elementary occupations (22%). This can include occupations such as farm workers, process plant workers, cleaners, or service staff (for example, bar or cleaning staff).

The second highest occupation group was skilled trades (19%), which can include farmers, electrical and building trades. The Gypsy or Irish Traveller group had the highest percentage of elementary and skilled trade workers out of all ethnic groups.

7.2 Employment gender gap

The gender gap in employment rates for the Gypsy or Irish Traveller group aged 16 and over was nearly twice as large as for all ethnic groups combined. In the Gypsy or Irish Traveller ethnic group, 46% of men and 29% of women were employed, a gap of 17%. For all ethnic groups combined, 64% of men and 54% of women were employed, a gap of 10%.

This is likely to be due to the fact that Gypsy or Irish Traveller women (63%) were about 1.5 times as likely as Gypsy or Irish Traveller men (43%) to be economically inactive, which means they were out of work and not looking for work.

7.3 Economic inactivity

There are a range of reasons why people can be economically inactive. The most common reason for Gypsy or Irish Travellers being economically inactive was looking after the home or family (27%). This is higher than the average for England and Wales (11%). The second most common reason was being long term sick or disabled (26%) – the highest percentage out of all ethnic groups.

8. Home ownership data

Figure 5: home ownership and renting among gypsy or irish traveller households and all households, table 5: home ownership and renting among gypsy or irish traveller households and all households.

Source: England, 2011 Census

In 2011, 34% of Gypsy or Irish Traveller households owned their own home, compared with a national average of 64%. 42% lived in social rented accommodation, compared with a national average of 18%.

In 2016 to 2017, 0.1% of new social housing lettings went to people from Gypsy or Irish Traveller backgrounds (429 lettings).

In 2011, a whole house or bungalow was the most common type of accommodation for Gypsy or Irish Traveller households (61%). This was lower than for all usual residents in England and Wales (84%).

Caravans or other mobile or temporary homes accounted for 24% of Gypsy or Irish Travellers accommodation, a far higher percentage than for the whole of England and Wales (0.3%).

The percentage of people living in a flat, maisonette or apartment was 15% for both Gypsy or Irish Travellers and all usual residents in England and Wales.

In 2011, 14.1% of Gypsy and Irish Traveller people in England and Wales rated their health as bad or very bad, compared with 5.6% on average for all ethnic groups.

In 2016 to 2017, Gypsy or Irish Traveller people aged 65 and over had the lowest health-related quality of life of all ethnic groups (average score of 0.509 out of 1). The quality of life scores for the White Gypsy or Irish Traveller ethnic group are based on a small number of responses (around 35 each year) and are less reliable as a result.

Ethnicity facts and figures has information on satisfaction of different health services for different ethnic groups. For the results presented below, the Gypsy or Irish Traveller figures are based on a relatively small number of respondents, and are less reliable than figures for other ethnic groups.

In 2014 to 2015 (the most recent data available), these groups were the most satisfied with their experience of GP-out-of-hours service , with 75.2% reporting a positive experience.

In 2018 to 2019, they were less satisfied with their experience of GP services than most ethnic groups – 73.0% reported a positive experience.

They were also among the groups that had least success when booking an NHS dentist appointment – 89.0% reported successfully booking an appointment in 2018 to 2019.

The Gypsy or Irish Traveller group were also less satisfied with their access to GP services in 2018 to 2019 – 56.9% reported a positive experience of making a GP appointment, compared to an average of 67.4% for all respondents.

Publication release date: 31 January 2022

Updated: 29 March 2022

29 March 2022: Corrected A-level data in Table 3, and All ethnic groups data in Table 4. Corrected the legend in Figure 1 (map).

31 January 2022: Initial publication.

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A Comparative Sociology of Gypsy Traveller Health in the UK

Miranda millan.

1 Faculty of Education and Health, University of Greenwich, London SE9 2UG, UK

David Smith

2 DAVID SMITH Reader in Social Policy, Faculty of Health, Education, Medicine and Social Care, Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 1SQ, UK

This paper presents findings from a series of health-related studies undertaken between 2012 and 2017 with Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers living in different locations and in various forms of accommodation in southern England. These set out to develop a sociological understanding of the factors impacting on the health and wellbeing of members of those communities and to consider the extent health status is shaped by ethno-cultural and/or socioeconomic factors, and the interplay and direction of causal processes between them. The relative influences of cultural and structural factors in generating health inequalities have important implications for engaging marginalised populations in health services and preventative programmes. This paper will present survey and qualitative data on Gypsies’ and Travellers’ health beliefs and practices to understand how those beliefs and practices have developed in different social contexts as responses to deeper social mechanisms, and share commonalities with other marginalised and excluded social groups. In policy terms this indicates the need for health interventions that are applied proportionate to the level of disadvantage experienced thus ensuring equality and fairness while accounting for diversity and difference.

1. Introduction

Romany Gypsies are generally considered those indigenous to England (also known as English Gypsies) while Irish Travellers generally refers to those originally indigenous to Ireland. Whilst these groups share some similarities in terms of lifestyle, economic, family and communal structures and norms and values they are distinctly different ethnic minorities (For an overview of the contemporary situation of Gypsies and Travellers in the UK, please refer to House of Commons Briefing Paper 08083 [ 1 ]). The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) defines Gypsies and Travellers as:

“Persons of nomadic habit of life whatever their race or origin, including such persons who on grounds only of their own or their family’s or dependants’ educational or health needs or old age have ceased to travel temporarily, but excluding members of an organised group of travelling showpeople or circus people travelling together as such.” [ 2 ]

While Gypsies and Travellers are often regarded as having the poorest health and lowest life expectancy in the UK such statements have been accepted rather uncritically, and two key barriers to a fuller understanding of the health of these communities remain unaddressed. First is the tendency to make generalisations concerning aggregate health status, inferred from relatively small samples of the population. Such an approach cannot—and generally does not attempt to—identify any patterned commonalities and differences in health status, beliefs, practices and perceptions of health services between different communities living in different geographic locales. Furthermore, this approach is unable to determine the impact on health practices and health-seeking behaviour of supply side factors such as the provision and quality of health services or accessibility of locally available services, which vary widely in different UK regions [ 3 ]. Likewise factors that impact on health and are related to socioeconomic status; quality and type of accommodation; access to community and communal support structures, and levels of integration and acceptance or of exclusion and hostility within different localities are rarely accounted for, despite their important impacts on both mental and physical health. The second barrier is the tendency to explain inequalities largely through the prism of ethnicity. This can lead to the assumption, found in much of the health literature as well as the views of many professionals who work with Gypsies and Travellers, of their innate ‘difference’ regarding attitudes and practices concerning health [ 4 , 5 ]. This focus on difference overlooks the significant parallels and similarities in health-related attitudes and practices shared with other sections of the population, while the alleged insular, ‘hard to reach’ nature of Gypsy and Traveller communities is frequently deployed to justify the minimal progress in addressing their health issues. A satisfactory explanation for health inequalities should be multi-factorial and consider interactive effects as well as the expressed views and experiences of community members. A failure to consider these factors can result in the maintenance of stereotypical beliefs and misguided priorities among some health and other service providers regarding what Gypsies and Travellers ‘need’ and a profound disconnect between professional discourses and the lived experiences of Gypsies and Travellers [ 6 ].

This paper will present findings from a PhD comparative sociological study into the relationship between accommodation, health and wellbeing in two case study areas conducted by the lead author. It will also refer to studies led by the second author, which explored the factors impacting on Gypsy and Travellers’ parental decision-making surrounding childhood immunisation; attitudes, beliefs and practices regarding cancer and their relationship to health-seeking behaviour and the remedial actions that individuals undertake to rectify perceived ill health [ 7 ]. While much of the existing literature and evidence relating to Gypsy/Traveller health in the UK has been epidemiological in nature, these studies set out to develop a sociological understanding of the factors impacting on the health and wellbeing of members of those communities. This entails a consideration of the relatively neglected issue of how inter and intra-community patterned differences in health relate to wider social and economic inequalities and conditions.

Survey Data and Gypsy Traveller Health

Gaining an understanding of the general health status of Gypsies and Travellers in the UK is hampered by the lack of systematic large-scale data or routine monitoring of these populations by health authorities. Despite improved ethnic monitoring being a key priority in the Government’s strategy to reduce ethnic health inequalities, Gypsies, Roma and Travellers are not included in the National Health Services’ (NHS) ethnic monitoring codes meaning that no national level health data exists. Of 125 NHS Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) only 20 (16%) had—or were intending to—introduce health monitoring procedures for Gypsies Roma and Travellers and half of those (10/125) had only conducted partial monitoring [ 8 ] (p. 3). The largest health survey to date is Parry et al.’s [ 9 ] epidemiological study using standard health measures of 293 Gypsies and Travellers in five locations undertaken for the Department of Health’s ‘Inequalities in Health Research Initiative’. The study sample included matched samples as a comparative group with Gypsies and Travellers of both genders across four age groups (16–25, 26–45, 46–65 and 65+) who were located primarily through local health visitors or other service providers. Parry’s findings confirmed that Gypsies and Travellers experience significantly poorer health at all stages of life and more self-reported ill health than the comparator groups, with findings pointing to the existence of an inverse relationship between health need and use of health services. While a host of smaller scale qualitative localised studies confirm that poor health throughout the life course and premature death is an all too common aspect of Gypsy and Traveller experience, the possibility that survey and other findings are—at least in part—an artefact e.g., a result of the data collection and sampling methods used, is rarely considered. Survey samples of Gypsies and Travellers tend to be drawn from the more ‘visible’ members—those living on sites, by the roadside and those who are known to statutory service providers—often the poorer and more marginalised sections of those communities and those with the poorest health [ 10 ]. The diversity of the population is not reflected using this sampling approach. Those with greater economic resources; those who are less visible for example because they live in conventional housing or who do not identify with the ethnic ‘community’, along with those not in contact with service providers or community organisations tend to be under-represented in research findings. Results therefore, can present a skewed image of collective health that lend themselves well to ‘cultural deprivation’ type explanations rooted in lifestyle, ignorance and misguided health beliefs, and which downplays the role of social structural factors and the ethnic and power relations through which inequalities are generated and sustained [ 11 ].

In essence many of the challenges facing policy makers aiming to improve health services and outcomes for Gypsies and Travellers are not too dissimilar to those of other poor and marginalised groups, e.g., material factors such as poverty, diet, lifestyle, poor accommodation and working conditions all of which increase multiple risk exposure which in turn, increases physical and mental health risks [ 12 ]. However, while socioeconomic factors partly explain health inequalities, adjusting for social class reduces ethnic health inequalities but does not eliminate them [ 13 ]. Different minority groups have diverse experiences in their relations with the majority society, with respect to experiences of discrimination and social exclusion or conversely, of social acceptance and assimilation [ 14 ]. This profoundly shapes their societal experiences and more specifically, their experiences in health care settings and propensity to access such services, with a body of research demonstrating that Gypsies and Travellers fare worse than most other groups across a range of domains including use of health and other services [ 15 ]. Such findings suggest the need for health interventions that are applied with a scale and intensity proportionate to the level of disadvantage experienced, meaning that improving the overall health of Gypsies and Travellers may require a more concentrated and intensive approach due to the multifactorial disadvantages that a disproportionate number of those community members experience [ 16 ].

2. Materials and Methods

Comparative case study: west london and south buckinghamshire.

Localised patterns of poverty, work, and demographic factors such as age structure and gender are important when considering the impacts of location on health both within and between different ethnic groups [ 17 ] (p. 100). The paucity of comparative health studies and investigation of intra-group differences in relation to Gypsy and Traveller health in the academic and policy literature, means these areas of enquiry are largely unexplored [ 9 ] (p. 6). The following mixed methods study conducted as part of a doctoral thesis is one of few comparative studies of Gypsy and Traveller health in the UK. Findings demonstrate the distinctly localised patterning of health and wellbeing between two communities in two different localities and allows for the wider social determinants of health to be considered when understanding those patterns. The primary research undertaken was a cross- sectional, sequential exploratory, mixed methods case study that sought firstly to explore the correlations between accommodation, planning situations (for official permission to develop residential caravan sites) and the health and wellbeing of Romany Gypsy families in South Buckinghamshire and Irish Traveller families in Ealing, West London; and secondly, to uncover the general mechanisms that influence health and the specific forms it takes in terms of health and wellbeing in the two localities.

Qualitative field research was carried out between October 2015 and September 2017 in the two areas. Participants were gathered using non- probability purposive sequential sampling in the form of maximum variation referral sampling, sometimes also called snowball sampling. This consisted of participant observation and in-depth interviews with 19 Irish Travellers and seven professionals who worked with Gypsies and Travellers in Ealing, and 13 Romany Gypsies and six professionals in South Buckinghamshire (Bucks). Interview questions were based on the literature review findings and had three main sections covering accommodation; health; and any intersection between the two. All interviews were recorded and then transcribed. After the main themes and issues from the qualitative phase had been analysed by the lead author using thematic analysis the findings were used to generate a survey to test for scale, scope and prevalence of the themes within the wider Gypsy Traveller populations in the case study areas. Quantitative data was collected between February and March 2018 using a survey completed by 109 Gypsy and Traveller residents in the two case study areas of whom 57 (52%) reside in the London Borough of Ealing and 52 (48%) reside in South Bucks District. The questionnaire participants were self-selected using a convenience non- probability voluntary sampling method, which is generally considered an acceptable approach for a pilot questionnaire such as this. Participants were invited to complete questionnaires online, in person or over the telephone. Links to the questionnaire were disseminated through interview participants (Gypsy Traveller and professionals) as well as through adverts placed on relevant online message boards and social media. A member of the Irish Traveller community assisted to complete paper questionnaires, by which non- literate participants, those lacking Internet access or those lacking computer skills could be included. There were no incentives offered for taking part in either stage of the research, apart from the opportunity to share their thoughts and opinions. Whilst the lead researcher knew the majority of qualitative and quantitative participants from Ealing Borough, the researcher did not previously know the majority of those from South Bucks.

Informed consent was obtained from all qualitative and quantitative participants. Interview subjects were asked to sign a consent form, which was read aloud to them, in order to indicate their willingness to take part in the research. Questionnaire respondents gave their informed consent online by ticking a box on the landing page of the questionnaire host website. Those completing questionnaires in person were read the research consent statement and asked to indicate their consent by ticking the box, and telephone respondents were asked to consent verbally after hearing the consent statement.

3.1. Demographic, Household and Socioeconomic Characteristics

The two case study communities demonstrated distinct patterns of residence with 98% of respondents in South Bucks identifying as Romany Gypsies while in Ealing 89% of respondents identified as Irish Travellers and 9% as Romany Gypsies. The majority of respondents in both case study areas were women although there was notable variation between Ealing (79% female) and South Bucks (54%). The largest age cohort of survey respondents were aged between 21 and 30: in Ealing 39% of respondents were in this age range and 37% in South Bucks.

The following statistical results are drawn from the quantitative survey undertaken and are illustrated where appropriate with excerpts from the qualitative interviews. Interviews with professionals in both case study areas broadly mirrored topics and perceptions covered in interviews with Gypsy Travellers. However significant areas of divergence are highlighted as part of the discussion which follows. In terms of accommodation type, household structure, income and receipt of state welfare benefits there were marked differences between the two areas. The majority of the Ealing sample were resident in conventional housing (73%) with 13% living on caravan sites and 14% homeless at the time of the survey. This compared to South Bucks where 48% lived in housing and 52% lived on sites. Variation in accommodation type reflects the different nature of the respective locales (peri-urban and urban) as South Bucks has considerably more sites than Ealing, more open space and reasonably priced land therefore making it more receptive to the development of private sites, for which there is a precedence, as well as historically public sites (although these have now been sold and are in private hands). In contrast Ealing, being an outer London Borough, suffers from the inadequate social housing, inflated private rental prices and high cost of land endemic to the entire capital. As such poor conditions in housing and the prevalence of temporary accommodation was mentioned only by interviewees in Ealing and not by those in South Bucks.

The two samples also differed significantly in terms of household composition and socioeconomic status. Households in South Bucks were more likely to have a wife/husband/partner living in the household (57%) than those in Ealing where only 38% reported this. Over half (51%) of households in Ealing lived with children under 16 and were more likely to have come from large families (3+ children) themselves whereas in South Bucks just 32% of households lived with their children and tended to live in smaller family units. UK annual median disposal income in 2017 was £27,300 and the majority of respondents in both case study areas fall below this threshold [ 18 ]. Households with incomes less than 60% of median earnings—approximately £16,380—are below the official UK poverty line and on this estimate a significant number of households in both localities who took part in this survey are in poverty, though with notable differences. Ealing residents were at considerably higher risk of poverty with 89% reporting a household income of less than £20,000 and none reporting an income in excess of £40,000. For South Bucks the distribution is spread more equally with 44% reporting an annual household income of under £20,000 and 20% earning less than £30,000. Conversely 22% of South Bucks respondents had incomes in excess of £40,000 and 8% earned over £50,000 per annum.

The determinants of poverty also varied between the two areas with low wages being a more significant driver of low household income in South Bucks than in Ealing, where unemployment and economic inactivity was more significant. Whilst approximately one third (31%) of survey respondents in South Bucks were in receipt of some form of welfare benefit—roughly equal to the UK average—three quarters (75%) of the Ealing respondents were in receipt of state benefits. Very few of the South Bucks survey sample received out of work benefits and most of those claiming benefits were claiming tax credits, an in-work wage supplement. In Ealing survey respondents reported higher levels of out of work benefits such as ‘Income Support’ and ‘Employment and Support Allowance’ compared to South Bucks. It is worth noting however that what people report to surveys about their income and household compositions should not be taken at face value, particularly when these are implicated in eligibility for welfare benefits [ 19 ].

Divergence between the two areas is largely due to the geographical and socio-economic differences, for example a lack of caravan sites in Ealing and a general housing shortage that effects the entire capital city that for the Irish Travellers in Ealing, manifests itself in more poor quality housing and a prevalence of temporary accommodation, social and privately rented housing when compared to South Bucks. Importantly these differences were also reflected in significantly differing levels of satisfaction with their accommodation reported to the survey between the two locales, and in the overall health and wellbeing of the two survey samples (discussed below). The data indicates that the same issues are experienced in both, but among the Ealing sample the issues are intensified and concentrated.

3.2. Gypsy and Traveller Households’ Self-Reported Health

The Gypsies and Travellers sampled in both localities had a poorer health profile than the UK average. To record instances of self-reported physical and mental health among survey respondents two separate questions; whether the respondent, or anyone in their household had in the past two years suffered any physical; or any mental health problems. Respondents were also given the option to give free- text responses to elaborate.

Approximately half of all Ealing survey respondents said that they or someone in their household has a disability compared to approximately 25% of those in South Bucks, which are both higher than the UK average of 19% [ 20 ]. Ealing residents were almost twice as likely as those in South Bucks to report physical health problems in their household in the preceding two years (67% compared to 34%). The Ealing sample were also more than twice as likely compared to those in South Bucks to report mental health problems in their household in the preceding two years (71% compared to 34%). This compares to 17% of UK adults over 16 reporting a mental health problem in the week prior to interview, though 43% of UK adults have had a mental health problem at some point in their lives [ 21 ]. It was clear during the qualitative interviews that mental health and suicide are serious concerns for both communities. Eight interviewees (three from South Bucks and five from Ealing) spoke about their personal experiences of losing family members to suicide, a phenomenon particularly common among young Gypsy and Traveller men (but also increasingly among women as well). Irish Travellers for example, have a suicide rate three times that of the general population [ 15 ]. Interviewees identified suicide risk factors to be prison, moving from a site and/or living ‘on the road’ into housing for the first time, and poor employment prospects (again, impacting on men in particular). Interviewees in both locations highlighted the prevalence of depression and anxiety among Gypsy and Traveller communities of both sexes. Every interviewee in Ealing mentioned depression or mental health problems at some point during their interview, whereas in South Bucks around half mentioned these issues. 74% of survey respondents in South Bucks and almost all Ealing respondents (98%) feel that members of their community suffer from higher levels of stress than average. When asked the causes of stress survey respondents in both areas mentioned ‘lifestyle’, which encompassed racism and discrimination; shortages of appropriate accommodation and site provision and a lack of understanding, combined with the prevalence of negative stereotypes about their culture.

A frequent theme during the interviews in both areas was the negative health impacts in older age of having lived nomadically when they were younger. All of those interviewed had previously lived in caravans on the road, and many (especially among the Ealing sample) were born on the road. Many of the older interviewees felt that living on the road had meant missing out on essential services such as healthcare, education and basic facilities, and that this in conjunction with often harsh outdoor living conditions and frequent stops on unsanitary and polluted land (by motorways, on disused industrial sites and wasteland etc.) has had a cumulative negative impact on their health. Despite the significant hardships and privations that living on the road entailed, there is a palpable nostalgia when interviewees discuss their memories and experiences of living on the road. In addition, interviewees in South Bucks spoke about the health impact of traditional trades such as working on farms and in scrap metal. A male respondent in South Bucks discussed how restricted work options channelled Gypsies and Travellers into the most physically demanding types of work, which in many cases has had long-term health impacts.

We’ve got a lot of field workers and my wife worked in different field work and things, and yes it’s made a big impact, I believe that, because there wasn’t any other jobs, that was classed suitable. It was either scrap metal, going out on the scrap or it was field work… They were some of the main, you know, farm worker, were some of the main things because they were the only people that would employ us… and of course of a morning when they were in fields at 4 o’clock in the morning cutting, I never done it you see, now their hands have gone, yeah of course it affects their health yeah, most definitely.

This would only tend to affect those over the age of 40 given the gradual decline of seasonal agricultural and other traditional types of work for Gypsies and Travellers in the past 50 years. Indeed, given the reduced demand for the goods and services that were previously supplied by this nomadic and seasonal workforce and fewer job opportunities for low and unskilled workers generally, a pressing concern of Gypsy and Traveller communities is improving the poor educational outcomes of their youth [ 22 ].

3.3. Accommodation and Health

Previous studies have highlighted that conventional housing can be a double-edged sword for many Gypsies and Travellers. While being settled allows greater access to health, education and other services this was in many cases offset by the negative impacts on mental health such as isolation, claustrophobia and depression [ 23 , 24 ]. This is supported by the research findings in Ealing and South Bucks, which finds a correlation between self- reported health and wellbeing (as discussed above) and type of accommodation, especially in Ealing where there are higher numbers in bricks and mortar accommodation. As discussed around three quarters of the Ealing survey respondents lived in housing compared to just under half of those in South Bucks. Nearly three quarters of Ealing residents (72%) feel that accommodation impacts on the health and wellbeing of their household compared to South Bucks where this falls to just under half of respondents (48%). One of the Ealing interviewees made a connection between the increasing numbers of housed Travellers and the deterioration of traditional community and extended family structures, summarising the impact of housing as follows:

Yeah for health wise, it’s good to be in a permanent place, but I think for health, if you’re in a house you don’t want to be, where you want to be on the road. I don’t mean out on the road, I mean in a site, we were reared in caravans so being in a caravan we’re more happy, but when we’re in a house, like I said, it’s like we’re imprisoned. So that’s the high rate of depression and suicide among Travellers now, since they’re forced into houses and stuff.

The South Bucks survey sample residing in housing are more likely to own their own home (46%) while those in Ealing are more likely to live in social housing (63%). Social housing in the UK has been increasingly transformed from affordable ‘general needs’ housing into welfare housing for the poorest, economically inactive and most deprived sections of the population in recent decades [ 25 ]. Differences in housing tenure between the Ealing and South Bucks survey samples reflect the differences in household income and the fact that the Ealing sample are generally poorer than those in South Bucks. Likewise, in South Bucks the majority of respondents living on a caravan site live on a private site indicating greater economic resources to purchase and develop land, with a handful living on a site that was until recently publicly owned. Interviewees resident on the public caravan site in Ealing reported considerable concerns about the location of their site, the state of repair and the impact of environmental factors on their health and wellbeing. By contrast no such concerns were raised by residents interviewed on several sites in South Bucks that until recently were publicly owned, indicating variation in the quality of sites between the two locales, with implications for the health and wellbeing of residents [ 26 ]. Eighty-eight percent of survey respondents in South Bucks and 89% of the Ealing respondents reported the planning process for private sites and difficulties gaining planning permission to be an extremely stressful process. One interviewee from South Bucks noted that:

Planning is a very long process and not always straight forward. It can cost thousands to buy land and then more money to apply for planning. Many occasions this results in land not being passed and still the families are homeless. The council don’t provide sites for Gypsy people. Many of my community struggle to settle in one place due to planning. This causes excess stress for all involved, including children.

Most qualitative and quantitative respondents in both areas expressed a preference for living on a site and differences in accommodation type across the two areas are reflected in contrasting levels of satisfaction with their current accommodation. In South Bucks 80% of survey respondents would choose to remain living in their current accommodation given the choice whereas this figure falls to 47% in Ealing. Type of accommodation also impacts on the ability to receive assistance and support from their community since living on a site facilitates an extended family and communal lifestyle unlike housing which is largely designed for a nuclear family structure. The majority of survey respondents in Ealing (59%) do not feel close to their community in their current accommodation and 74% feel that their accommodation makes it difficult to receive community support. Conversely 78% of respondents in South Bucks feel close to their community in their current accommodation and 58% do not feel that their accommodation hinders them from receiving community support.

The majority of survey respondents in both areas felt that the health and wellbeing of their communities is worse than that of the settled population but as with previous responses, a trend among South Bucks respondents for a more positive outlook was apparent with most stating that the health and wellbeing of their community is improving (62%), a minority feeling it is staying the same (34%) and only a fraction feeling that it is getting worse (4%). In Ealing the opposite view was expressed, with more feeling that the health of their community is getting worse (43%), but still over half of respondents feeling it is either ‘staying the same’ or ‘getting better’ (57%).

3.4. Access to Health Services by Location

Barriers accessing health services including discrimination in health care settings have been posited as major factors explaining Gypsies and Travellers’ low access to health services [ 9 , 27 ]. The findings from the survey data and qualitative interviews in the current study diverge from much of the literature in this regard. When asked whether they felt that they had the same unprejudiced access to healthcare services as non-Gypsy Travellers the majority of respondents—96% in South Bucks and 85% in Ealing responded in the affirmative. Similarly, survey data found that the vast majority of respondents in South Bucks (92%) and a majority in Ealing (62%) do not feel discriminated against when accessing healthcare. An interviewee in South Bucks responding to whether he or his family had ever received poor treatment in health care settings replied:

Not at all. We don’t. We personally haven’t received prejudice in that area with any doctor and we’ve lived here a lot of years. A lot of them do know my family and they know that we’re well-mannered people, like I’ve said. How other people are treated, I don’t know, but we’ve been treated with the fullest of respect and probably gone out their way, out their way to give us treatment.

However, a significant minority in Ealing (38%) report feeling discriminated against when accessing healthcare and it is important to note that discrimination accessing statutory services (including healthcare) is reported as widespread and supported by a large body of evidence [ 27 , 28 , 29 ]. Preconceptions of discrimination may also impact healthcare access, even if no discrimination is subsequently experienced. Examples were given in both case study areas that an anticipation of discrimination is expected from GP surgeries for example. The following interviewee from Ealing explains this:

Yeah definitely, there is a perception there is a fear of social workers, health visitors, doctors, schools, all looking down on you as though you’re not good parents and stuff. And obviously Travellers is good parents, they do the best they can do given the circumstances, but there is that perception there.

Furthermore a few interviewees in Ealing, whilst stating they felt that they had non-prejudicial access to healthcare services, simultaneously reported experiencing discrimination from individual GPs such as not being listened to or serious ailments being treated as minor complaints though such complaints are also common among the wider public [ 30 ]. No complaints were made against care given by other services however, with many making positive comments about the care given especially by hospital services and Accident & Emergency (A&E) provision.

An important caveat to the discussion below is that all the survey sample and all but two (one in South Bucks and one in Ealing) of the interview sample was settled either on sites or in housing at the time the research was undertaken. Those who continue to pursue a nomadic lifestyle (either on the road or within housing stock) do not share the benefits of equal access. In Ealing and South Bucks the sentiment was expressed by numerous interviewees, including the only ‘roadsiders’ interviewed that there are still significant barriers to accessing appropriate healthcare and continuity of care whilst ‘on the road’. It should be noted that NHS initiatives such as walk-in clinics and the 111 telephone service have fairly recently been introduced and were mentioned as useful by one roadsider. Those respondents now residing in housing may be referring to an historic lack of roadside access.

4. Discussion

In both areas most survey respondents felt that their household has the access to healthcare that it requires and that the healthcare their family receives meets their needs. This underlines the need for close exploration of the specific constellation of health service provision, access, attitudes and experiences with regards to healthcare in different locales. Localised perceptions of healthcare among particular communities of Gypsies and Travellers and the reality of their engagement with the healthcare system may be at odds with generalised claims in much of the academic and policy literature concerning low access, reluctance to engage with health services and pervasive discrimination in the healthcare system. A more finely grained and robust comparative analysis would make it possible to identify the variables that make particular populations of Gypsies and Travellers more or less favourable to healthcare in their areas. Graham Scambler [ 31 ] (p. 166) highlights the importance of considering how the ethnic patterning of health relates to wider social and economic inequalities, a consideration that has not received the prominence it warrants in discussions of Gypsy and Traveller health in the UK. As a result, discourses that homogenise these populations and propose naively uncritical and undifferentiated accounts of their health predominate. In the two localities reported here social determinants play an important role in explaining variations in the health and wellbeing of the two Gypsy/Traveller communities. Studies have shown how living on unauthorised encampments [ 24 ]; on run down overcrowded public sites [ 26 , 32 ] or of being forced into low quality housing isolated from community structures can have damaging outcomes on physical and mental health [ 9 , 33 ]. The Ealing Travellers were largely living in housing where the practical difficulties of adapting to life in bricks and mortar can combine with hostility and conflict with neighbours to exacerbate stress [ 23 ]. They were also more likely than the South Bucks participants to have experienced eviction, financial hardship, damp/rot, pest infestation, poor state of repair and problems with neighbours. Notwithstanding the problems inherent in drawing conclusions regarding income and household composition from survey data, they were also significantly poorer on the whole and more likely to be receiving out of work welfare benefits than the South Bucks sample. The latter were more likely to be living on a private site with their family—the preferred option of most Gypsies and Travellers in this study—to have greater access to social support structures and in general, possessed greater economic and material resources. The Gypsies in South Bucks are also more likely to be living with their spouse or partner and less likely to have children under 16 living in the same household. Larger family size is closely associated with poverty: 39% of households with three or more children in the UK are living in poverty compared to 26.5% of households with one or two children in 2015/16 [ 34 ]. In Ealing households were more likely to contain children and to have larger families with 45% of those with children reporting three or more compared to 31% in South Bucks. The latter were also a longer established community in the locality having been resident in many cases for several generations, and had integrated into the wider community to a greater degree. By contrast many of the Ealing Travellers had more recently experienced the transition from living on the road to living in housing in a highly urbanised and ethnically diverse environment.

These structural and historical coordinates set the boundaries within which lives are experienced and intersect with ideological factors such as prejudice and discrimination to produce inequitable health outcomes on one hand, and shared (though not identical) experiences and dispositions towards health and the health system on the other. However, structural factors do not act in a uniform manner but are mediated at the local level by a multitude of intervening factors that combine to produce patterned variations in health and wellbeing within specific populations. Atkin [ 35 ] (p. 128) notes that ethnicity denotes more than group membership but is ‘an expression of a person’s negotiation of multiple identities within different social and historical contexts’. It is the interplay between ethnicity and those local contexts that play a pivotal role in shaping health outcomes. Nevertheless, the idea that health inequalities generated at the structural level is attributable to cultural attitudes and practices and can therefore be reduced solely by changing attitudes and behaviour, has been the dominant influence on health promotion strategies. The implications of these approaches for improving the health of Gypsies Travellers and other socially excluded populations are considered below.

The role of cultural and structural factors has important implications for engaging marginalised populations in health services and are based in contending views of causation with the former emphasising the role of collective health beliefs and practices in generating and perpetuating poor health. The latter in attempting to illuminate the ‘causes of causes’ [ 36 ] emphasises the social context that generates those shared systems of beliefs, behaviour and experiential patterns meaning that restructuring and reform of the economy and society are necessary preconditions for reducing health inequalities. These competing discourses have important ramifications when they underpin policy interventions or are deployed by health professionals and practitioners. Andreassen et al.’s [ 6 ] study into the participation/non participation of Roma women in a national cervical screening programme in Romania found that providers attributed low uptake to a lack of knowledge, negligence, low education and erroneous health beliefs. The Roma women by contrast, emphasised that the programme had failed to consider their needs, understandings or expectations or to the social context in which the intervention was introduced.

Fieldwork for the current study found a similar gulf in understanding between some of the professionals interviewed and Gypsies and Travellers concerning reasons for poor health and perceptions of community health, suggesting that some professionals uncritically regurgitate what they have read in the literature even where this departs from the lived experiences of the communities that they work with. More concerning is that those with a specific remit to work with Gypsies and Travellers, and therefore with an in-depth working knowledge of these groups, were more likely to diverge from the responses of the Gypsy and Traveller participants. According to the majority of professionals in both areas for example, Gypsies and Travellers commonly experience discrimination within the healthcare system, which is contrary to the experiences reported by most Gypsy Travellers who took part in the study. Professionals in both areas mentioned the health impact of sites (poor conditions and location) and while Traveller interviewees in Ealing also mentioned this, no Gypsies in South Bucks did. Professionals in both case study areas mentioned uptake of GP registration and utilisation as a concern; however, all the Gypsies and Travellers who took part in the study were registered with and regularly use GPs, apart from those who were on the road. While many Gypsy Traveller interviewees felt that the health of their respective communities is improving, many professionals felt that the health of Gypsies and Travellers is getting worse.

Sociological accounts of health attitudes and behaviour suggest that these are shaped more by lived reality than by a coherent set of cultural values [ 37 ]. High levels of poor health among children shapes Gypsy and Travellers’ parental attitudes and practices towards their children’s health [ 38 ] to a far greater degree than the culturally grounded child-rearing practices posited by Dion [ 5 ] for example. Reluctance to engage with health services can be influenced by collective memories and experiences of historical discrimination and exclusion from health care, while a high burden of illness throughout the life course and excessive levels of premature mortality continue to influence dispositions and attitudes towards health and illness [ 39 ]. Incorporating the structural underpinnings of many supposedly Gypsy and Traveller health traits into an analysis of their health status undermines claims concerning their ‘unique beliefs about health and medical care’ [ 40 ] (p. 88). Many of the supposedly distinctive taboos and stigma surrounding conditions such as mental illness and cancer for example are shared by various social groups throughout the world [ 41 , 42 ]. Similarly, many of the attitudes cited as an ensemble of ‘Gypsy’ health beliefs are remarkably similar to those of other poor and marginalised populations [ 43 , 44 ].

The findings suggest that similarities in attitudes and perceptions towards health across the two case study areas represent adaptive responses to deeper structural factors some of which impact on all populations in similar socio-economic circumstances while others impact specifically on the Gypsy and Traveller population (e.g., planning laws, levels of racism and prejudice). These structural factors then manifest themselves in higher levels of poverty, poor living conditions and ill health and are mediated by a range of local level factors to produce patterned, unsynchronised and variegated outcomes in both self-reported health and subjective wellbeing in the two locations.

5. Conclusions

The lack of systematic comparative studies into the health of Gypsy and Traveller communities in the UK has facilitated the perpetuation of dated and inaccurate discourses among many academics, health professionals, practitioners, and policy makers charged with improving the health of those communities [ 15 ]. Loic Wacquant’s [ 45 ] methodological agenda for a ‘comparative sociology of social polarization from below’ has as its starting point a critical evaluation of the categories and discourses employed by decision makers and social scientists that ‘under cover of describing marginality, contribute to moulding it by organising its collective perception and its political treatment’ [ 44 ] (p. 8). This critically informed approach should be combined with institutional and quantitative analysis of macro structural determinants in conjunction with ethnographic observation. The latter states Wacquant is necessary to ‘pierce the screen of discourses (that)… lock inquiry within the biased perimeter of the pre-constructed object’. From the outset he argues it is necessary to distinguish between the social conditions that characterise a locality within a hierarchical structure of places and the conditioning it entails—in this case for example, an array of the health related behaviours and strategies that develop within particular communities—and finally to specify the degree and form of involvement by state agencies and the relations that residents maintain with public officials and agencies [ 45 ] (p. 11).

Such an approach would be a significant advance on the current state of knowledge concerning Gypsy and Traveller health and would be easier if the health authorities routinely and systematically monitored Gypsy Roma and Traveller populations as they do (albeit inconsistently) with other Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) populations. National and regional level data collected by health trusts, combined with qualitative field work and rigorous geographical comparisons could tease out the general causal dynamics from those social processes that operate at the local level, and which combine to produce diverse health outcomes between different Gypsy and Traveller populations.

Author Contributions

M.M. conceived and designed the experiments; M.M. conducted the data analysis; M.M. analyzed the data; D.S. and M.M. co-wrote the paper.

This research was funded by a University of Greenwich Vice Chancellor’s Scholarship 2014.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Gypsy and Traveler Culture in America

Gypsy and Traveler Culture, History and Genealogy in America

Are you a Gypsy, Traveler or Roader, or have some ancestry in any one of such groups? This site is dedicated to you; to help you become more aware of your own rich heritage, to help preserve your traditions, language and knowledge of where you came from and who you are.

The identities of Traveling People are everywhere threatened by the flood of misinformation that is being disseminated on the web and through the popular media. This site pledges to correct such misinformation and to present an accurate and unbiased view of traveling life as it has unfolded since the your ancestors first set foot in the New World.

Preservation of your ethnic heritage and pride in your own ethnic identity are some of the most valuable assets that any parents can leave to their children and grandchildren. To be of Gypsy or Traveler background is something special, something to be treasured along with the language, customs, and cultural values embodied in a unique way of life.

If you want to learn more about your family and your ethnic group, whether you be of Cale, Hungarian-Slovak, Ludar, Rom, Romnichel or Sinti Gypsy or American (Roader), English, German, Irish or Scotch Traveler background we will provide you with an interactive forum for asking questions, finding lost relatives, guidance to accurate sources, exchanging information as well as just keeping in touch with your own kind.

To get started just send a note to ASK MATT specifying what kind of Gypsy you are and in which family background you are interested.

The foundation on which this site is built is a rich storehouse of data of every imaginable kind: documentary sources, oral histories and observations of traveling life collected in over 35 years of unpaid research by Matt and Sheila Salo. The Salos have dedicated their lives to providing a true history of traveling life in America and to dispelling the myths that are currently being spread on the web and other media.

This endeavor is based on the premise that every kind of Gypsy and Traveler has a right to his or her own identity, whatever it might be. Each of you has a unique heritage that your ancestors nurtured over centuries of hardship and persecution. Now those rich and unique identities are in danger of being lost as more and more people lose the sense of who they are; customs, language and traditional life patterns are not being passed on; some people are even becoming ashamed of their Gypsy or Traveler identities.

Again, email any specific inquiries into American Gypsy or Traveler history, culture and genealogy to Matt T. Salo at ASK MATT .

Forthcoming: This history and culture page under preparation will be divided into subject areas that you can access separately depending on your interests. If you seek information sources, have specific questions, or want to broaden your horizons by learning about other groups, we will provide the best, most accurate information available. You will not be fed speculations about Melungeons, hordes of Gypsies in Colonial America, or Gypsies and Travelers as hapless victims or criminal castes - instead all our information will be based on actual verified data that truly represents the experience of your people in America since your ancestors first arrived here.

Culture and language are not easily lost and, unless you are among those few unfortunate individuals whose parents or grandparents misguidedly tried to separate themselves and their families from their roots, you should easily be able to pick up traits of language and culture that indicate your origins. We will begin with a brief overview of the different groups to orient those among you who are not quite sure of where they belong. More detailed descriptions will follow.

Gypsy and Traveler Groups in the United States

Cale: Spanish Gypsies, or Gitanos, are found primarily in the metropolitan centers of the East and West coasts. A small community of only a few families.

English Travelers: Fairly amorphous group, possibly formed along same lines as Roaders (see below), but taking shape already in England before their emigration to the US starting in early 1880s. Associate mainly with Romnichels. Boundaries and numbers uncertain.

Hungarian-Slovak: Mainly sedentary Gypsies found primarily in the industrial cities of northern U.S. Number in few thousands. Noted for playing "Gypsy music" in cafes, night clubs and restaurants.

Irish Travelers: Peripatetic group that is ethnically Irish and does not identify itself as "Gypsy," although sometimes called "Irish Gypsies." Widely scattered, but somewhat concentrated in the southern states. Estimates vary but about 10,000 should be close to the actual numbers.

Ludar: Gypsies from the Banat area, also called Rumanian Gypsies. Arrived after 1880. Have about the same number of families as the Rom, but actual numbers are unknown.

Roaders or Roadies: Native born Americans who have led a traveling life similar to that of the Gypsies and Travelers, but who were not originally descended from those groups. Numbers unknown as not all families studied.

Rom: Gypsies of East European origin who arrived after 1880. Mostly urban, they are scattered across the entire country. One of the larger groups in the US, possibly in the 55-60,000 range.

Romnichels: English Gypsies who arrived beginning in 1850. Scattered across the entire country, but tend to be somewhat more rural than the other Gypsy groups. Many families are now on their way to being assimilated, hence estimation of numbers depends on criteria used.

Scottish Travelers: Ethnically Scottish, but separated for centuries from mainstream society in Scotland where they were known as Tinkers. Some came to Canada after 1850 and to the United States in appreciable numbers after 1880. Over 100 distinct clans have been identified but total numbers not known.

Sinti: Little studied early group of German Gypsies in the United States consisting of few families heavily assimilated with both non-Gypsy and Romnichel populations. No figures are available.

Yenisch: Mostly assimilated group of ethnic Germans, misidentified as Gypsies, who formed an occupational caste of basket makers and founded an entire community in Pennsylvania after their immigration starting 1840. Because of assimilation current numbers are impossible to determine.

This inventory leaves out several Gypsy groups that have immigrated since 1970 due to the unrest and renewed persecution in Eastern Europe after the collapse of Communism. They have come from Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania, the former Yugoslavian area, and possibly other countries. They number in few thousands by now, but their numbers are likely to increase.

Copyright @ 2002 Matt T. Salo

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I’m a gypsy and here’s the real reason why we have fancy plates on display in our homes – and no it’s not just for looks

• Abigail Wilson , Senior Digital Writer
• Published : 12:58, 31 Mar 2024
• Published : Invalid Date,

A GYPSY girl has revealed the real reason why travellers often have fancy plates on display in their homes.

Heidi McDonagh Clee, an Irish traveller and mum-of-two, shared that she has Crown Derby in her kitchen, but it’s not just for looks.

According to this mother, these china plates, bowls and ornaments are actually intended to be gifted to her daughter as a future wedding present.

Heidi claimed that such sets are often passed down in the gypsy community, and whilst on display, they don’t actually get used.

Posting on social media, Heidi shared a clip as she cleaned her Crown Derby set.

Following this, Heidi shared a follow-up clip, as she responded to a comment that read: “Beautiful tea set, but do you use it too? Or is it for looks?” 

To this, Heidi said: “Any of the plates, cups, tea set. Absolutely any of it, it doesn't actually get used.

“They are just genuine ornaments. Traveller and gypsy people collect a lot of it.”

Heidi then revealed that she will passing on her impressive Crown Derby set to her daughter, as she explained: “All my pieces that I have, I'll be passing on to my daughter.

“And then one day she will pass it on to her daughter.

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“Some of the pieces I have in there are actually from my husband's grandmother.”

The traveller woman explained that when her daughter is older, she will have the choice of having her mother’s set, or a new set.

But Heidi added: “Don't get me wrong, when she gets older, I will ask her, ‘what set do you want? Do you want this one, or do you want something different?’

“She might ask for something different. Crown Derby comes in different designs.

“Whatever she wants, we'll buy her. And then she can start collecting that.

“Now if she's smart enough, and I'm hoping she will be, when the time comes around and we say to her, ‘What do you want then? What's your wedding present?’, what she should say is, ‘No, I don't like it actually, I want something different from my home’ and then pick something completely different.

“And then we would buy her that set and the stuff that goes with it.”

Differences between a gypsy and a traveller

Typically, Gypsies is a term used to describe Romani people, who migrated to Europe from India. 

Meanwhile, traveller refers to a group of people who usually have either Irish, Scottish or English heritage. 

While many English gypsy girls are allowed to drink alcohol and go on holiday with their friends before they get married, many Irish traveller girls are not allowed to do this.

Generally, both gypsies and travellers will share the same morals.

Heidi then expressed: “And then one day, she would inherit my set -  the cigar pattern we call it. 

“And then that way, she'll end up with two complete sets of Crown Derby.”

Concluding the short clip, Heidi shared: “We don't use it. We generally just have it to pass on and for display.” 

'SPECIAL TRADITION'

The TikTok clip, which was posted under the username @ h.mccc , has clearly left many open-mouthed, as it has quickly racked up 17,500 views.

Social media users were impressed with the traveller tradition and many took to the comments to express this. 

It’s an Irish thing too to have stuff like this...One does not touch, one just looks. TikTok user

One person said: “Love Crown Derby. Beautiful pieces to pass on!”

Another added: “What a special tradition.” 

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A third commented: “It’s an Irish thing too to have stuff like this. My mum has sets too, and Waterford Crystal all for display that were passed down and then will go to us. One does not touch, one just looks.”

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