irish traveller documentary

Who are the Irish Travellers in the US?

They're one of ireland's oldest and most marginalized minorities but who are the irish travellers in the us.

A scene from the Murphy Village episode of My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding.

One of Ireland's oldest and most marginalized minorities but how much to do you know about Irish Travellers in America?

In Ireland, nearly everybody is aware of the existence of the Irish Travellers — they’re one of Ireland’s oldest and most marginalized minority groups, known for their itinerant lifestyle, distinct dialects and oft-questioned traditions.

However, many people know that there are also communities of Irish Travellers in America.

A few times each year, a headline will pop up about Irish Travellers in the US. Sometimes it’ll be from a local newspaper in South Carolina or Texas; on rarer occasions, such as the bust of a high-profile rhinoceros horn smuggling ring, it’ll be in Bloomberg Businessweek . Except for the occasional story expressing interest in the culture or history of the Travellers, the articles are typically from the crime section — detailing a theft or scam, or local concern that the Travellers have arrived in the area.

But if you don’t happen to live in those areas or catch those headlines, and if you missed out on that one famous episode of "My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding," you’d be easily forgiven for not having any idea that the Irish Travellers have lived in the US for generations. They’re not recognized as a distinct ethnic group by the US Census, and, what’s more, Irish Americans have never claimed them under the umbrella of the Irish diaspora.

What little we do know about the Irish Travellers here in America comes from those very news articles, and from a scant number of books and documentaries.

There are believed to be anywhere from 7,000 to 40,000 Irish Travellers in the US, though most estimates lie closer to the 10,000 mark. The Travellers here descended from groups who left Ireland around the time of the Great Hunger and settled in the US, carving out a similar lifestyle to the one they followed in Ireland.

Like their counterparts in Ireland, Irish Travellers in the US speak their own dialects of Cant, Shelta, or Gammon, which can include elements of Irish, Gaelic, English, Greek, and Hebrew.

Also similar to their Ireland-based counterparts, the American Irish Travellers identify as strictly Catholic and adhere to their own traditions and mores. The men travel and work and the women raise the children. Many of the women are promised to their future husbands in arranged marriages when they are very young.

Their primary trade is repair work, often categorized as dubious in nature (though the fairness of that generalization has been called into question). But the US Irish Travellers have also, over the years, amassed fortunes through a unique internal economy based on life insurance policies.

As Paul Connolly, who made a documentary about Irish Travellers in the US for the Irish channel TV3 in 2013, told The Journal : “Most of the income comes from insurance. . . In America, there’s a clause which allows you to insure anyone with a blood connection — and as they have intermarried for generations, there’s a likelihood there will be a blood connection.

"So they’ve worked out a way of profiting from this, and that, according to the Travellers I’ve spoken to, is how they make their money and how they’re so wealthy. Some of the more morbid characters we came across referred to it as ‘Death Watch’.”

Perhaps the most notorious instance of this system gone awry took place in 2015, when Anita Fox, a 69-year-old Irish Traveller woman in Texas, was found stabbed to death. Police later identified the perpetrators as Gerard and Bernard Gorman, who held a $1 million life insurance policy in Fox’s name.

There are Irish Traveller enclaves in Texas, in the Houston and Fort Worth areas, as well as in South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Florida, with smaller settlements found in rural New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Many of the groups identify based on where in the US their ancestors first based themselves, such as the Ohio Travellers, Georgia Travellers, Texas Travellers, and Mississippi Travellers.

The largest-known Irish Traveller community in the US is in Murphy Village, South Carolina, which, as noted in a report by the Florida Ancient Order of Hibernians, is home to approximately 1,500 people with only 11 different surnames.

According to a 2002 article in the Washington Post , “The Irish Travelers who settled in the United States in the 19th century migrated to different parts of the country and established their own clan groups, often with little intermingling across regions.

“The Sherlocks, O'Haras and others settled [in Murphy Village] in the 1960s, on land around a Catholic church whose pastor, the Rev. Joseph Murphy, became the patron and namesake of the growing community just outside the town of North Augusta.”

Far from a caravan or mobile home community, Murphy Village has become home to an increasing number of suburban “McMansions” in recent decades, as the US Irish Travellers build permanent homes, which they use as a base between travels and for holidays. In this regard, its closest Irish counterpart is Rathkeale, Co. Limerick, which was the subject of a New York Times story in 2012 , chronicling the massive homecoming that takes place every Christmas.

“The Riches,” a serial drama about a contemporary Irish Traveller family in the US, starring Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver, aired on FX for two seasons, in 2007 and 2008.

H/T Slate , The Journal , The Washington Post , Florida AOH .

* Originally published in Sept 2016.

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The Picture Show

Daily picture show, documenting the irish travellers: a nomadic culture of yore.

Lauren Rock

Bridget and Paddy Furey with their children, Loughrea

Throughout my life I have regularly traveled to my mother's home city of Dublin. During these trips I would regularly see groups of people living in caravans on the sides of the road, and I always wondered who they were and what their lives were like.

I later found out they belonged to a small ethnic minority called "Travellers" — nomads who spend most of their life, literally on the road. While their history has been hard to document — they have no written records — they are thought to have separated from the settled Irish community at least 1,000 years ago.

The Travellers (until recently also called "tinkers" or "gypsies") often live in ad hoc encampments, in direct contrast to "settled" people in Ireland. They are thought to be descended from a group of nomadic craftsman, with the name "tinker" a reference to the sound of a hammer hitting an anvil. (The reference is now considered derogatory.)

In 1965 Dublin-born photographer Alen MacWeeney stumbled across a Travellers' encampment and became fascinated with their way of life. He spent the next six years making photographs and recording their stories and music. Despite shooting the photos in the late '60s, it wasn't until 2007 that he found a publisher for his work.

Bernie Ward, Cherry Orchard Courtesy of Alen MacWeeney hide caption

Bernie Ward, Cherry Orchard

In his book, Irish Travellers: Tinkers No More — which also comes with a CD of Traveller music recordings — MacWeeny shows us a gritty, intimate portrait of the people he eventually came to call friends. He compares the Travellers to the migrant farmers of the American Depression: "poor, white, and dispossessed."

"Theirs was a bigger way of life than mine, with its daily struggle for survival, compared to my struggle to find images symbolic and representative of that life," he said in his book.

MacWeeney got his start at age 20 as an assistant for Richard Avedon in Paris and has since made a career as a portrait and fashion photographer. But his images of the Travellers reveal a raw and intimate side to his work.

"Traveller families have always been very close-knit, held together in a tight unspoken knot, with lifelong bonds and sometimes varying a lifelong set of troubles," he said.

Today, however, the Traveller lifestyle has changed dramatically from even a few decades ago. Many have embraced modern culture and become "settled," no longer living apart from the mainstream. There is even a reality TV show, My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding , which showcases Traveller girls and their theatrical, over-the-top weddings.

But MacWeeney believes that the Travellers are "reluctant as settled and envy the other life of travelling." His book stands as a document of an era, and a way of life that is slowly fading into the past.

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Movie Review | 'Knuckle'

Brawling for Money, Clan and Just Because

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By Manohla Dargis

Dec. 8, 2011

The fighting families in the documentary “Knuckle” are blood relatives with a vengeance. The movie, a no-frills affair from the first-time Irish director Ian Palmer, offers a circumscribed look inside the often-closed world of Irish travelers through their bare-knuckle fistfights. Historically nomads who were once better known as tinkers and described by Yeats as “the people of the roads,” the travelers long lived outside the mainstream, but from their on-camera showboating — as they duke it out, crow about their wins, taunt the losers and bang the drums for the next slugfest — they’re ready for their collective close-up.

Mr. Palmer, as he explains in voice-over, stumbled on the fights by chance. While he was videotaping the wedding of a traveler, Michael Quinn McDonagh, Mr. Palmer met Michael’s older brother James. A charismatic clan leader, James — called the Mighty Quinn or Baldy James depending on who’s doing the calling — turned out to be a champion fighter. Invited to videotape one of James’s fights, Mr. Palmer grabbed his camera. Thus began a documentary filmmaking odyssey that would last 12 staggering years and, after the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, found Mr. Palmer on the festival circuit and signed to a deal with HBO, which plans to turn “Knuckle” into a dramatic series. The stars, as it were, of “Knuckle” are James Quinn McDonagh and his most vociferous opponent, Paddy Joyce a k a the Lurcher, a shouter with a handlebar mustache and enough body hair to knit a sweater. Although it was Michael who first gave Mr. Palmer entry into this world, it was James who kept the director’s attention and probably fueled his commitment. A meaty slab of a man who likes to keep his head shaved — perhaps in part because the fights can turn dirty — James is his family’s best fighter, as undefeated as he is unbowed. He’s also a good talker (useful subtitles help with the travelers’ heavily accented English), even if he doesn’t say much, including about traveler life beyond the brawling.

For a while his reticence is scarcely an issue because the fights — sloppy, messy, brutal — are so involving, both appalling and appallingly watchable even in smeariest video. It’s always the same: two men, with bare knuckles and sagging or ridged bellies, square off in a rural corner and smack each other to cheers and jeers of the crowd. It seems depressingly pointless.

Not that the fighters don’t have plenty of reasons to throw around, including tradition, pride, feuds — somewhere in the past, a caravan was destroyed and sometime later a man was killed — and money. As it turns out, the families bet heavily on the fights (the stakes are high), which effectively means that they’re helping support themselves by beating their own people bloody.

If Mr. Palmer sees any political significance in this ritualized feuding he doesn’t say, though the mournful string music suggests that he’d like you to see the fights in tragic terms. They are in a sense, though they’re also opportunistic and human. While it’s frustrating that Mr. Palmer doesn’t dig deep into the complexities of the fights, one of the movie’s strengths is the honesty with which he confesses his doubts about them. He also expresses reservations about his reasons for following the bouts, an admission that both speaks to the motivations of documentary cinema (why film?) and to those who have ever wondered why they can’t look away from violence. Year after bruising year, Mr. Palmer kept his sights on these grim battles, an epic endeavor that suggests that looking away was never an option.

Knuckle: Opens on Friday in New York, Los Angeles and Austin, Tex. Directed by Ian Palmer; directors of photography, Michael Doyle and Mr. Palmer; edited by Ollie Huddleston; music by Ilan Eshkeri and Essica Dannheisser; produced by Mr. Palmer and Teddy Leifer; released by Arc Entertainment. In Manhattan at Cinema Village, 22 East 12th Street, Greenwich Village. Running time: 1 hour 33 minutes.

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Irish America

Bare-Faced and Bare-Knuckled: Fighting Traveller Families

October 1, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Filmed carefully over a period of twelve years, the documentary Knuckle sheds light on the inner workings and on-going feuds of three Irish Traveller clans. Up next for the film: a New York premiere and an HBO spin-off series.

Don’t let the bandaged fist in the photo fool you. Knuckle , Ian Palmer’s documentary about the bare-fisted boxing tradition of the Irish Travellers, might be about blood, but it’s not about gore. The blood Palmer seems most interested in is the stuff that pumps through the veins of the intricately connected Traveller community he visited and filmed over 12 years, a society where cousins marry, work together and, when the occasion arises, beat each other senseless.

“I wanted to make a film from inside their world,” Palmer told indie/WIRE when Knuckle premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. “The idea and the approach was simple. I spent as much time as I could with the families with a minimal crew and small camera.”

His approach resonated at HBO, which is adapting the documentary into a new drama series. Industry blogs hint that the HBO treatment will trend toward dark comedy, since it is being developed by writer Irvine Welsh (author of the gritty novel Trainspotting, on which the film of the same name was based), and director Jody Hill of Rough House Pictures, the project’s producer, whose politically incorrect comedy Easthouse & Down also airs on HBO.

Knuckle will have its New York premiere on September 30 at Irish Film New York, which will feature five other recent Irish releases. This new screening series of contemporary Irish films is co-presented by New York University’s Glucksman Ireland House, and runs September 30 through October 2 at NYU’s Cantor Film Center.

Festival founder and curator Niall McKay, who is also the founder and director of the San Francisco Irish Film Festival and co-founder of the LA Irish Film Festival, said he deliberately chose films for the series that depict Ireland as it is today.

“I particularly wanted films that had a real physical effect on me,” he said, “ones that made me cry or laugh or get angry.”

“We’re pleased that Niall McKay has chosen to work with Glucksman Ireland House to present this excellent addition to the city’s arts scene,” said Loretta Brennan Glucksman, Chair of the Glucksman Ireland House NYU Advisory Board. She praised the festival for presenting “works that would not otherwise be seen by a wide audience. It should be an exciting experience for our Irish American community.”

Besides Knuckle, Irish Film New York will also feature the New York premieres of the Galway Film Fleadh-winning Parked with Colm Meany, a study of a friendship between two men who live in their cars, and The Runway, the story of a downed pilot in Cork rescued by a little boy, with Weeds star Demián Bichir. Other films include the bittersweet coming-of-ager, 32A, directed by Marion Quinn, a hilarious peek at Dublin teenagers called Pyjama Girls, and Sensation, about a man who tries to lose his virginity but ends up running a brothel. Directors and stars of the films will appear at Q&A sessions after each screening.

There will also be an industry panel in conjunction with NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where filmmakers and producers will discuss the direction of Irish film at home and abroad.

McKay says the mission of Irish Film New York is to expose American audiences to the best in Irish contemporary cinema and to give Irish filmmakers “a fair crack at the U.S. market.” It will join with the San Francisco and Los Angeles Irish Film Festivals to bring the filmmakers of Knuckle, Parked, and The Runway on a tri-city tour in anticipation of each film’s U.S. release. Knuckle will appear in independent U.S. theatres this December, with The Runway and Parked following shortly after.

Director Palmer admitted to Irish Independent Weekend that he did not approach the filming of Knuckle like an investigative journalist.

“It was more about observing the [Traveller] families and trying to let the life reveal itself. The reasons behind the fighting were difficult to get at. The feuds stretched back over generations. It was always about defending your name and family pride.”

The three rival families that he studied, the Quinn McDonaghs, the Nevins and the Joyces, are all related, often sharing the same grandparents. As one of the women remarks, “We’re all one in the end.” Even if a Nevin married a Quinn, or a Quinn has a mother who is a Joyce, the rationale for fighting rests on defending just one family’s name.

While Palmer is able to ferret out the powerful origin of one particular feud, the sources of the disputes don’t seem as important as the disputes themselves. “Would it not be possible for you guys to get together to talk about it and make up?” the director asks Michael Quinn McDonagh, on his way to a fight in England. “You’re crazy,” Michael laughs, dumfounded at Palmer’s naiveté.

The matches are called “fair fights” and are organized with unexpected formality: when a challenge is issued, it is promptly accepted, a date and location are set, and the fighters hit the gym to train weeks before the match. Fair fights take place in secret locations with few onlookers. There are referees from neutral families and lots of rules. And everybody obeys the rules. Anyone who doesn’t is disqualified, and his family takes the loss.

Technology and money play crucial roles in this tradition-bound ritual: Families exchange videotaped challenges and fight results are reported by cell phones. Bets are negotiated for astonishing amounts of cash; winner (and family) takes all.

The fighters accept Palmer’s presence with the nonchalance of a generation bred on reality TV. But despite his desire to let the story emerge from the people themselves, they never forget the camera is there. Dodging it, challenging it, playing with it, they turn the camera – with narrator Palmer – into another character in the film.

Palmer said it was only during editing that he realized that the narrative would work better if he allowed himself to be an obvious part of his film. “The film is more honest for accepting that Knuckle is my experience of this world,” he said, “and my relationship to the people in the film and how that affected me.”

His “shaky cam” character dances around the fair fight scenes with a perilous immediacy. At any moment, you expect a fist to fly into the lens. Because he interviews both families involved in a fight, Palmer never appears to be taking sides. Even though he follows one fighter’s story more closely than others, he is not making a fight movie. There is no Big Match to decide it all, no good guys or bad.

James Quinn McDonagh, the soft-spoken man whose winning battles form the core of the film, says over and over again he doesn’t want to fight, but is provoked into it by the other families, claiming he’d like “to be known for something more positive.”

James doesn’t like to train either. “I’d rather be socializing,” he quips. But when a challenge comes from the Joyces or the Nevins, he comes out with fists blaring. “It’s the best way to sort things out,” he explains. Even after he swears off fighting, he is seen anxiously prepping his brother by cell phone before a fight, exclaiming as he waits for the results, “Grandfathers in Heaven, send Michael the power!”

Why do the fights continue? Palmer sees “fair fighting as still mainly about family and individual honor and pride,” a deeply felt emotion expressed here in macho posturing: “We will fight because we are men, we’re Joyce men.”

Then there’s the fast cash from the betting. The suggestion of inconsistent employment implies that fighting is a needed source of income, and might also be a way to establish self-respect when the outside world offers too little.

But within a closed community, the flip side of self-respect can be a cult of personality. Joe Joyce, an older man who nevertheless continues to fight, boasts, “I’m still King of the Travellers!” One of James’ opponents, the dewy-faced youngster, Davy Nevins, says the fights are not about revenge.

“James thinks he’s better than us,” he explains calmly. “People think he’s a god. I don’t want to defeat the Quinns, I just want to defeat James.”

Some Nevins relatives suggest a possible link between being a Traveller and the need to keep fighting. When an old man muses, “There’s always been wars,” the younger Spike Nevin replies, “But we’re Travellers. At least wars are about something. Something right.”

Conspicuously absent from the film are Traveller women, who are reluctant to appear on camera. Yet, the only strong voices condemning the fighting come from a sofa full of older women gathered for an after-fight party. “I think it should end,” one woman states firmly. “All this fighting over names. It’s an awful life to have. It should be finished.”

“I don’t know what they’re fighting for,” James’ mother adds.

“When my sons grow up, they aren’t doing it,” a much younger woman declares with convincing resolution. But she quickly adds a caveat, “If I can help it.”

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The Other Irish Travellers

Storyville: documentary which takes a personal look at the history of Ireland's vanished Anglo-Irish classes through the quirky family of filmmaker Fiona Murphy. Storyville: documentary which takes a personal look at the history of Ireland's vanished Anglo-Irish classes through the quirky family of filmmaker Fiona Murphy. Storyville: documentary which takes a personal look at the history of Ireland's vanished Anglo-Irish classes through the quirky family of filmmaker Fiona Murphy.

Fiona Murphy
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July 16, 2012 (United Kingdom)
United Kingdom
Neither Fish Nor Fowl
County Mayo, Ireland
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10 great films about Gypsies and Travellers

Jonas Carpignano’s The Ciambra, about a young boy growing up in an Italian Romani community, is one of the rare films about the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community that avoids stereotypes of criminality or mysticism. Here are 10 other films and TV shows that honestly show the vibrant culture of the GRT community.

12 June 2018

By Christina Newland

Jonas Carpignano ’s new film The Ciambra is a neorealist fable about a young boy growing up in the Italian region of Calabria, part of a secluded neighbourhood of Romani people. In a nation where highly publicised hate crimes against Gypsies and Travellers have been relatively recent, The Ciambra looks at the mistrust with which the GRT (Gypsy, Roma and Traveller) community regards the rest of society. As the young protagonist Pio’s grandfather tells him: “It’s us against the world.”

When it comes to depictions of the GRT community in cinema, the feeling can be pretty similar. Travellers frequently find themselves stuck between invisibility or ridicule, and as in real life, misunderstandings about them abound. Romani people are stateless, but have been living for generations in Europe and Great Britain; Irish Travellers are Celtic (‘Pavee’) in origin – all suffer endemic poverty, social exclusion and open discrimination.

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In some ways, it might be easier to write a list of films wholly ignorant of the travelling communities they portray – in the UK , for example, the obnoxious ‘reality television’ series and films that turn travellers into punchlines or employ racial epithets. Still, some films and filmmakers have sought to counter the popular narratives of their people as criminals or mystics. Their work has run the gamut from abstract fiction to harrowing documentary; they have depicted Eastern European slums and modern travellers’ camps in Essex.

Some of the filmmakers showcased below offer honest and diverse portrayals of their own Gypsy communities; all of them attempt to purge centuries of collective myth-making that obscure a vibrant culture.

Sky West and Crooked (1966)

Director: John Mills

Sir John Mills ’ pastoral drama Sky West and Crooked is an open-minded portrayal of the travelling community in rural Britain. Its central focus is an oddball romance between Brydie ( Hayley Mills ), a troubled West Country teenager, and Roibin ( Ian McShane ), a broodingly handsome young man from a nearby travellers’ site.

Examining small-town prejudice and siding firmly with its two outsiders, Mills’ film intelligently portrays the mistrust between the settled community and the travellers and underlines how foundational fear of the unknown is when it comes to racism. Kids under the age of 10 parrot that they’re “scared of gyppos”, clearly never having interacted with anyone outside their country village. With poignant empathy and a smattering of real Romani words, Mills’ film attempts to bridge the gap between communities in a heartening way. Considering this was made in the 1960s, it’s shocking how few British films since have come with such a progressive perspective.

I Even Met Happy Gypsies (1967)

Director: Aleksandar Petrovic

Aleksandar Petrovic’s I Even Met Happy Gypsies has the distinction of being one of the earliest internationally released features to be made in the Romani language. Because of the tendency of nomadic people to pass down culture orally, it’s a language that has long struggled to be recognised and written into the annals of linguistic history.

Soundtracked by genuine Gypsy melodies and unafraid of depicting the shocking poverty of isolated traveller sites around what was then Yugoslavia, Petrovic ’s story is one of small-time dramas and family machinations, filmed with a heightened black and white realism that gives it a stylised documentary feel. The subject matter, too, is ultimately fitting – ritualised courtship, elopements, domestic strife and a girl seeking to escape the cruelty of a domineering stepfather – all feel deeply relevant to the close-knit, family-oriented Traveller community.

Where Do We Go from Here? (1969)

Director: Philip Donnellan

This short documentary comes in at just around the 60-minute mark, but its activist intentions are as vital today as they were almost a half-century ago when they were filmed. This BBC doc attempts to shed light on the enigmatic lifestyles of British Travellers, particularly at a time when more traditional nomadic habits were being displaced by an increasingly industrialised nation and pressure to find a fixed abode.

Director Philip Donnellan was a documentary filmmaker for the BBC for decades, making dozens of films on the struggles of the working class and with a particular interest in GRT issues. He allows generous time in his film for insightful interviews with his subjects, many of whom still maintain prominent family names in contemporary English Traveller society. At a moment in the 20th century when questions about alternative ways of living were becoming increasingly germane, this film turns a fresh eye to the ethnically nomadic people who had been populating Britain for hundreds of years.

Angelo My Love (1983)

Director: Robert Duvall

Robert Duvall ’s overlooked feature stars a young New Yorker that the director had a chance encounter with on the street. The boy’s street-smart manner belied his age, and Duvall was intrigued to learn that the kid – Angelo Evans – came from a cloistered enclave of Romani people.

The loose narrative of the film focuses on a stolen family heirloom, but this is a thin premise for a vérité romp through the chaos of the real Angelo’s life, featuring actual friends and family along the way. His rough-and-tumble and often comical interactions – not to mention his light hustling – are captured with a pseudo-documentary style. Swirling around old-fashioned values of the community – family pride, masculine honour and the like – Duvall makes a surprisingly ethnographic character study out of his collection of on screen incidents.

Time of the Gypsies (1988)

Director: Emir Kusturica

As Serbia’s arthouse director du jour, Emir Kusturica has dealt glancingly with the Romani community in Eastern Europe for many years. Often, this is in the mode of magical realism, which presents certain questions about the superstition around Gypsy people, and the claptrap associations with the mystical attributed to them.

Time of the Gypsies doesn’t help much on that front: its main character, the bespectacled Perhan, is telekinetic. But what Kusturica lacks in cliché-busting he makes up for in other ways: he is masterful in his tragi-comic sensory overload-style depiction of Traveller life. Squawking chickens, muddy-faced children and noisy encampments seem to overwhelm the characters within, and their response to that impoverishment is what one might expect: denigration, crime and outright begging on the street. The magical powers might be a foolhardy touch, but the rest of the picture is unfortunately accurate.

Latcho Drom (1993)

Director: Tony Gatlif

Tony Gatlif – a prolific European Romani filmmaker who almost exclusively makes films in the Romani language – perfectly married form and content in this French film . Its title means ‘safe journey’, referring to the fabled ancient migration of Romani people from India into the nations of Europe. The film is a quasi-historical documentary that meets with the far-flung Romani diaspora in various countries and examines their cultural practices and differences.

Brilliantly, Gatlif employs no voiceover or interviews for his non-fiction film, using traditional music and dance to evoke the moods and impressions of the people on screen. “Why does your mouth spit on us?” croons a female Gitano singer sorrowfully, bringing back the centuries of discrimination, enforced sterilisation and holocaust brought upon her people. It’s a moment that speaks for itself in reverberative, literal terms.

Pavee Lackeen (2005)

Director: Perry Ogden

Perry Ogden’s gentle fiction film is about a real Irish Traveller girl and her family, as they stop on an unfriendly roadside outside Dublin. Ogden underlines the stark contrast between the Maughan family’s trailer and the lights and colours of contemporary urban life in Ireland. Since the governments of both the UK and Ireland regularly fail to allocate legal sites for Travellers to stay in, they are often forced to camp illegally on roadsides and lay-bys.

There’s no judgement in Ogden ’s gaze, and he charts the frequent misunderstandings between the travelling and settled communities with real sensitivity. The community officers and various bureaucracies may want the family to integrate, but there’s a refusal to see that it may mean the Maughan family would be subsuming their ethnic identity as a result. Yet the safety and continued education of the children in the family is of concern, and so Pavee Lackeen offers a measured look at both sides.

Knuckle (2011)

Director: Ian Palmer

Ian Palmer’s documentary was over a decade in the making as he gained intimate access to two Irish Traveller families locked in a series of violent feuds. James Quinn McDonagh is the central protagonist of the tale – a bare-knuckle Gypsy champion with a shaved head and solemn features. A rival clan, the Joyces, have a long-held hatred of the McDonaghs over an old brawl that landed one family member in prison and another dead.

Knuckle may not do much to quell stereotypes of Irish Travellers as belonging to a violent, honour-driven society deeply in thrall to old-style masculinity, but Palmer, trusty with a handheld camera, does present the reality of what he sees: engaging, brutal and sometimes bizarrely funny. There’s a real failure to more pressingly get to the heart of what drives these bare-knuckle fights – or to truly understand the families of the men who go through this primitive, trying behaviour repeatedly. As bitter a pill as it is for some to swallow, the iron-clad tradition of bare-knuckle boxing in the Traveller community is unlikely to go away anytime soon.

An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker (2013)

Director: Danis Tanović

A Bosnian festival favourite and winner of the Berlinale Grand Jury Prize, Danis Tanović ’s upsetting drama is played out by a non-professional cast who genuinely experienced the events of the film.

Filmed in an unobtrusive style, the title describes Nazif and his wife Senada, who have two children and live on Nazif’s scrap-dealing income. Because of their ethnicity, the two are refused admittance to their local hospital after Senada suffers a miscarriage. They are then forced to undertake a painfully long journey while Senada grows increasingly desperate and in need of medical care. The shocking endemic racism recalls the cruellest days of America’s Jim Crow era, where the Travellers are turned away by the institutions that they are most in need of.

Peaky Blinders (2013-)

Creator: Steven Knight

Although it took a few seasons to fine tune, this historical gangster drama about a gang of vicious British criminals is one of the most accomplished televisual depictions of Traveller history. With its colourful and nuanced set of central characters born of English Traveller blood, it offers something new – anti-heroic, dashing and complicated protagonists from Gypsy stock.

Set in the Black Country of Birmingham in the early 1920s, Steven Knight ’s series focuses on the Shelby family, a bunch of strapping Romani-born lads who come up out of nothing to build an organised crime empire. Chief among them is the charismatic and coldly feline Tommy Shelby ( Cillian Murphy , whose angular face and cutting blue eyes are put to excellent use here), a shell-shocked First World War veteran who returns to his decrepit hometown with a desire for more.

Featuring Romani language from the second season onward and input – even supporting roles – for actors and writers from this background, Peaky Blinders has an implicit importance that goes far beyond the machinations of its often extravagant criminal plot twists. When someone speaks disdainfully of Tommy’s background, he sarcastically drawls, “I sell pegs and tell fortunes.” This isn’t your romanticised view of Gypsies. If anything, it’s a reminder that English Travellers have been around for a long time, and even back then they were sick of your stereotypes.

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Irish Travellers are prospering in America and "make most of their money from life insurance"

KNOWN FOR GENERATIONS as a highly secretive and insular community, the Irish Travellers in the US are descended from a group of families that crossed the Atlantic as early as the 1830s.

It’s estimated there are as many as 10,000 people in the states who identify themselves as part of the community, although that number could be far greater – the problem being the US Census doesn’t recognise them as a separate ethnic group.

In recent years, US Travellers have begun to let their guard down a little. There was an episode of My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding that focused on the South Carolina area of Murphy Village a few years ago, for instance – although a producer of that show later told a local paper that “the men just didn’t want to talk to us”.

TV3 documentary-maker Paul Connolly found a similar story when he attempted to make contact with the community. Arriving in the area along with two members of the Navan Traveller Workshop , the journalist says it was difficult at first, but they eventually managed to “break the ice” with the locals.

However, the presenter also wanted to focus on another community – Oakhaven in Tennessee – and says that when his team first arrived they were “high-tailed out by a couple of vans”. Unsure how to proceed, Connolly managed to secure an appearance on a local morning TV news show, explained what he was about, and soon heard word that he was being invited to visit the area. As filming began and an element of trust was built, he found similar traditions amongst both groups:

What was amazing was that same customs had been preserved. They still speak Cant – but it’s a Gaelic-based Cant , unlike here – and they have the same traditions about money, about male and female roles in the community.

“However,” he says, “what most people find interesting about them is that they are incredibly, incredibly wealthy”.

(Tv3 Press)

The TV3 promotional material for ‘Travellers in America: A Secret Society’ depicts the documentary’s subjects showing-off palatial ‘mcmansions’, designer clothing brands and expensive cars. Asked how they earn a living, Connolly says the men work at “trades – tarmacing, roofing and so on”. However – “most of the income comes from insurance”. He explains:

It’s just very, very clever. In America, there’s a clause which allows you to insure anyone with a blood connection – and as they have intermarried for generations, there’s a likelihood there will be a blood connection. So they’ve worked out a way of profiting from this, and that, according to the Travellers I’ve spoken to, is how they make their money and how they’re so wealthy. Some of the more morbid characters we came across referred to it as ‘Death Watch’.

However, Connolly contends, “the community doesn’t regard it as odd or sinister”.

It’s a typical part of their lifestyle. As a wedding present someone will say ‘you can take a policy out on me!’ – so it’s a loophole that hasn’t been closed, I guess.

Another clip of the show, shown by TV3 at the launch of their new line-up at Ballymount this week, shows a woman who lives in one of the communities talking about their traditions regarding marriage – calmly explaining to the presenter that it’s fine for a thirteen year old girl to have sex with her ‘husband’ once “she’s started her cycles”.

According to Connolly, this was one of the hardest aspects of their way of life to find the truth about: “We’d heard a lot about this but one of the biggest things was trying to cut through the line of fact and fiction”.

What we discovered is that the girls are matched with older men at the age of six or seven – but there’s nothing untoward here at this stage. It’s all to do with legacy – if you marry into another rich family then pride of place in the town will stay with you for years to come. So at six or seven, families just say ‘they might make a good pair’. Then, at the ages of thirteen or fourteen they will have a marriage ceremony, but they won’t in fact be married. The controversial aspect though is that these thirteen- or fourteen-year-old girls will be in a mock marriage with 22- or 23-year-old men.

The couples get married formally once the girl reaches the legal age, but Connolly says he was told that some families allow couples to have sex years before that point. The woman in the clip was one of two members of the community who attested to the practice on camera.

The journalist says the overall impression he was left with was one of a welcoming people who “haven’t fully assimilated into our world” and he says the tradition of encouraging young girls to get married is one divisive custom they appear to be “clinging onto”.

‘Travellers in America: A Secret Society’ airs on Tv3 in September.

Read: At Home With The Healy-Raes to air on TV3 >

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List of Irish Traveller–related depictions and documentaries

Irish Travellers have been depicted in film, radio, and print. Some depictions have been both negative, while some have been with care and sympathy. This page cites Irish Traveller -related books, documentaries, films, and other forms of media documentation and/or depiction.

Documentaries

Non fiction, television series.

King Of The Gypsies (1995) — a documentary film about Bartley Gorman, undefeated Bareknuckle Champion of Ireland and Great Britain.
My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding (2010–2015) and spinoff series Big Fat Gypsy Weddings — a Channel 4 television documentary series about Irish Traveller weddings.
John Connors: The Travellers . RTE - (2017) A three documentary series about the history and culture of Irish travellers which won the 2018 IFTA for best documentary series.
Blood of the Travellers , a 2011 RTÉ broadcast documentary of Francis Barrett interviewing Travellers and social historians and using DNA to find out the origin of the Travellers as a group. [1] [2]
Gypsy Blood (2012), a hard hitting observational documentary screened by channel 4, about two bare-knuckle fighting Pavee families noted for their bare-knuckle fighting passed on from father to son.
When Paddy Met Sally (January 2012) is a two-part documentary that aired on Channel 5 in the UK, which charted the adventures of Speaker's wife Sally Bercow as she became the first outsider to stay on Paddy Doherty's Traveller site in north Wales.
I Am Traveller , RTE 2016. An authored piece by John Connors, directed by Kim Bartley of Frontline Films and nominated for an IFTA for best documentary.
Southpaw: The Francis Barrett Story — a documentary following Galway boxer Francis (Francie) Barrett for three years and showing Francie overcoming discrimination as he progresses up the amateur boxing ranks to eventually carry the Irish flag and box for Ireland at the age of 19 during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta . [3] The film won the Audience Prize at the 1999 New York Irish Film Festival.
Traveller , a documentary by Alen MacWeeney [4]
Unsettled: From Tinker to Traveller (2012) by Aoife Kelleher, Kim Bartley and Liam McGrath about two Californian anthropologists, George and Sharon Gmelch, returning to Dublin after 40 years to reunite with the travelers they lived with and studied. [5]
"Patrick: A Young Traveller Lost" (2023) by Alan Bradley about the devastating suicide crises within the Irish Traveller Community focussing on the story of 12 year old Patrick McDonagh. [6]
No Resting Place (1951)
Cathy Come Home (1966) for a section of the film. After being evicted from their home, Cathy and her family go to a caravan site populated by Irish Travellers. At a council meeting, they are denounced as "not real Gypsies". Their caravans are attacked with bricks and then set on fire, leading to the deaths of some children. This part of the film includes voice-over discussions with Travellers about their lifestyles and the harassment they often faced.
Flight of the Doves (1970)
The Field (1990) — a film in which farmer Bull McCabe's only son runs away with a family of Travellers.
Into the West (1992) — a film that tells the story of two Traveller boys running away from their drab home in Dublin.
Trojan Eddie (1996) – crime drama film directed by Gillies MacKinnon and starring Stephen Rea , Richard Harris , Stuart Townsend , Aislín McGuckin , Brendan Gleeson , and Sean McGinley . The soundtrack features "Tinker's Lullaby", written and performed by Pecker Dunne .
Traveller (1997) — A film, starring Bill Paxton , Mark Wahlberg , and Julianna Margulies , about a man joining a group of nomadic con artists in rural North Carolina.
Snatch (2000) — a film featuring Brad Pitt as a comically stereotyped " Pikey " and rogue, who is also a bare-knuckle boxing champion. [7] He is portrayed as having a deep love of his mother and family, in keeping with true life Traveller traditions, which place great emphasis upon family.
Man About Dog (2004) — A film featuring a group of Irish Traveller characters.
Pavee Lackeen : The Traveller Girl (2005) — a film directed by Perry Ogden that tells the story of an Irish Traveller girl (Winnie Maughan), her family, and her struggles in life. Most of the characters are played by the Maughan family themselves, including Winnie, the youngest daughter. [8]
Strength and Honour (2007) — film dealing with a man joining a Traveller boxing tournament in order to win money for his son's operation.
Fish Tank (2009) - an Irish Traveller camp is one of the main sites of the film and the male lead, played by Michael Fassbender , is implied to be an Irish Traveller.
King of the Travellers (2013) - In the Travelling community, a young man must put his past behind him and settle a long running feud between two families so he can be with the love of his life.
Trespass Against Us (2016) - a film featuring an Irish Traveller family, the Cutlers, in which Brendan Gleeson plays the patriarch Colby and Michael Fassbender plays his son Chad.
Float Like a Butterfly (2018) - a film focusing on an Irish Traveller girl who wants to be a boxer.
Songs from The Travellin' People by Pecker Dunne and Margaret Barry
Ewan MacColl 's 1964 album The Travelling People was entirely composed of songs about Gypsies and travellers. However, the song The Gypsy is a Gentleman contained some derogatory comments about Irish Travellers such as "if you find a pony grazing in your garden plot, don't blame the noble Gypsy but that awful tinker lot!"
The Tinker Menace; the diary of an Irish Traveller by Laura Angela Collins is a true story about an Irish Traveller family forced into Irish institutions such as the Magdalene Laundries , Industrial Schools in Ireland and the fight the Collins family are made go on to try gain justice from the State and Catholic Church . [9]
The Road To God Knows Where by Sean Maher. Autobiography of a Traveller, born in Tullamore in 1932. [10] Nan: The Life of an Irish Traveling Woman by Sharon Gmelch. Biography of Nan Donohue, an Irish Traveller, born in 1919 in Granard, Westmeath. Recounts her travels and experiences in the North and west of Ireland, England, and Dublin
Photographer Joseph-Philippe Bevillard has since 2010, documented the lives of the Irish Traveller in his photostream [11] The photostream is on Instagram since 2019 as "jpbevillard_colour". In 2014 he formed the Irish Travellers Photo Workshop which takes place every year. 2022 he published a book with his photos of the Irish Travellers: "Mincéirs" [12]
See You Down the Road by Kim Ablon Whitney — A novel about Travelers in the United States (written for readers aged 14 and older). [13]
Fork in the Road , a novel by Denis Hamill [14]
The Killing of the Tinkers , a novel by Ken Bruen [14]
Traveller Wedding — Novel by film director Graham Jones .
The Tent and Other Stories by Liam O'Flaherty . Jonathan Cape (London, England): 1926.
The Blue Horse , a novel by Marita Conlon-McKenna
Child of the Prophecy , by Juliet Marillier – Fainne's friend, Darragh, and his family are known as "tinkers" and horse-traders who travel the length of Ireland every year
Falling Glass , a novel by Adrian McKinty - the main character is a Pavee, and there is much discussion of Pavee lifestyle
King of the Travelers , by Bartley Gorman and Peter Walsh , An account of Bareknuckle champion Bartley Gormans life.
In the novel Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell , the protagonist Ree and the rest of her clan are named Dolly, a form of the Irish name Ó Dathlaoich, and are descended from the "Walking People." (See Muintir Murchada#Family surnames ) The Dollys also exhibit much of the "clannishness" and consciously preserved "differentness" often found in small ethnic minorities.
Crossing Lines main character Tommy McConnell (played by Richard Flood) comes from a family of Irish Travellers from Northern Ireland, although he is estranged from them due to their criminal activities. In episode 8 of season 2 ("Family Ties") his family ends up in the middle of a drug trafficking/murder investigation by Scotland Yard , and Tommy gets back in contact with them in order to find out the truth.
Dragonsdawn - by Anne McCaffrey includes as major characters the Connell family, who are part of a group of Irish Travellers.
Glenroe (1983–2001) — A spin-off of The Riordans featuring the Connors, a family of settled Travellers.
Jack Taylor involves a murder plot amidst a pair of feuding Irish Traveller families.
Jim Henson's The Storyteller (1988) — The episode "Fearnot" is a folk tale of a youth in search of fear. He befriends a "Tinker" on his journey.
Killinaskully — This RTÉ Irish sitcom features a Traveller character named Pa Connors, played by Pat Shortt .
Law & Order: Criminal Intent , Season 2, Episode 21, Graansha — this episode of the NBC television show focuses on the murder of a probation officer who hailed from an Irish Traveller family.
Pavee Lackeen ( Traveller Girl ) — 2005 documentary-style film depicting the life of a young Traveller girl that features non-actors in the lead roles. Its director and co-writer, Perry Ogden, won an IFTA Award in the category of Breakthrough Talent. [15]
The Riches (2007-2008) — An FX television series starring Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver as Wayne and Dahlia Malloy, the father and mother of an American family of an Irish clan. The series revolves around their decision to steal the identities of a dead "buffer" family and hide out in their lavish mansion in suburban Baton Rouge, Louisiana .
The Riordans (1964–1979) — In this Irish television soap opera, many issues affecting the Traveller community were portrayed through the challenges faced by the Maher family.
The Sons of Anarchy S5/E5 ("Orca Shrugged", 2012) features a bare-knuckle fight between Irish American Jax Teller and Irish native Galen O'Shay , through which they work out their differences. This fight echoes others throughout the season (though not always bare-knuckle), through which SAMCRO members (e.g., Tig Trager and Herman Kozik ) express their tensions and bond. In his recap of "Orca Shrugged", Hitfix 's Geoff Berkshire writes: "The bare knuckle brawl between Jax and Galen O'Shay made me wonder if anyone on the "Sons" staff was influenced by the documentary "Knuckle." (That wouldn't be a bad thing.) [16]
Singin' Bernie Walsh — Character created and played by Irish comedian Katherine Lynch , who is known for her album Friends In Hi Aces and her singles "Dundalk, Dundalk", "Don't Knock Knock 'Til You've Tried It", and "Stand By Your Van". Singin' Bernie Walsh featured in both of Lynch's RTÉ comedy series Wonderwomen and Working Girls , which show her attempts at topping the Irish charts and achieving "inter-county-nental" fame.
Without a Trace — an episode [ which? ] of this CBS television show features a woman of Irish Traveller descent who had left the community and gone missing.
Moone Boy - Martin Moone begins dating an Irish Traveller girl whose family lives in the field next to the Moone family's house.
Norah's Traveller Academy , RTÉ2, January 2015. Norah Casey mentors 4 creative Traveller women in an Irish television series. [17]
Peaky Blinders - The Shelby Family and The Lee Family are Travellers. In the series Polly Gray (née Shelby) tells her son Michael that his grandmother was Birdie Boswell. The Boswells were for centuries one of England's largest and most important Traveller families. The Boswell clan were a large extended family of Travellers, and in old Nottinghamshire dialect the word bos'll was used as a term for Travellers and Romani in general. [18]
Glue (TV series) - TV series revolving around the murder of a Traveller teenager in Hampshire, England. [19]
By the Bog of Cats (1998) - written by Marina Carr
Mobile the Play (2010) — written and performed by Michael Collins and directed by Mick Rafferty
The Tinker's Curse (2007) - written by Michael Harding [20]
The Tinker's Wedding (premiered in 1909) - written by J.M. Synge
The Trailer of Bridget Dinnigan (2010) — written and directed by Dylan Tighe [21]
Main article bibliography

Quintessentially Irish review – Pierce Brosnan weighs in on scattergun study of Irishness

Brosnan to … Bolt? Frank Mannion’s follow-up documentary to Quintessentially British presents a grab bag of interviews – some with distinctly un-Irish personalities

I t features a definition of “the craic” but, frustratingly, this long, meandering documentary about Irishness contains only very small quantities of actual fun. It’s a follow-up from film-maker Frank Mannion to his 2022 doc Quintessentially British , but feels like a commission from Aer Lingus: something to watch inflight from Boston to Dublin, soothingly bland, relaxingly dull. Though to be fair, Mannion gets a big laugh when he archly asks a business expert: “What is it that brings international business to Ireland. The weather?”

The film is a series of interviews that contain, bizarrely, one or two with people in possession of very famous names but next to no connection to Ireland. Like Usain Bolt, who’s never set foot on Irish soil, but is fond of a pint of Guinness and had an Irish agent. We get a lot of Pierce Brosnan at home in sunny Malibu wearing a green blazer, telling stories that go off on random tangents. (One ends with his wife breastfeeding on a beach in Mexico next to Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell sunbathing topless.)

Elsewhere, no corner of Irish identity is untouched: James Joyce; the Troubles; how to make a great Irish coffee; the Irish famine; horse racing; Ireland’s rise as a tech hub; Irish mammies; the surprising influence of the Irish in French winemaking; the country’s booming film industry. Thank heavens, though, no U2. There’s a fair bit about “plastic paddies” – descendants of Irish emigrants who grow up misty-eyed and sentimental about the motherland. Cut to the White House and an exasperatingly dull St Patrick’s day press conference at the White House with Joe Biden (“the most Irish president since Kennedy”).

There are in fact one or two thoughtful interviews here. Irish-Nigerian broadcaster Emma Dabiri painfully remembers growing up as the only black girl in school in Dublin. The film also explores the prejudice faced by Irish immigrants to the US and the UK. (I grew up hearing stories about 60s London: the “no Irish” signs and colleagues of my dad at London Underground stations who refused to work with a “mick”.) But mostly, this just feels like a grab bag of interviews, everything thrown into together – a piece about reuniting Ireland with some comedy attempts by foreigners to say unpronounceable Irish names.

Quintessentially Irish is in UK and Irish cinemas from 26 April and the US from 12 March.

Documentary films
Pierce Brosnan

Comments (…)

TV guide: 12 of the best new shows to watch, beginning tonight

April 28th-may 3rd: from the death of transgender mexican model miriam rivera to the rise of celebrity chef mark moriarty.

Mark Moriarty in Off Duty Chef

The Full Irish Hidden Camera Show

Sunday, rté1, 8.30pm.

Be careful when you’re out and about: you might find yourself getting pranked by Carl Mullan, Doireann Garrihy and Donncha O’Callaghan. This week the trio have a more clever tricks up their sleeves for fooling hapless passersby, including a miracle hair restoration cream that works a little too effectively, a quiz where the contestants have no time to answer the questions, a rubbish fashion designer who thinks he’s Versace, a parrot that demands to be let out of its cage, and a rogue AI that has some rather controversial views.

Sunday, Channel 4, 9pm

It’s been called Bake Off for pianos, and the first series – broadcast last year – was so well received, the producers have lined up two more for our delight and delectation. The idea is simple: amateur pianists do their party piece at pianos set up in various railway station concourses around the UK, but what they don’t realise is that judges Claudia Winkleman, Mika and Lang Lang are concealed nearby listening to every note. The best pianists are chosen to compete for a chance to perform a concert at London’s Royal Festival Hall. In the first episode of the new series, the judges are in Manchester’s Piccadilly Station, where they encounter some unlikely ivory-tinklers, including a boxer and dance DJ.

Ireland’s Young Filmmakers of the Year Awards

Monday, rté2, 7pm.

Young film-makers from around the country are showcasing their talent in the 28th annual IYFTYs, taking place in Troy Studios in Limerick, and presented by actor and comedian Faye Shortt and radio presenter Gemma Bradley. Budding Greta Gerwigs and Christopher Nolans have to start somewhere, and these awards set out to encourage young film-makers – including some of this year’s entrants, Gracie May Burke (7), Louis Martin (17) and Meagha Marcharla (17) to follow their dreams. Among the short films, animations and documentaries up for gongs are: Charlie, by St Brigid’s Community College in Galway, the story of a teenager dealing with homelessness; Devil May Care, Nora Twomey’s story of her great-grandmother’s involvement in the Irish Civil War; and Who Killed Cinema?, Corey Talbot’s Lego mystery adventure.

Miriam: Death of a Reality Star

Monday, channel 4, 9pm.

In 2004, a bunch of hot-blooded fellas signed up for reality dating show There’s Something about Miriam, and battled to win the heart of gorgeous Mexican model Miriam Rivera. But when it was revealed at the end that Rivera was transgender, things turned sour, prize money was handed back, and writs began to fly. Fast-forward to 2019, and Rivera is found dead at her Mexican home by her husband, in an apparent suicide. This factual series looks back at that notorious TV show, Miriam’s troubled past, and her mysterious death 15 years later.

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Super Garden

Tuesday, rté1, 7.30pm.

The garden design challenge is now in its 15th series, and this year the contestants are tasked with transforming five gardens at the Connaught Grove social housing development in Athboy, Co Meath, in just three weeks and on a €15,000 budget. The winning designer will have their garden recreated at this year’s Bloom festival in the Phoenix Park. This week, Dijana Kalic, originally from Croatia, is tasked with designing a garden for Michael with a space where he can remember his wife, Breda, who died five years ago.

Stalking: State of Fear

Tuesday, utv, 9pm.

In June 2021, 23-year-old Gracie Spinks was murdered by a stalker, four months after she had reported him to Derbyshire police. The makers of this hard-hitting documentary look at the devastating effect stalking has on victims’ lives, and meet victims and their families, including Spinks’ family, and the most shocking aspect of this programme is the failure of police and lawmakers to take victims seriously and tackle this horrific form of harassment and intimidation. The programme also uses emergency call recordings and police interview footage to show the harrowing reality for victims.

Off Duty Chef: Bringing it Home

Wednesday, rté1, 8.30pm.

Irish Times cookery columnist Mark Moriarty returns with a new cookery series, and this time he going back to his parents’ home in Ventry, Co Kerry, where he was first inspired to come up with delicious dishes using simple and seasonal ingredients. Focusing on the idea that good food begins at home, he whips up some traditional, everyday dishes, adding some special ingredients to lift them out of the ordinary. He’ll also explore the rugged, beautiful landscape of Co Kerry, and visit some foodie hotspots including Krugers Bar in Dún Chaoin, Quinn’s Bar in Ventry and the Chart House, where he began his journey to becoming a celeb chef.

Boxing, Belief and Me

Wednesday, bbc1, 10.40pm.

You need a busload of faith to succeed in the world of boxing, and in this documentary we meet Bhupinder Singh aka Pops, a devout Sikh who is also a dedicated boxing coach, working hard to instil self-belief in his young charges, and passionately believing that young lives blighted by crime and gang culture can be transformed through the sport. The programme follows him as he trains young athletes at the MLSS Boxing Academy in Walsall in the West Midlands, including his protege Junior Foster, who is training for his first professional bout.

The Tattooist of Auschwitz

Thursday, sky atlantic & now, 9pm.

Harvey Keitel stars in this series based on the best-selling novel by Heather Morris, which is based on the true story of Lali and Gita, two prisoners in the titular concentration camp who found love amid the horror of the Holocaust. Lali, a Slovakian Jew, is assigned to ink identification numbers on his fellow prisoners’ arms, and when he meets Gita, they make a pact to keep each other alive. The action moves between 1942 and 60 years later, when Lali (Keitel) is in his 80s, and tells his extraordinary story to young writer Heather (Melanie Lynskey).

Thursday, RTÉ1, 10.15pm

Thomas McCarthy and Rosie McCarthy in Songlines

Singer and Traveller Thomas McCarthy takes an extraordinary trip around Ireland and beyond, meeting Traveller singers and musicians, and hearing their songs and tunes in this new feature-length documentary made by Harvest Films in conjunction with the Irish Traditional Music Archive, and directed by Pat Collins. He meets singer Rosie McCarthy in Macroom, Co Cork, who at 16 is talented beyond her years, and Kitty Cassidy in Waterford, still a sprightly singer at 84. The film not only highlights the huge importance of singing and preserving old songs, but also the huge contribution Travellers have made to Ireland’s musical tradition.

Granite Harbour

Friday, bbc1, 8pm.

Romario Simpson and Hannah Donaldson in Granite Harbour

The popular Scottish crime series returns, with Lindo (Romario Simpson), Bart (Hannah Donaldson) and the Major Investigations Team having their work cut out to solve two murders, avert a turf war between rival drug gangs, and stop a deadly new compound made from cocaine and ketamine from flooding the streets of Aberdeen. They’re not getting much help from drug kingpin Grace McFadden, whose fixer has been found dead, or from the crew of a Norwegian cargo ship, where a stowaway has allegedly been killed. And just to put the cat among the pigeons, Lindo’s estranged dad arrives from Jamaica – but why now?

ITV Studio Sessions

Friday, utv, 10.45pm.

Jess Glynne. Photograph: Jeff Spicer/Getty

Clara Amfo presents this new Friday night musical series showcasing some of the UK’s finest musicians and introducing new talent in an intimate setting – a sort of mash-up of Later... and Other Voices. The difference is that each episode will feature just one artist, performing a session in the Blue Room of London’s O2 Arena, and the first episode features the fabulous Jess Glynne, who has clocked up seven UK chart-topping hits, and who performs new songs, old favourites, and a cover version, and chats to Amfo about her life in music. Other artists lined up over the series include Becky Hill, Cat Burns and Yungblud.

IN THIS SECTION

Miriam: death of a reality star review – heartbreaking insight into the murky world of early reality tv, netflix, prime video, disney+, apple tv+: 10 of the best new shows to watch in may, keep it tight review: deirdre o’kane and emma doran combine brazen charm with disarming realness, three sporting events to watch this week: your handy guide to sport on television, belfast actor anthony boyle: ‘my dad had to go to gaelic training, and the same british soldier would throw his kit in a puddle every day’, woman ordered to remove walls, gates and foundations erected without planning permission, ‘i’m alone pretty much all the time. the older i become, the less hopeful i am this will change’, sunshine and temperatures reaching 20 degrees by weekend, tánaiste says claim that over 80% of asylum seekers come from uk via northern ireland is not based on data, ‘we’re moving with the times’: private all-girls’ school in south dublin to admit boys for first time, latest stories, wide range of qualifications from apprenticeships to phds offered.

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IMAGES

The Secret Lives Of Irish Travellers
Photographer is granted rare access to Irish Travellers and spends
Tv Show About Irish Travelers
Photographer is granted rare access to Irish Travellers and spends
Secret lives of Irish Travellers revealed in intimate portraits
Photos reveal amazing life of kids who grew up as Irish travellers

VIDEO

Irish traveller's reply
Irish Traveller The Foal McDonough
Irish Traveller Bernard Sweeney talks about issues within the community
Irish Traveller Foal Mcdonagh
Irish travellers
Irish travellers in the 1980s how much have things changed

COMMENTS

The Town The Travellers Took Over
The Town The Travellers Took Over - Part 1 (Travellers Documentary)Paul Connolly investigates why the Irish Traveller community chose Rathkeale, County Limer...
List of Irish Traveller-related depictions and documentaries
Documentaries. King Of The Gypsies (1995) — a documentary film about Bartley Gorman, undefeated Bareknuckle Champion of Ireland and Great Britain. My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding (2010-2015) and spinoff series Big Fat Gypsy Weddings — a Channel 4 television documentary series about Irish Traveller weddings. John Connors: The Travellers.
*RE-UPLOAD* Irish Travellers I ARTE.tv Documentary
Irish Travelers live on the fringes of society and their living conditions are on a downward spiral. A recent EU study revealed shocking figures: 11% of Iris...
Knuckle (2011)
Knuckle is a 2011 film that follows a 12-year feud between three Irish Traveler clans over a boxing match. The film explores the history, culture and violence of this secretive community and its rivalries.
Who are the Irish Travellers in the US?
Learn about the Irish Travellers, one of Ireland's oldest and most marginalized minorities, who have lived in the US for generations. Discover their distinct dialects, traditions, trades, and controversies in this article and documentary.
Knuckle (film)
Knuckle is a 2011 Irish documentary film about the secretive world of Irish Traveller bare-knuckle boxing. The film was made in stages over 12 years. The film premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. [1] [2] This film follows a history of violent feuding between rival clans.
Documenting The Irish Travellers: A Nomadic Culture of Yore
His book stands as a document of an era, and a way of life that is slowly fading into the past. In the 1960s Alen MacWeeney photographed indigenous Irish nomads called the Travellers. Fifty years ...
Traveller singer Thomas McCarthy returns in new RTÉ documentary
Thomas McCarthy is one of Ireland's best known traditional Traveller singers. In 2022, director Pat Collins made an acclaimed RTÉ documentary about Thomas called Songs of the Open Road - watch it ...
BBC News
A documentary that explores the discrimination and poverty faced by Irish Travellers in Europe. Watch the 17-minute programme on BBC iPlayer or catch up on some of the best reports and features from BBC News.
'Knuckle,' Documentary About Fighting Irish Travelers
R. 1h 37m. By Manohla Dargis. Dec. 8, 2011. The fighting families in the documentary "Knuckle" are blood relatives with a vengeance. The movie, a no-frills affair from the first-time Irish ...
Opinion: 'I mourn the loss of my younger years when I couldn't embrace
Mincéir is a 35-min documentary which brings the audience on a journey across the Irish Traveller community exploring past traditions, present transitions, future views and by sharing intimate ...
Bare-Faced and Bare-Knuckled: Fighting Traveller Families
Bare-Faced and Bare-Knuckled: Fighting Traveller Families. By Daphne Wolf, Contributor. October / November 2011. Filmed carefully over a period of twelve years, the documentary Knuckle sheds light on the inner workings and on-going feuds of three Irish Traveller clans. Up next for the film: a New York premiere and an HBO spin-off series.
The Other Irish Travellers (TV Movie 2012)
The Other Irish Travellers: Directed by Fiona Murphy. Storyville: documentary which takes a personal look at the history of Ireland's vanished Anglo-Irish classes through the quirky family of filmmaker Fiona Murphy.
Re: Irish Travellers A Minority in Danger
Irish Travelers live on the fringes of society and their living conditions are on a downward spiral. A recent EU study revealed shocking figures: 11% of Irish travellers die by suicide and most die before the age of 65. ... Documentaries and Reportage. 08/11/2022. You may also like. Watch ARTE Reportage North Korea: Kim's Men 50 min Watch the ...
10 great films about Gypsies and Travellers
Jonas Carpignano's new film The Ciambra is a neorealist fable about a young boy growing up in the Italian region of Calabria, part of a secluded neighbourhood of Romani people. In a nation where highly publicised hate crimes against Gypsies and Travellers have been relatively recent, The Ciambra looks at the mistrust with which the GRT (Gypsy, Roma and Traveller) community regards the rest ...
A Secret Society -- Irish Travellers in America
First segment of a two part (2 x hour) documentary tracking down the decedents of Irish travellers (Gypsies) living in the Southern US States.
COPPERS AND BRASS : The Piping Tradition of Irish Travellers
Creative Multimedia DkIT. Coppers and Brass is an ethnographic documentary about Irish traditional music played by members of the Irish Travelling community. It focuses on uilleann pipe playing in particular, demonstrating how Irish Travellers exhibit specific stylistic traits within Irish traditional music. It includes rare archival footage ...
Irish Travellers
Irish Travellers have been depicted, usually negatively but sometimes with some care and sympathy, in film, radio, print, and television. Shows like The Riches (2007-2008), the American television series featuring Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver , take a deeper look into the Traveller lifestyle.
Irish Travellers are prospering in America and "make most of their
Irish Travellers are prospering in America and "make most of their money from life insurance". Two secretive Traveller communities allowed a TV3 documentary-maker access recently. He found that ...
List of Irish Traveller-related depictions and documentaries
Documentaries. King Of The Gypsies (1995) — a documentary film about Bartley Gorman, undefeated Bareknuckle Champion of Ireland and Great Britain. My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding (2010-2015) and spinoff series Big Fat Gypsy Weddings — a Channel 4 television documentary series about Irish Traveller weddings. John Connors: The Travellers.
Traveller suicide documentary 'incredibly valuable ...
On Monday, a documentary will be aired on suicide rates among the Irish Traveller community through the personal story of 12-year-old Patrick McDonagh who died by suicide last year.
Quintessentially Irish review
Quintessentially Irish is in UK and Irish cinemas from 26 April and the US from 12 March. This article was amended on 24 April 2024 to alter the reference to the Irish famine. Explore more on ...
The Truth About Irish Travellers ( Part 1 of 5 )
Documentary About Irish Travellers (Part 1 of 5)
TV guide: 12 of the best new shows to watch, beginning tonight
Singer and Traveller Thomas McCarthy takes an extraordinary trip around Ireland and beyond, meeting Traveller singers and musicians, and hearing their songs and tunes in this new feature-length ...
Our World BBC Documentary || Irish Traveller
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