2. THE IRISH TRAVELLER P.O’SHEA

3. ORIGINS It was said that Travellers were people who were thrown off their land by Oliver Cromwell in the 1600’s or who left the land during the ‘Irish Famine’. They travelled around from place to place.

4. NUMBERS In Ireland there are roughly 25,000 travellers. In Britain estimates put the number of Irish Travellers between 15,000 and 300,000. And in America there are anywhere between 10,000 and 40,000

5. LANGUAGE Irish Travellers speak English and sometimes, a traveller language, Shelta. This has 2 different forms, Cant or Gammin. Cant which comes from Irish Gaelic, is a combination of English and Shelta. Can you see any connection to Irish? What about Cáint? Some experts believe this is where the name Cant came from.

6. ACCOMMODATION Most Travellers live in caravans and mobile homes. This is because they like to move around from place to place. Nowadays lots of Travellers are moving into houses - some keep their caravans/mobile homes outside and travel around in the Summertime.

7. CELEBRATIONS Travellers celebrate their Communions, Confirmations and Weddings with all the relatives coming together and great parties taking place. Travellers tend to get married when they are quite young from 17 onwards.

8. WORK One of the professions of Travellers is that of horse trading. Another one is trading in general, in metal and antiques. One of the older jobs was that of tin – smithing, fixing things made of tin.

9. FAMOUS TRAVELLERS Some famous Travellers are Francie Barrett (professional boxer), Margaret Barry ( singer in the 1950’s) and Shane Ward (singer) who won the ‘X-Factor’ and whose parents were Irish Travellers. And, of course, Paddy Doherty (left),who recently won ‘Celebrity Big Brother 2011’