Travellers (known as Mincéir and Pavee in the Shelta dialects of Cant or Gammon) are an Irish ethnic minority with their own history and culture based on a nomadic tradition. In Irish they are also called An Lutch Siúil which means The Walking People. Travellers were often referred to as tinkers because of their craft with tinsmithing but they also traded hand-crafted items and animals with “settled” people. Traveller women worked and traded alongside the men. Travellers were very involved in early traditional Irish music, in particular with the fiddle and uilleann pipes (Irish bagpipes) and they brought distinctive songs and stories as they traveled from town to town. Historically Travellers have been faced with discrimination and racism from mainstream Irish culture which continues in present day.

In 1963 the Irish State produced the Commission on Itinerancy Report, which for the following decades attempted to solve what was termed the “problem of nomadism.” The report indicated that the Travellers’ independent history and traditions negatively impacted Irish society as a whole, and it proposed their assimilation and settlement into the general population. This was accomplished in part by forcing them off of roadsides and campsites onto State run lands. By the 1980s Travellers were organizing for better treatment and recognition of their culture. However, it wasn’t until 1995 that the government engaged with Traveller activists to create the Taskforce on Traveller Community. This was followed by the Equal Status Act in 2000, which made discrimination against Travellers illegal. However during this time other laws were passed that prevented Travellers from doing activities and traditions rooted in their culture. In March of 2017 Irish Travellers were officially recognized as an indigenous ethnic minority by the Irish government, though Travellers consider it mainly a symbolic act and continue to fight against discrimination.

Sources: Cork Traveller Women’s Network. A Short History of Irish Travellers. Accessed on June 10, 2021 https://youtu.be/A0pF1fUaUnE

Joyce, Dr. Sindy. “A Brief History of the Insitutionalisation of Discrimination Against Irish Travellers.” November 29, 2018, Accessed on June 1, 2021 https://www.iccl.ie/news/whrdtakeover/