The Traveller Community in Ireland
The Irish Traveller community is an ethnic minority who account for approximately 0.5% of the Irish population. As a community, Travellers have their own separate culture, with its own traditions, language, practical skills, culture, arts and music, with distinctive patterns of living (e.g. nomadism, keeping of horses) and strong values built around families, care and extended families. The situation of Travellers is a difficult one, with the Traveller community’s traditional way of life, nomadism and distinctive economy affected by rapid economic and social change.
As a community, Travellers have experienced extreme levels of racism, discrimination and social exclusion. Travellers are amongst the most disadvantaged and marginalised groups in Irish society today, if not the most. As a community, they fare badly on every indicator used to measure disadvantage; unemployment, poverty, social exclusion, health status, infant mortality, life expectancy, illiteracy, formal education and training levels.
