The Traveller Community in Ireland

The Irish Traveller community is an ethnic minority who account for approximately 0.5% of the Irish population.  The culture of the Traveller community is separate and distinct from that of the majority population.  Traveller culture has its own traditions, values, language, arts, crafts and music.   Travellers also have distinctive ways of living, such as living with the extended family, nomadism and the keeping of animals, particularly horses.  Recent economic change has brought about many challenges for the Traveller community’s way of life  that have affected the  living patterns of the community by impacting on such elements of Traveller culture as nomadism and the Traveller economy.