The Structure Of The Irish Traveller Culture As A Subcultures

1600 Words4 Pages

The basic idea behind discussing and researching Irish Travellers is to better understand their culture as well as how they are considered a subculture. By focusing on one topic like this people can help to better understand why subcultures exist and how they function. Not only does it allow us to examine the individual subculture but the terms and knowledge surrounding this topic will help to give a deeper perspective on aspects that we may not consider qualify as part of the subculture community. Irish Travellers have always been a group that people either misunderstand or just forget about when it comes to examining cultures as well as that culture within society. Irish Travellers are a group of people that tend to govern themselves, although …show more content…

Within the show one of the main characters is Irish and grew up within the Traveller community. The family relationship between him and his other family members is difficult because he is a police officer and the main way they make their living is through crime activity. Most of the crimes committed by the members of this particular community are petty crimes, such as theft. To me it is interesting to see how the relationship within the community and the outside world is so complicated. In many respects the relationships with the people inside of the Irish Traveller community is tenuous. Not only is it difficult to deal with their own community but the outside world causes them problems daily. This is also noted in Crossing Lines as people tend to take advantage of their situation, that is because they have no permeant home, people of a worse criminal nature tend to see this as an opportunity to use their communities as a way of expanding their business. These criminal behaviours tend to involve drugs and other crimes that are by many deemed as worse than those committed by the Irish Traveller. On the other hand, many of the Irish Travellers are or were referred to as Tinkers. Most of the time, today they are referred to as Travellers. The reason they received the name Tinkers is because of their professions, which as mentioned can often involve crime activity however, this is …show more content…

They are more concentrated in Ireland and Britain but throughout history they have travelled to different areas in Europe. Mobility and nomadism is one of the most important factors that separates the Irish Travellers from many subcultures or countercultures. They travel together creating strong bonds between families and individuals, this creates a very tight nit community. People tend to make assumptions based on the behaviour of the Irish Travellers as well as the history of the group. Because the Irish Travellers tend to stay within their communities they have created their own ways of communicating. These include markers and a language of their own. The markers can be things such twigs being broken, or stones being turned, this is a common practice to let others in the travel community know what direction the Travellers are going. The second aspect of communication is their own language. This is called Cant or Gammon by the Travellers and by academics it is referred to as Shelta. Many of the outsiders to these communities see the language and markers as an independent culture from the mainstream because they are

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