Introduction

Travellers, Tinkers, Gypsies, Kale, Scottish Travellers, Gypsy Travellers, Romani Gypsies, Romanichal, Pavee, Showmen, Van People, Boat People, Bargers – All of these multivarious peoples, with different ancestries, religions, and traditions, their different languages, dialects, and “cants,” share in common a longstanding itinerant lifestyle and the distinct identity that stems from it. Roving all around the British Isles and sometimes settling down, the various tribes of Travellers have provided metal goods, horses, music, and entertainment to British and Irish markets for centuries, but have become the flashpoint of political fury and even of violence in the twenty-first century. Please support this podcast and hear the recent lecture on the Founding Fathers! -- www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632 Suggested Further Reading: Katherine Quarmby, "No Place to Call Home"; Becky Taylor, "Britain's Gypsy Travellers: A People on the Outside," https://www.historytoday.com/archive/britains-gypsy-travellers-people-outside "Genomic insights into the population structure and history of the Irish Travellers," https://www.nature.com/articles/srep42187 "Apocrypha to Canon: Inventing Irish Traveller History," https://www.historyireland.com/20th-century-contemporary-history/apocrypha-to-canon-inventing-irish-traveller-history-2/