The Irish Travelers

allen griggs

The woman who was videotaped beating her child in a parking lot in Indiana was described as being one of "The Irish Travelers". If you are unfamiliar with this group, this is a gang of Irish who came over in the 1840's. They were comprised of four families and were a type of gypsies. They repaired tin pots and were mule traders. They settled outside of Augusta Ga. The men would travel around the US during the warm months, their families stayed in their community. They were con men who would sell a defective mule or pull some kind of scam and hit the road. This is a thriving community today and they live in a neighborhood of $300,000 homes, which are often gaudy looking. A home of an Irish Traveler inevitably has a Catholic shrine out in the front yard, a five foot statue of the virgin Mary painted blue, etc. Times have changed and while there is no money to be made in mule trading there is plenty of money to be made in phony driveway repairs, shoddy reroofing jobs, etc. Their favorite victim is an elderly person, such as a widow living alone. There are a couple hundred homes in their community. They will only marry someone from within their own group. The woman who was taped beating her child is suspected of belonging to a ring which fraudlently returns merchandise to stores, so I see the travelers are up to some new tricks. I have never heard of a Traveler woman working out of state, in the past they always stayed at home and raised large broods of children, so women's rights must have come to the Irish Travelers.

He Dog

Allen, you forgot to mention the part about the coming out parties for the 6 year old girls and how they have arranged marriages and usually the girls are married by 14. In most states it would be called child abuse. Guess she was just keeping the tradition going.

A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand

allen griggs

You are right He Dog. My friend's wife is an RN who used to work at a fertility clinic in Augusta. They had a stream of clients from the Travelers. These were 15 or 16 year old girls who had been married for a year or two and had not yet had a child. These fertility treatments are expensive, maybe $7 to $15 thousand. The Travelers never had insurance and always paid cash.

Iconoclast

Really interesting & informative posts, gentlemen. Never heard of these characters before and I'm particularly glad not to have made their acquaintance!

thesoundguy1

I have read and seen many news accounts about these people.It angers me that law enforcement have not done any more than they have to put an end to their illegal activity.The law knows that they obtain their money through scams,the public knows,the travellers know that everyone knows,but nothing is done about it.
So, next time you here someone say "crime dosen't pay", tell them about the Irish Travelers!

www.waveformwear.com
The new wave in free expression.

thesoundguy1

I just remembered a scam they tried to run on Disney World in Orlando.
The travellers, posing as a couple, got a room at one of the many hotels, in Disney it's self.Then faked a rape at the hotel and tried to sue for damages.Turns out the woman and the man were brother and sister and she was raped and beaten by her own cousin, also a traveler.But investigtors figured things out before Disney settled, and some ,not all of the travellers were caught,tried and convicted.

www.waveformwear.com
The new wave in free expression.

allen griggs

I'm not surprised it was a brother, sister, and a cousin. They are all related. Inbred, they have a high rate of birth defects, but never put a retard child into an institution, they always keep them with the family. One of the 4 family names, I recall, is Sherlock.There are about 27 Tommy Sherlocks in the community, this is one of their tricks that makes it hard on law enforcement.

interstatepawnllc

Irish travelers, Gypsys, I dont care what you call them but I will tell you this, I wouldn't urinate on them even if they were on fire. I put them just about one notch below lawyers.

If your gonna be stupid you better be tough !!

Edited by - interstatepawnllc on 09/21/2002 21:52:34

Rosie

I sure as hell would like to beat the * a thousand times more than she did that little girl. She is what I call the lowest scum. If there is a hell I hope she gets her * thrown right in the middle.

tccox

Rosie, there are very few lines I tolerate now but I would stand in line to see that justice is done to this "mother"??. Tom

Those who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who dont.

glyn

In the UK they are they pretty are common,they travel GB stopping where they feel like.they have been known to take over school play areas,public parks,laybyes and farm fields.They dont seem to care about anything except thereslves.They always leave a total crap heap when they are evicted.Strange thing you always hear about St Patrick and how the Irish are so prevalent hear,(St Patrick was not an Irishman but a Welshman) but in actual fact the most early immigrants to our country were English and Welsh.Luckily we dont get them hear in Kalifornia.
Happy trails.

Glyn

Iconoclast

No, glyn, in KA, they're known as DemoCraps and they are native!

glyn

Yes you are pretty much right about 90% of Kalifornians.

Glyn

beachmaster73

Well real Gypsies come from Eastern Europe, I think near Romania, and have their own language and customs and they really do lead a nomadic life. As a kid I was warned about them and told to steer well clear of any of their encampments. I know that in England they still travel in large groups in trailers and they do tend to denude the countryside after their passing. I had never heard of these "Irish Travellers" until this incident captured on TV. Are they really Irish or are the just an offshoot of some Irish gypsies who first settled in Ireland before coming here? Do they speak Gaelic or the language of the Gypsies? Our newspaper inferred that they were predominant in Texas and Oklahoma...is that true? Any answers greatly appreciated. It truly is amazing what you can learn late in life. In any case I'm betting the authorities will have one hell of a difficult time finding her kids. Beach

Lowrider

60 Minutes did a segment on them a couple of years back. Pretty interesting. I don't understand how they're able to continue their rip-off home repair scams and other bunko-type scemes without ending up in the slammer.

Lord Lowrider the LoquaciousMember:Secret Select Society of Suave Stylish Smoking Jackets She was only a fisherman's daughter,But when she saw my rod she reeled.

wundudnee

Beachmaster,
I did a google search this morning because I also had never heard of the Irish travelers. There are many informative sites that explain the ties to the romany gypsys and the Scottish gypsys. Worth the read.

....................
AD ASTRA PER ASPERA

To the stars through difficulties

Mercury

There was a movie made about them a few years back. Forget the title, but I remember seeing it.

Merc



NO! You may not have my guns! Now go crawl back into your hole!

****************************************

"Tolerating things you may not necessarily like is part of being free" - Larry Flynt

allen griggs

Beach I don't know if they speak Romany etc. I have spoken to a few of them and they spoke normal English. As for being predominant in Oklahoma and Texas, that is news to me. As of about ten years ago they all lived in S.C. just across the river from Augusta Ga. My buddy was going to med school in Augusta and we went to see the community of the Irish Travelers. It is called Murphy Village, named for a priest who helped them long ago and helped them get housing. I understand their community was a trailer park 3 or 4 decades ago but since then they all built houses, many of them very expensive, but gaudy. All have a shrine in front, from a single statue of Mary to a Mary with Jesus to a complete manger scene with wise men. Usually Mary is painted blue. These characters don't look like gypsies they look like a typical Ga. lower class white, pale skin and dirty blond hair. If you keep your eye on the paper here in the southeast you'll read of a Traveler scam now and then. A typical one will be headlined "Four arrested in Driveway Scam". The story will go on to say of how four men from out of town talked an elderly widow into getting her driveway repaved. The told her it would cost $5000. and they needed half up front. Then they cashed her check and put a few gallons of roofing tar on her driveway and were trying to strongarm her for the rest of the money. Luckily for her a neighbor was in construction and saw the scam and called the law. They give the names and all will be from N. Augusta SC and there will be one Tommy Sherlock and one named Gorman or Gorley, there are only 4 family names. They hit the elderly mostly on 2K up to 5K re-roofing and driveway scams. When my buddy and I were driving around Murphy Village we came to a cul-de-sac which had no houses built in it yet and there were, sure enough, 15 empty 5 gallon cans of driveway asphalt.



Edited by - allen griggs on 09/22/2002 14:43:05

Edited by - allen griggs on 09/22/2002 15:03:24

sodbuster

This SOW has been on the news all day saying how sorry she is. She has never beaten her daughter before. She was just upset.
Hey, I was born at night,,but it wasn't last night.
She is used to a life of lies and scams and this is just another day in her life. When you see her on T.V. spewing her lies, mute the sound, her * expressions show that she is a pretty poor actor.
Who's gonna bet she'll be on Larry King by the first of the week.
The travelors have enough dirty money to hire the best defense attorneys. I doubt if she does any real time in the klink.
For the little girls sake, this evil woman needs the book thrown at her!(HARD)
As for the travelors, they scam freely, escape the law in large part because they are a 'sealed' group. They cannot be infiltrated because they are all 'kin'.
She is on the tube now and I am getting sick to my stomach..



"Just my opinion."

allen griggs

Beach- I doubt these guys camp in the meadow at the edge of town like you see in the movies. That would draw too much attention. They want to blend in. They probably get a motel, drive around to find some retired couple to scam, cash their check and hit the road, cross the state line before midnight. When we were driving around Murphy Village we were in a 3 year old Nissan truck and we were in the cheapest vehicle in the whole development. Never saw so many brand new T-Birds, Cadillacs, Lincolns. Also what a parade of shiny new pickups, with all the options, king cabs 4wd etc. Not unusual to see a 16 yr old Traveler kid driving a new $35K truck. The word in Augusta is that the Ford dealer will not need to run a credit check when that Traveler is checking out his new car. He will pay cash.