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IRISH TRAVELERS - Experts shed light on reclusive, nomadic clans that roam the country
Associated Press ... live news feed | September 25, 2002 | LISA FALKENBERG

Posted on 09/25/2002 7:58:25 AM PDT by NYer

DALLAS (AP) _ The tearful testimonial Madelyne Gorman Toogood gave in front of glaring TV cameras after she was videotaped beating her daughter was starkly uncharacteristic of the reclusive, media-shy Irish Travelers culture to which she belongs, experts say. Toogood, who was caught beating her 4-year-old daughter, Martha, in a department store parking lot, said she is a member of the clannish, nomadic culture of Irish descendants, most of whom came to the United States as refugees during the potato famine in the 1840s. ``By nature, they're very reclusive people,'' said Joe Livingston, a South Carolina state investigator who has been tracking Travelers for nearly two decades. ``They tend to shy away from publicity.''

Some law enforcement experts who have studied the culture paint it as a secret society, fond of material wealth evidenced by gaudy jewelry and new vehicles. Police often associate Travelers with scams involving fraudulent home repair that target the elderly. They tend to use aliases, carry bogus identification cards, and avoid contact with non-Travelers, whom they call ``country folk,'' authorities said.

But professors and academics said the reclusiveness is a defense mechanism against stereotypes and the ancient persecution that has haunted nomadic peoples throughout history. Travelers, who may be Irish, English, or Scottish, have no more criminals among them than any other ethnic culture, experts said. ``If there were, they could not sustain their living,'' said Larry Otway, who began studying Irish Travelers in 1977 and has worked as a paralegal and adviser on court cases involving Scottish travelers. What the clans in the culture do share, Otway said, is a nomadic lifestyle, a language called ``Scelta'' with roots in Gaelic and Romani, an almost ``pathologic'' devotion to Catholicism, and an anti-bureaucratic form of self government that he describes as a ``consensus democracy.''

The largest Traveler settlement is a group of 3,000 in Murphy Village, S.C., experts said. Toogood is believed to belong to the Greenhorn Carrolls, a Traveler group in the Fort Worth area. Estimates of the U.S. Traveler population vary from 20,000 to 100,000. Ian F. Hancock, a professor at the University of Texas who wrote the Irish Travelers entry for the Encyclopedia of the South, said a distraught Toogood called him Thursday seeking advice. ``She was scared to turn herself in because she knows very well how the police feel about the Irish Travelers,'' said Hancock, who has a reputation as a sympathizer of the group. ``She didn't think she'd get a fair shake and she knew she'd been rough with the child.''

Toogood, who also has two young sons, remains free on a $5,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court Oct. 7. If convicted, she faces up to three years in prison. She was scheduled to have a 90-minute supervised meeting with her daughter on Tuesday but the child, who is in foster care, was sick. An attorney for the state said Toogood would be allowed to see Martha on Wednesday if the girl has recovered from the flu.

Hancock and other academics said they believe Toogood's case has been sensationalized by the media because of her ethnicity. ``As bad as what she did, and it's inexcusable, I still think there's an awful lot of profiling going on,'' Hancock said. ``Very much is being made of her ethnic background. If she were German American or Italian American, would that even be an issue?''

AP-ES-09-25-02 0610EDT


TOPICS: Activism/Chapters; Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Philosophy; US: Indiana; US: South Carolina; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: abuse; baby; camera; crime; gypsies; gypsy; irishtravelers; nomads; scam; toogood; travelers; violence
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To: blam; Desdemona
The term "Gypsy" is often broadened to include other nomads, like the Irish travellers. "Tinkers" (the English corruption of "tinceard", "tin smith" in Gaelic) was the original term used to describe Irish travellers. Gypsies were originally refered to by the English as "Egyptians". During the 16th Century, the terms "Gypsy" or "Egyptian" began to take in both groups.

The broad use of "Gypsy" may be a regional thing. I've never heard the term used in California to describe anyone other than Romani Gypsies.
61 posted on 09/25/2002 11:55:36 AM PDT by Redcloak
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To: Redcloak
"I've never heard the term used in California to describe anyone other than Romani Gypsies."

Same here in Alabama. My mother told me that Gypsies would steal babies when I was very young..

62 posted on 09/25/2002 12:04:55 PM PDT by blam
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To: All
I remember that some years back when I worked in retail, the word went out that these "Travelers" were going to probably be hitting soon. Everyone in the store was alerted to some of the scams they would likely try to pull. One of the scams could have been what was going on with Mrs. Toogood. I am just guessing but it could have been that the items she was trying to return for cash were actually shoplifted. She probably didn't have a receipt so naturally the store wouldn't give her cash. This is minor when considering the way she was hitting her daughter but it could also be another crime.
63 posted on 09/25/2002 12:14:58 PM PDT by dstarr
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To: NYer
any of you encountered these people

Yes, many right here in the middle of the Alaskan wasteland, and members of many similar groups. Kind of a parasitical existence, but not usually parasitoidal.

64 posted on 09/25/2002 12:20:51 PM PDT by RightWhale
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To: NYer
I love the reference to "pathologic Catholicism" as if faith is a disease.

In Ireland these people are called tinkers. They're scam artists and ne'er-do-wells who wander from place to place. Their "Catholicism" is much like Santeria in the Caribbean - they hide their predilection for the occult behind a respectable facade of piety.

There has recently been an upsurge in Gypsy identity politics, and now some Irish people who are upset that they weren't born black have adopted this identity so they can be cool and claim to be an oppressed minority.

Another tinker scam.

65 posted on 09/25/2002 12:23:09 PM PDT by wideawake
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To: Alouette
Hancock claims to be a Gypsy himself - not a tinker but the old-school kind. He's way into political activism for Gypsys, Travellers, Melungeons and others.
66 posted on 09/25/2002 12:33:39 PM PDT by wideawake
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To: wideawake
I still want to see their INCOME TAX STATEMENTS to justify four automobiles!
67 posted on 09/25/2002 12:57:00 PM PDT by Uncle George
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To: NYer
In my experience, mass attendees were so numerous that I believe it is theoretically possible that some Irish Travellers could have been in attendance. If so, there is still the issue of whether they were good folks or bad folks. It would be hard to say. It would be difficult for me to imagine people attending Mass but living a continuous lifestyle based on mortal sin. It would not make sense, and would instill in at least the children a set of inconsistent values (eg honesty) that I would guess would overall be counterproductive to their way of life. So I think the bad-folk variety of Travellers attending Mass would be unlikely.

A while back (in Calif.) we received a phone solicitation from some people who were selling reconditioned heavy duty vacuum cleaners (Kirby?). They (about 3 adults) wanted to clean a room for free as a demo so we permitted them, and the results were good. However, they refused to give an address when I inquired, which made me very suspicious, and they seemed to have minimal knowledge of the local vacuum cleaner retail dealer as well. They were very upset when I told them I was unwilling to give a credit card or check advance payment (several hundred dollars) for the cleaner they wanted to sell us, pointing out they had gone through great effort to clean the room as a demo (they said the merchandise would be delivered to us later). We very politely showed them the door and did not hear from them again. I vaguely recall a one or two of neighbors having similar experiences at the time. I believe this was only a year or two after the TV broadcast about the people in the South who were into the roof- or driveway- resurfacing scam.

I think it's fairly simple to spot such crooks-- just ask them (as I did) for their permanent address and don't do any business with them until they give an address and one has a chance to verify the address is totally valid.

It must be a hard life to live, especially after that TV broadcast put so many people on alert. It may be that they could "take" a certain segment of society, such as the very old, very young, and recent immigrants, but I think everyone else is or should be on the alert for such practices.

68 posted on 09/25/2002 12:58:58 PM PDT by SteveH
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To: SteveH
Of the three people who did the sales pitch, two were older (mid-thirties) and one was relatively young (18 or so) and seemed to be in sales "training". And we did receive a follow-up phone call to see if we had any interest after a couple of days-- I merely repeated the address and phone number contact questions and even then did not get a satisfactory answer. I guess we had been too polite :-).
69 posted on 09/25/2002 1:04:59 PM PDT by SteveH
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To: Uncle George
True that.
70 posted on 09/25/2002 1:46:33 PM PDT by wideawake
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To: Rytwyng
I didn't mean that you were stereotyping anyone in your post. I'm leery of stereotyping in general, and there's quite a bit of it being done on the television shows and other media outlets. I just think we should all give each other the benefit of the doubt, since we're all guilty of something. Or so I've been told.
71 posted on 09/25/2002 1:47:08 PM PDT by telltaleheart
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To: blam
That's funny, my mom told me that gypsies dropped me in a trash can and that is how she found me.
72 posted on 09/25/2002 1:48:47 PM PDT by luckodeirish
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To: luckodeirish
"That's funny, my mom told me that gypsies dropped me in a trash can and that is how she found me."

Could be that you're my sibling, huh? Probably not, I was raised by wolves, lol.

73 posted on 09/25/2002 2:28:05 PM PDT by blam
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To: NYer
Would you mind adding me to the irish travelers related ping list? Thanks so much!
74 posted on 09/25/2002 2:29:29 PM PDT by Freedom2specul8
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To: Desdemona
I haven't been anywhere in Northern Italy that didn't have way too many gypsies. Panhandling is a good cover for petty theft. It's common for one to panhandle while another picks your pocket.

On the other hand, Django should could play guitar.

75 posted on 09/25/2002 2:30:07 PM PDT by stop_fascism
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To: wideawake
Hancock claims to be a Gypsy himself

I am familiar with Dr. Hancock's work. However in this particular instance his outrage appears to be unjustified. Nobody profiled this woman because she is some variety of "gypsy" (although not an ethnic Roma). On the contrary, any profiling would have been of the "white trash soccer mom" class.

76 posted on 09/25/2002 3:07:51 PM PDT by Alouette
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To: NYer
I became interested in the Irish Travelers (or Travellers, depending on who you believe) about six years ago after watching a 60 Minutes or Frontline-type television "expose" on Murphy Village in Augusta, Georgia, an enclave of about 3,000 Irish Travelers. And yes, I realized at the time that the producers of the show probably had an agenda and that not everything said or shown could be taken as Gospel.

We will hear more and more about the Irish Travelers as this goes on, because so much of the Toogood story is wrapped around that culture.

No matter what you read about the Irish Travelers, you'll find someone else who vehemently disagrees.

Most sources say that, while they have existed in Ireland for hundreds of years, they are ethnically distinct from the Irish.

Most in the US live in Texas or South Carolina. They are not truly nomadic. They live in closely-knit communities durng the winter and travel from Spring through Fall. Irish Travelers say the travel is part of their culture; many law enforcement officers say it is a necessary part of their culture only because the male Travelers are often involved in construction scams and must leave an area after making a few scores. Law enforcement officers ("LEO") says they prey on the elderly and others, either after a storm, or by showing up at your house with a story like "I just finished a roofing job and have supplies left over in the truck. If you buy now, right now, in cash, you'll get a good deal." They will even take the elderly to the bank to get the cash. LEO says the work is done, if at all, in a fraudulent manner. Spraying oil to make it look like asphalt has been applied, using watered-down paint, etc.

Travelers will tell you that a small percentage of them are scam artists and that scam artists exist in all cultures. LEO says most are scam artists. Who's right?

Travelers have a second language they speak among themselves. They say it's for ethnic purposes, and part of their culture. LEO says it helps them perpetuate frauds by being able to communicate without others understanding.

LEO says female Travelers work scams such as returning stolen merchandise for cash. Travlers say that's bunk.

LEO says they often own and drive expensive new cars, obtained with falsified credit, then go to another state where it's hard to repossess the car if no payments are made. Travelers say that's bunk.

There is clearly a great deal of intermarriage. Travelers say they stick together because of 100s of years of discrimination. In Murphy Village, with 3,000 people, there are only a dozen or so surnames. LEO also says they use false IDs and names; Travelers say that's bunk.

Many sources say that girls are "engaged" at 5-8 to some older cousin, with the marriage occuring at puberty. Although Travelers say "bunk," there is some evidence that South Carolina raised its minimum age for marriage because of the Travelers and the TV documentary about early marriages.

In Murphy Village, there are large, expensive houses, and expensive, new cars. The Travelers say they pay cash and live frugally, so they can afford that with the money they make as roofers, and pavers, and the like. LEO says the money comes from scams. Traveler children are usually pulled out of school around the 8th grade. LEO says they are then taught to scam, and that young children are used in scams.

I could go on, but there is clearly a big difference between what some say and believe about the Travelers and what their supporters say.

In this case, a young woman whose husband is a nomadic roofer owns several new expensive cars. A crime? No, but certainly along the Traveler stereotype. The car had out-of-state tags. A crime? No, but again along the stereotype.

Ms. Toogood is alleged to have been trying to scam the store. Was she? Don't know, but I doubt she announced to the store she was a Traveler when she entered, so they didn't make that up because of the stereotype if it was reported to police before she reported she was a Traveler.

There's speculation -- which could be wrong -- that she was angry in general because a scam didn't work, or because the girl messed up the scam.

Why drive 1000+ miles to have the girl examined? Sounds strange. Perhaps there is an explanation that doesn't make you go "hmmmm," or perhaps this physician is a Traveler as well.

I think the authorities are afraid that she and her daughter can disappear into the Traveler subculture, as many Travelers are alleged to have done in the past when jumping bail. I think the pressure may also be on her to plead guilty and get this over with quickly to take the spotlight off a group that is either discriminated against, a bunch of crooks, or both.

Does the government go after some groups because they are different? Certainly. In this case, however, it may be that LEO is right about the Travelers, and their culture doesn't view scamming outsiders (called "country folk") as unethical. Or the Travelers could be the most misunderstood, disciminated-against group in the US?

77 posted on 09/25/2002 4:08:03 PM PDT by Scoutmaster
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To: Lil'freeper
Orson Scott Card's tinkers, too.

As well as the "Tinker" mentioned in Louis Lamour's books are early America.

78 posted on 09/25/2002 5:05:00 PM PDT by sneakypete
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To: Wurlitzer
Travellers = Tinkers = Gypsies
79 posted on 09/25/2002 5:33:07 PM PDT by Domestic Church
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To: Kazuki
I saw that program too...I think it was the bunch in South Carolina.
80 posted on 09/25/2002 5:35:07 PM PDT by Domestic Church
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