Jim Carroll wrote:-
"They have no great culture of acquisition, so much so that, if you openly admire something they have, you will end up taking it home, whether you want it or not - "

How true! It taught me not to admire items in the homes of settled travellers in Scotland for the embarrassment that ensued when that item was immediately offered to you as a gift. Similarly, after you had stayed a short time in their houses and a good conversation had just started when without asking if we were hungry, a cooked meal would turn up for us. I can remember times when we had just eaten and had to tuck into another meal for fear on our parts that we would be giving offence.
The lack of a great culture of acquisition that Jim mentions is central. If they have had a good day with money, they immediately became millionaires spending and lending until it was gone with no thought for the morrow. This is just another of the qualities that make their communities alienated from profit-driven Britain and Ireland where even health, care and education are increasingly in the hands of the acquisitive and exploitative.
In contact with Scots travellers, I found an almost child-like enthusiasm for life despite all the venomous discrimination that they were subject to. Again, child-like, huge rows would flare up where you thought a fight was inevitable and five minutes later all was peaceable as if nothing had happened. Professionally, I had many contacts with English travellers from my senior positions in Special Education and I always found myself acting as their advocate, seeking understanding for the difficulties these families found themselves in.
The similarities of the lifestyle and position in a rapidly changing society of the Travellers in the British Isles and the Manding jalis of West Africa that we have spent so much time with in the last 20 years (we are off there again for another five weeks at the beginning of February) is remarkable. One thing is certain; some of the most enjoyable, rewarding times of my life has been spent with these two very different, very similar communities even though it is sometimes difficult to empathise with or understand cultural differences.
It is what we have gained from these contacts, the kindnesses that we have been shown, that makes us, and I am sure Jim Carroll too, such fierce defenders of the travelling communities in virtually all circumstances.