"Vic I recognise that culture from many years ago, but do you seriously think that the culture still exists?"
It most certainly does.
"genuine traveller "
One of the most horrendously inaccurate phrases to have sprung into existence in the last half century - there are no "none-genuine" Travelers in the Travelling communities, certainly not in my experience.
All come with a long-standing pedigree going back generations of having lived and worked on the roadside.
Some Irish families took to the road at the time of the famine, just as some Scots did at the time of the Clearances - long enough ago to confirm them as "real Travellers"
The "real Traveller" argument comes from the cosy picture of painted of campfires and Travellers who knew their place - the invention of writers like George Borrow.
Thanks Vic, for your very moving account
Jim Carroll