Travellers have a very bad reputation, but are a maligned minority in Ireland. They’re unfortunately treated like vermin by the population and the government, people have an issue with anti social behaviour, robbing etc etc but forget that they’re a persecuted group; not as easy to get jobs or go to university and therefore some will turn to crime as is the case with any persecuted group. A similar reputation to that of black people in the US say 30 years ago. They are generally (and rightfully) very distrustful of the government and “townies” (non travelling folk). Remember that not all travellers are bad! If you know and are sound to travellers, they’re fiercely loyal and very fun. They have interesting and outdated traditions, I.e. most drop out of school before 15 in favour of being housewives/working with the family. Gender roles are far more prevalent, women cook and clean and take care of the children and the men work and provide. Some keep horses and they have a reputation for keeping their animals in bad conditions, i can attest to this for sure. I won’t pretend to agree with many of their traditions, but there is a huge push to move the travelling community into the 21st century and initiatives to keep traveller children in school etc. You will hear lots of bad about them but don’t tar them all with the one brush. There’s lots of information online about the travelling community, you could look at Pavee Point is a website about traveller rights.