This was one of the most popular and controversial shows in the UK. It’s now on TLC. What a trip. Here’s a great place to talk and learn about the show. A lot of the forum members provide links so you can learn more about the Roma and Irish Traveller communities: Television without Pity: My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding Forum

Roma and English/Irish Travellers have such interesting cultures. With the Travellers, the wedding and First Holy Communion dresses are over-the-top. Some of the wedding gowns weigh 70 lbs. They can hardly walk in them.

What struck me the most is their constant battle with the UK government. People don’t want gypsies living near their communities. When they find land, they buy it and set up their trailer camps. They live with fellow gypsies. They’re not allowed to build on this land, even though it’s theirs. They just settle in anyway and the fight to stay there goes on for years. Of course, the government wins. They refuse to go, and the bulldozers come and tear down their trailers. They’re evicted with no place to go.

If they buy the land, why can’t they stay and build? Just leave them alone. Outside of work, they are not into mixing with cultures outside their own. I don’t know. I hope the exposure they received through the show will help their fight to be able to stay on their own land. That doesn’t even sound right. Not being able to stay on the land you own.