Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Ever seen any "Irish Travellers" where you live?

We had a fine folk singing group here in the 1970's called the Travellers or maybe the Travelers.
They used to mix in a lot of Neil Diamond and blow the roof off.

Used to see them now and then around the south side of Chicago.

Had a guy here I suspect was a Traveler do lightening rods on the roof. The whole lightening rod thing itself may be a scam, but he did a good job and the rods are all still in place and grounded. We've never had lightening burn the house down yet.

Uhhh, aren't those two terms synonymous?

Where do you think the term "gypped" came from?



Clark

Queue Cher.

Same scam here in rural parts of KY... Had one pull in the drive way a couple years ago wanting to make me a great deal on my barn roof. Told him not interested. He kept on and started to get pushy about it until I walked around the back of the truck and took a picture of his license plate. Ain't seen one since...

Lighting rods work just fine. Today they may be internalized into the structure such as metal coping, but they are there somewhere.

And lightning rods are not a guarantee, just a higher potential. I've seen damage where lightning missed the rods.

Didn't Bill Paxton and Mark Wahlberg make a movie about them? Can't remember what it's called but it's pretty decent flick.

another quick scam involves some variation of pine straw bales being scattered, then overcounting the bales scattered, etc. or upping the charges due to upgrades.


when the carnival comes to town is the usual time to be sure one's windows & doors are closed, and tight.

Do they happen to own Travelers Insurance?

Had a couple come by years ago. I was at work and they talked with the father-in-law. Got permission to go under the house to check for "termites". Came out with a piece of termite infested wood. FIL told them they would have to wait until I got home for approval to "fix" it, as I was in construction. They left and haven't been seen around there again.

They were through the area I live in a few years ago. Had one couple in a newer pickup come up the driveway and offer me an assortment of generators and power washers. Asked if I knew anyone who was looking for one or the other.

My neighbor who was about 80 at the time had the oiled pea gravel installed on his driveway. Cost him $10,000 for a couple of hundred foot long 8' wide job that lasted less than one winter. Can't plow that [bleep], comes up in broken pieces. My neighbor didn't know how to say no to those people in spite of being warned not to do it. He died so they won't be back to his place.

They showed up here wanting to pave my driveway.




I live on a gravel road.

I googled Irish Travelers. Very interesting, lot of genetic defects.

I have visited Murphy Village near North Augusta, SC. Just north of Augusta Ga.
This is a neighborhood of about 200 houses. All the houses are real big, maybe 4 or 5 bedrooms. Painted in some gaudy colors. Big, expensive houses.
In every drive way is about $100 grand in wheels. A new Cadillac, next to a shiny new F250. Lots of pickup trucks.
In every yard is a big Catholic shrine. Might be a big crucifixion, a cross 8 feet high with Jesus nailed in place. Mostly shrines to Virgin Mary.
A plaster, or maybe metal, Virgin Mary, six feet high, kneeling down in prayer, painted bright blue.
Some with Virgin Mary holding Baby Jesus.

I have studied these guys a bit, there are 4 main family names, I recall one is Sherlock. They are real inbred as they want none of their members to marry an "outsider." Many of their babies are born with bad birth defects, but, of course, abortion is abhorrent to them.
They will also not give up a retard baby to a nursing home or some such place, they keep all these birth defect babies at home and regard them as "angels."

I am partly Irish and as I study these guys, makes me wish I was Czechoslovakian, or Romanian or something. These guys are real scum and have no problem scamming some poor widow out of her life saving on a driveway repair scam, or a house painting scam.


Murphy Village was started about 1850 by an Irish priest named Murphy. They were refugees from the Potato Famine, which was 1846. In those days the scammers were using horse and buggy, couldn't really get too far so I imagine they were pretty poor.
But with the advent of the automobile, they are able to range far afield, I have seen this scum pulling scams in Indiana, Ohio etc. Scam some Yankee sucker for $10 grand and get out of state before he calls the Sheriff.

They are quite well off, financially, there in Murphy Village.

The upside to this is they'll eventually fahq themselves out of existence.

Simon, your being Irish does not mean chitt.
They are no reflection on normal Irish folk.
My family is German, most around here are,
I feel no responsibility for what an Austrian convinced
the Germans to do 80 years ago.

Karl

They are rich from the proceeds of life insurance policies. They take them out on all their relatives.

Remember that the next time someone tries to tell you that life insurance is a rip off.

yeah, they cut the paint with diesel fuel, and it'll last until the first good rain. Usually see them around here every few years or so, but it's been a while since I've seen them. Nothing but con artists.