Raid an artifact from coral castle9/20/2023 They continue to buy up property in the town and residents say that in ten years, it will be entirely populated by travellers as no-one else now wants to live and do business there.Īnd the divide between the traveller and non-traveller community is almost absolute, with many of the settled people, who call themselves 'locals' feeling that they are 'buying up the town'. Resident David Breen said up to 2,000 people come to the town over Christmas, but most of it is virtually empty most of the time. The documentary lifted the lid on the huge dowries, specially made dresses and huge sums of money spent on such occasions by the travelling community of the town. Rathkeale, in Co Limerick, was also the scene of the lavish and brash celebrations seen in documentary My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding. The Gucci Travellers treat births, deaths and marriages with such religiosity that one Rathkeale Traveller famously ordered that his deceased father's body be preserved so that he could finish his Belgian prison sentence and attend the funeral. Grand marble headstone with gold leaf, dedicated to deceased members of the Travelling Community at Rathkeale With its towering, ornate marble sculptures of angels, Christ and the apostles, the graveyard in Rathkeale is a gauche testament to the hidden riches of some of its residents. 'They come back to enjoy themselves and see their parents after being out in wilderness places'.ĭuring their annual visits weddings have also been arranged, and there are always a handful of christenings - and even funerals in the town's brash graveyard. When they come back, a lot of money is spent and the pubs are full. Richard 'Kerry' O’Brien, a prominent local figure known as a 'Gypsy King', told the Irish Times last year: 'They go to Europe, Canada, Australia, South Africa, you name it. Travellers now own 80 per cent of the commercial property in the town and are said to have bought entire stretches of residential streets with suitcases of cash. Its streets are lined with brash mansions and the roads swollen with luxury cars that make it look similar to the English villages in Surrey and the Golden Triangle in Cheshire populated by the richest Premier League footballers.īut bizarrely some of the grand properties are not connected to the sewers or national grid - built just as a show of wealth - with its owners preferring to live in caravans parked on the drive. Rathkeale has an official population of 1,500 and at least 1,200 are from the same travelling families.Įvery Christmas, a cavalcade of Range Rovers, Mercedes, BMWs and Porsches rolls into their curious Limerick refuge, pulling caravans behind them.Īnd for those few weeks a year they flash and spend their cash in the Limerick town they consider their 'spiritual home'. The Irish town of Rathkeale is almost totally owned by a group of rich gypsies known as the 'Gucci Travellers' who live abroad for 11 months a year. Rich: The streets are lined with mansions like these ones - but for much of the year the streets and houses are largely empty
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |