I’m a gypsy & there’s 4 taboos we abide by that country folk find weird – don’t compare our kids to yours for starters
A GYPSY girl has revealed the four taboo things that you should never do to travellers.
Heidi McDonagh Clee, an Irish traveller, explained that not only should you never compare children, but you should never copy a gypsy’s nickname too.
The mum-of-two took to social media to share the things that people in her community believe in, as well as the things that they find ‘weird’.
She said: “Taboo, controversial, but overall just made a laugh because it’s so weird to us.”
The blonde beauty then explained: “So here’s some things that traveller and gypsy people do not do and just find it really weird when they do see it being done.”
Steal words
According to Heidi, the first thing you should never do to travellers is take words out of their mouth.
She claimed: “Rule number one is taking words out of people’s mouths. So what I mean by this is, with travellers and gypsy people, we have different terminologies and different ways of talking.
“You can know who is who, by something they’ve said.
“My husband, him being English, there are some things that he will say that come from his family and his friends, and then there’ll be something that other different breeds of English people will say and he won’t say it, because they’re not the same people.
“There are definitely different terminologies and expressions.
“It becomes really obvious when someone doesn’t know this – they might pick up a term or a way of speaking, and it becomes more obvious that you’re not from that group of people.
“You would know better than to do that.”
Copy nicknames
Not only this, but according to Heidi, you should never copy a travellers’ nickname.
She shared: “Another thing we have a lot of is nicknames. If someone has a nickname, it was given to them and was given to them for a certain reason. There’s always a reason behind it.
“It might’ve been passed down, so it’s not actually their proper name.
“We are very particular in our ways
Heidi McDonagh Clee
“But if someone randomly thought ‘that sounds good’ and picked it up, it’s so strange, because their reason for having it is not someone else’s reason for having it.
“If someone says ‘that sounds good, I’m going to have it as well’, it defeats the whole object of having that nickname. You can’t copy them.”
Compare children
Heidi also explained that travellers are not a fan of comparing children.
She revealed: “Another thing we don’t do is compare children. It doesn’t even have to be a blatant ‘look at my child compared to that child’. No-one does that. It’s never as blatant as that.
“But when someone does start comparing children, it is picked up on, it is noted, because it’s such a taboo thing.
“It is noted straight away. And it’s not just a taboo because we don’t like it. It’s also because it shows that person’s character a lot.
“It says a lot about the person. It’s just a really weird one.”
Pass comment without a blessing
Finally, the mother explained that if you are passing comment about a child, you should always bless them.
She concluded: “Another thing we do is bless children after passing comment on them. If you’re asking after them or saying ‘they look like they’ve grown’, whatever comment you’re passing, you automatically say ‘God bless them’,
“We do this with new things as well. If someone gets something new we automatically say ‘that’s nice, good bless, I wish you luck with it’, kind of thing.
“That is the done thing. If you blatantly don’t do it, it’s another taboo thing, because it says a lot about their person’s character.
“You would know better than to do that
Heidi McDonagh Clee
“We are very particular in our ways.”
The TikTok clip, which was shared under the username @h.mccc, just one day ago, has clearly left many open-mouthed, as at the time of writing, it had quickly amassed 10,500 views.
Social media users agreed with Heidi’s claims and many were keen to express this in the comments.
One person said: “That makes total sense!”
Another added: “Perfectly explained.”
A third commented: “True.”
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