If anyones wondering why they started living in the UK .
Perhaps a simple explanation but something like this ...
They used to live on the side of the road in Ireland , in olden days and perhaps for centuries they traveled from place to place doing casual or seasonal work , farm labor , selling bits and pieces or they had a craft tin smith etc , the women would call to local houses begging food in return for a blessing or whatever , superstition meant they were well enough treated but perhaps not that trusted and socially isolated .
Jump to recent times ... last 50 years they started to get vans and caravans , still on the side of the road , dealing in scrap , selling bits and pieces , with some opportunist theft and shoplifting . No door to door as the settled irish would barely talk to them let alone buy or give them anything . Very socially isolated from the settled irish , laws at the time meant if they entered a shop for eg the shopkeeper could leap out and run them out the door just on entering and likewise they would be refused entry to pubs , hotels . local Councils started to move them on from roadside camps and blocked lay-bys with boulders , as the country developed the roads became busy and dangerous for the children to live there also , government solution was purpose built halting sites , with some facilities . They were also offered housing and generally money was thrown at them and still is to avert a bigger problem if poverty prevails .
So I'd say many moved to England where they could still pull into waste ground while the council scratched their head as to what to do , and they could now hustle work or sell door to door , painting barns , tarmac , selling generators or whatever as the English would kinda trust them thinking they are just ' Da Irish ' an some of them are a bit rough ...
So here we are ... big fat Gypsie weddings , big brother paddy , etc , they still travel , but mostly just home to see the relatives in Ireland , flaunt the cars and wealth if they have it ... and perhaps have a fight or two with the cousins