There are actually four main "tribes" of "UK travellers". There's the Irish ones you mentioned, the "pikeys" - with their own language, traditions- usual itinerant workers/labourers. These are the ones in the BBC Article. The Highland ones (My Maternal Grandparents)- pretty much gone now, speak a variation of gaelic, tinsmiths and horse dealers around Scotland. The travelling fair ones- equivalent to US Carny folk. The Romani- The racial group of their own Romani people - Wikipedia - the gypsies