THE SECRET LIVES of Gypsy Wives is Channel 4′s newest show about the Irish Traveller and Gypsy Community. It features Trewley Precious, a major influencer on TikTok and Instagram, along with her family.

This show follows Trewley and her family, who document their lives and experiences of living on a council estate and explain how, despite those circumstances, they still abide by Irish Traveller and Gypsy rules and culture.

Like many other Irish Travellers, I was interested in watching the show because I’ve seen Trewley online; I loved how she didn’t take any nonsense from anyone, and because times have changed, I was hopeful it wouldn’t be like Channel 4′s old show, My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, which really took advantage of the stereotypes.

The show really fed into the stereotypes society has put on the Irish Traveller and Gypsy community. That was proved when they showed the audience how different Trewley was from her three older sisters, and it let us into conversations between the family, which really focused on how none of them liked how Trewley was building a social media career and how she should be more focused on finding someone to settle down with to have children, sooner rather than later.

Trewley Precious was also interviewed on her own about these conversations, and she spoke about how she was going against the norms of being an Irish Traveller/Gypsy.

She wants to become a full-fledged social media star/millionaire, but at the same time she spoke about how those expectations and rules Irish Traveller/Gypsy women face in either community haven’t evolved when, in reality it has and Channel 4 failed to portray that in the show.

Irish Traveller women

As a disabled Irish Traveller, I understand that this is about entertainment and generating headlines, but I didn’t like that the producers of this show didn’t bring in another perspective of being either an Irish Traveller or Gypsy. There are many more of us within both communities who deserve to be represented too.

When the conversation in the show turned to Irish Traveller and Gypsy women only having the goal of getting married young and not working and having a long list of rules they were expected to follow, I laughed to myself. The Irish Traveller community I know has progressed and modernised in the past 15 years.

Secret Lives of Gypsy Wives, Channel 4. Channel 4 Channel 4

Irish Traveller women in today’s world are definitely not like quiet mice and so compliant any more. These women have evolved into strong-minded women who don’t conform to the silly and outdated expectations and stereotypes of the past.

Women in both communities stay in education longer, and most of them work and don’t let others tell them what to do. I know this because I know so many of those incredible women.

I have to mention some of my favourite Irish Traveller women who have been pushing past barriers, expectations and stereotypes: Eileen Flynn is a wife and mother and is the only Irish Traveller to have been elected to Seanad Éireann. Eileen is literal proof that Irish Traveller women don’t have to sacrifice their dreams and can still be both a working woman and have a family.

Senator Eileen Flynn addresses members of the Traveller community holding a protest outside Leinster House in 2022. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Another Irish Traveller women that I think deserves a mention here is one of my friends, Latisha McCrudden. Latisha is a 21-year-old Irish Traveller youth and domestic abuse activist who is currently in her 3rd year of law at the University of Galway. Latisha has won many awards including the Irish Tatler Catalyst Award, and was featured in the BBC’s 100 Women in 2024. She never forgot her roots and continuously shows younger Irish Traveller girls that they don’t have to settle and can go on to whatever their hearts desire.

Lastly, I mention my cousin, Ella Ward. Ella is a young Irish Traveller who is just so creative and community-activism-led. Ella finished school and made a short documentary of what friendship means to Irish Travellers today and has held many art exhibitions in her hometown of Tuam. Ella showed that being an Irish Traveller girl doesn’t mean you can’t go outside of your comfort zone and do the things that make you happy.

Seeing these three women smashing the barriers and stereotypes that were put on Irish Traveller and Gypsy women years ago is just incredible to me. They are all showing their communities and the world that they are distinctively different from the stereotypes, and yet none of them forgets where their connected history comes from.

There are so many more women in both communities who are defying the odds and changing the narrative for the next generation of young Irish Traveller and Gypsy girls.

I wish Channel 4 had presented a wider picture of what it means to be an Irish Traveller or Gypsy women more, and not fed into outdated expectations and stereotypes that are no longer true. Maybe next time?

Emma Ward is a disabled Irish Traveller, writer and disability rights activist. More on Instagram.