Tinkers is a term for a group of
Irish Travellers who worked with tin and mended pots and pans from door to door in rural Ireland before urbanisation in the 1960'
s. This is a perjoritive term these days and is used to insult
Irish Travellers, as gyppo is to insult Romani
people (different ethnic nomads in Britain & Ireland).
Not all
Irish Travellers were tinkers (from tinsmithing or tinsmith) as there were horse dealers, market traders etc.
Irish Travellers have their own distinct culture, traditions, way of life and language and are indigenious to Ireland and are said to be here in Ireland before the Celts arrived in Ireland 500 yrs BC.