Big Fat Gypsy Weddings: The Luck of the Irish

9 August 2013

In this special episode we celebrate all things Ireland, meeting Irish Travellers from both sides of the Irish Sea, exploring the special bond they share and some of the values they often don't….

In England 16 year old Lully is preparing for her spectacular wedding day. She speaks with a thick Irish accent, calls herself an Irish Traveller and lives within fiercely Irish community. But she’s never been to Ireland.

Lully got together with her fiancé when he grabbed her at the cinema during Shrek 4. But although she has her heart set on a huge Irish Traveller wedding, the build up appears jinxed. First the stress causes her to lose her voice, then disaster strikes the night before when there is an argument over the payment for the dresses…

In Ireland, the fearsome Joyce family are getting ready for Baby Alice’s christening. She has been born into strong Traveller stock – grandfather Joe is a former bare-knuckle boxer whose fighting prowess once saw him crowned The King of the Travellers. But before Alice’s big day the Joyces are out to celebrate St Patrick’s Day. Its one of the few days of the year when the Joyces mix with the locals, but Joe is banned from every pub in town and he believes that Travellers aren’t widely welcome.

Most of the Joyces have now left Ireland to live in England, but as Joe reveals, he doesn’t approve of some of the new ‘traditions’ – including the controversial dating ritual of ‘grabbing’.

We witness the chaos of the morning, Alice’s amazing christening and the raucous celebrations afterwards, where Big Joe serenades his audience in style.  

Brendan is a distant relation of Joe Joyce who has lived in England his whole life. But unlike Lully, he is desperate to keep his links to the homeland alive. We follow Brendan on a trip back to Ireland on the ferry, where he indulges in the Irish drink and reveals that he is teased in England for being a “Plastic Paddy”. But once there we hear that even in Ireland, many of the old traveller ways are dying out.

Meanwhile dressmaker Thelma Madine is travelling over to Ireland to attend the wedding of Irish Traveller Nan. Nan has commissioned an incredible 14 stone dress and has been working on a spectacular tan to match. Thelma reveals that although Travellers on both sides of the Irish Sea share a love of bling, she has witnessed a new rivalry beginning to develop between them…. But who does it better?

Action packed and full of spectacular celebrations, Big Fat Gypsy Weddings: The Luck of the Irish is a show that compares two separate communities that are united by a desire to celebrate life… whatever it throws at them.