This thesis proposes an anthropological exploration of Catholic religious beliefs and practices among Irish Travellers in Ireland. While issues of Irish Traveller ethnicity and language have been extensively studied (see Mc Cann, Ó Síocháin and Ruane 1996), an investigation of Travellers’ faith and religious expression has not received prominent attention. The research will proceed through an examination of the existing ethnographic, historical, and photographic documents, archival sources, ecclesiastical and parish records, and government reports, and by contemporary ethnographic fieldwork among Travellers in the west and northwest of Ireland, and in two areas located in the east of Ireland. The aim of this study is to explore Irish Travellers’ expression of their Catholicism by focusing on specific ‘devotional occasions’ underscoring their beliefs and rituals. Their relationship with the physical environment and how it is infused with religious meaning in the form of holy wells, their devotion to particular shrines and places of pilgrimage such as Knock Marian Shrine, and their arrangement of graveyard memorials are some examples of concrete expressions of their religious worldview. However, the relationship between Travellers and the hierarchy of the Catholic Church and, at times, the ambiguous feelings of Travellers toward the clergy, is also examined. This is an interesting aspect of Travellers’ own perceptions of their relationship with the Church, and is significant; especially when it is considered that the Catholic Church has traditionally been seen as one of the organisations at the forefront of campaigns for Travellers’ rights. Religious expressions are ‘dimensions of larger social and cultural wholes’ (Lambek 2003: 2). Therefore, the relationship between religious beliefs and practices and other aspects of Traveller culture such as identity, family organisation, social and economic activities, and interactions with the non-Traveller community cannot be ignored. In effect, this study will aim to present a holistic view of Traveller Catholicism within a wider cultural framework.