An Irish traveller has spoken out about life within the community, including her experience of being forced into an arranged marriage on her 16th birthday - which she described as the "worst day of her life."
Now 26, Bridget Walls regularly takes to TikTok to lift the lid on traveller life, including answering questions about her unusual marriage.
In one clip, the mum-of-three revealed she didn't even know her family had arranged her wedding for her, until she woke up on the morning of her 16th birthday.
"I was forced to get married, I never even knew about me own wedding until that day. I didn't know I was getting married until the morning of my sixteenth birthday," she recalled.
"I woke up and there was the big white wedding dress and I was forced to be married."
Sadly, though, the marriage didn't work out, and Bridget says she fell victim to abuse at the hands of her husband just two weeks into their marriage.
"It didn't really work out good. I was abused like two weeks into the marriage, I got divorced at 23, so it wasn't a good marriage," she said in another clip. "But, I was a child, I shouldn't have been forced into it and it is what it is."
When asked why some families choose to arrange the marriages on their daughters' behalves, Bridget explained the reason is "because they don't want them marrying outside of the travelling community."
"They pick who they want for their children because they like that family and they know them well and whatever and sometimes they'll even marry their own first cousins, but that's very rare, it happened years ago and they don't have to do that anymore," she explained.
"Some people do still arrange marriages, and there's nothing the girl can do, she's got to listen to her parents. Now, it's like the girl can choose whoever she wants but it has to be a traveller, they have to still come from the travelling community."
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