Early life. Thomas Michael Shelby was born in Birmingham, England, around 1890 to an Irish Traveller and Romani family and grew up in the Small Heath neighbourhood of Birmingham. He dated Greta Jurossi, a woman of Italian descent during his 20s, but she died of tuberculosis.
The Shelby Family is a small and wealthy family of Irish-Traveller descent originating from Birmingham, England. While being a small family, their influence is large and extends over a large portion of Birmingham and London. The Shelby Family run the Peaky Blinders and their own company, Shelby Company Limited.
Stephen McHickie, Peaky Blinder. The origins of this gang and others similar to it, came from the poor living conditions and economic hardships which dominated industrial England during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
"The Billy Boys were protestants and the Conks, who centred on Norman Street, were Catholics." Mr Jeffrey said the main aim of the Billy Boys was to terrify the Catholic population, who were mainly Irish immigrants, and make them feel as unwelcome as possible.
Tommy Shelby, Cillian Murphy
The actor, famous for his roles in Inception and 28 Days Later was born in Douglas, an Irish suburb in Cork, but he masterfully manages to switch his Irish accent into Tommy Shelby's Birmingham lilt.
TOMMY SHELBY. As any true fan knows, Tommy Shelby prefers Irish whiskey over all. And if you ordered a pour of Irish at the Garrison when the Shelbys ruled Birmingham, you'd be drinking a Bushmills.
The phrase “tickna mora o'beng” is in Romani (also spelled “Romany”), an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Romanichal Travellers in England as well as several other countries. In an interview with Digital Spy, series creator Steven Knight explained the meaning.
Contrary to popular opinion (see below), the name of the gang may have actually originated with style: Peaky for their peaked caps and Blinder as Birmingham slang for a striking gentleman.
Britannica Dictionary definition of PEAKY. British, informal. : pale and sick : peaked. He's looking a bit peaky.
Although Travellers speak English in most situations, they often speak to each other in their own language; for Irish Travellers this is called Cant or Gammon* and Gypsies speak Romani, which is the only indigenous language in the UK with Indic roots.
The word “Roma / Romani” means “man/people,” and it is used as an ethnonym (the name applied to a given ethnic group). The feminine form is “Romni,” and they speak the Romany language. Indeed, the word Romani sounds like the word Romanian, but this is just a coincidence. So no, Roma does not mean Romanian.
Zilpha Lee is the matriarch of the Lee Family.
Roma (Gypsies) originated in the Punjab region of northern India as a nomadic people and entered Europe between the eighth and tenth centuries C.E. They were called "Gypsies" because Europeans mistakenly believed they came from Egypt. This minority is made up of distinct groups called "tribes" or "nations."
The Shelbys are specifically of Irish-Romani descent, but they refer to themselves and other Romani with the blanket term “Gypsies” in the show. Tommy Shelby, the gang's leader, along with his siblings, Arthur, John, Ada, and Finn, have Irish-Romani heritage on both sides and consider themselves Gypsy.
Background. Polly originates from the criminal Gypsy family the Shelbys. She's the daughter of Mr. Shelby and Birdie Boswell. Her brother is Arthur Shelby Sr. Polly tells her son Michael Gray that his grandmother was a Gypsy Princess.
Smoking is a big part of most scenes, and all of the cigarettes were real. "I asked the prop guys to count how many we use during a series and it's 3,000," Murphy told BirminghamLive.
Tommy Shelby is most likely based on Kevin Mooney aka Thomas Gilbert, though he was known for changing his last name several times. At the height of the real-life gang's power, Thomas Gilbert was the ringleader. The true story behind the Peaky Blinders' crimes isn't quite as sensational as the show.
Etymology. The folk etymology of Peaky Blinder is that the gang members would stitch disposable razor blades into the peaks of their flat caps, which could then be used as weapons.
The final scene saw Lizzie telling Tommy that their daughter, Ruby, had fallen ill with a fever, and had been repeating the Romani words, "Tickna mora o'beng".
Romanians greet friends casually by saying “Salut” or “Bună” (Hello). One may greet strangers with the more formal phrase “Bună dimineața/ziua/seara” (Good morning/day/evening) depending on what time of day it is.
– The Romani gypsy words spoken by Ruby in her fevered state appear to be “Tikno mora o beng o beng”. In this English/Romani dictionary, 'tikno' means child or small, 'mora' or 'maura' means to slay or kill, and 'o beng' means 'the devil'.
Tommy and others are seen smoking Opium throughout the series as a coping mechanism. over 5000 cigarettes were smoked on the show. Characters drink frequently on-screen, become drunk, and act violent and clumsy. One character has an opium habit, and a 10-year-old child smokes a cigarette on-screen.
Peaky Blinders fans were left furious after Tommy Shelby had steamy sex with. The barnstorming episode featured a bomb, torture and dramatic plot twists, but it was Tommy (Cillian Murphy's) romp with Nazi sympathiser Diana (Amber Anderson) that had viewers up in arms.
Jimmy was born and raised in Glasgow, Scotland, besides this very little is known about his early life. He entered into the criminal business. and became the leader of Billy Boy's, a ruthless Protestant Razor gang which ran every man, coal mine and ship east of Glasgow.