Tinkers and Travellers 9780773592902

Table of contents :
Cover
Copyright
Title
Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1 Where did they come from?
Tradesmen and Specialists
Secret Language
Poverty and Evictions
Drop Outs
A Common Identity
Chapter 2 Work and Travel
The Traditional Ways
Horses and Blockers
Fortunes
Travelling
Chapter 3 The Move to the City
Working in the City
Begging
Chapter 4 The Family
Child Rearing
Kinsmen
Daily Life
Chapter 5 Relations with 'the Buffers'
Settled Irish Stereotypes
Discrimination
Traveller Identity
Chapter 6 The end of the road?
Chapter 1 Where did they come from?
The Appeal of the Road
Emigration to Britain
The Future
Songs
Notes
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
List of Illustrations

Citation preview

Text: sharon Cmelch Photographs: Pat Langan George Genelch McGILL -QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY PRESS Montreal

Contents Introduction - page 7 Chapter 1 Where did they come from? - page 8 Tradesmen and Specialists - page 8 Secret Language - page 12 Poverty and Evictions - page 14 Drop Outs - page 22 A Common Identity - page 23 Chapter 2

Work and Travel - page 28 The Traditional Ways - page 28 Horses and Blockers - page 34 Fortunes - page 36 Travelling - page 39

Chapter 3 The Move to the City - page 44 Working in the City - page 48 Begging - page 54 Chapter 4 The Family - page 66 Child Rearing - page 74 Kinsmen - page 80 Daily Life - page 86 Chapter 5 Relations with 'the Buffers' - page 98 Settled Irish Stereotypes - page 100 Discrimination - page 102 Traveller Identity - page 114 Chapter 6 The End of the Road? - page 122 The Appeal of the Road - page 122 Emigration to Britain - page 130 The Future - page 132 Songs - pages 27, 43, 65, 97, 137, 138, 139 Notes - page 140 Acknowledgements - page 141 Bibliography - page 142 List of Illustrations - page 144

Opposite — at Puck Fair Killorglin County Kerry.

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Introduction

The tinkers or travelling people have lived on the margins of Irish society for generations. Until recently very little was known about them. Early written accounts concentrated on their secret language and folklore while ignoring other, more important aspects of their culture and daily life. Much of what was written was highly romanticised and often inaccurate. Many peculiar customs and powers, for example, were ascribed to them. The practise of "wife swapping" was reported by numerous early chroniclers including Arnold, MacRitchie, Sampson, and Synge. Travellers were once said to maintain their health by swallowing soot and campfire ashes. And some country people believed they had supernatural powers including the ability to cure infertility and make love potions. A popular image of the tinkers as hardy, carefree vagabonds and rogues prevailed for decades. With the publication of the Report of the Commission on Itinerancy in 1963 and the extensive media coverage given its findings a different picture emerged — that of travellers as a neglected and impoverished people. This image was reinforced by the Itinerant Settlement Movement which dwelt on the plight of travellers, their poor health, high infant mortality and illiteracy, in an effort to evoke compassion in the settled community and gain support for settlement policies. This study is an attempt to understand the travelling people in a more complete way: to examine their origins, their economic importance in Irish society, their daily life and problems, and their attitudes towards the settled community. The role of the anthropologist is to live among the people he or she studies in order to obtain an insider's point of view, to see through their eyes the world around them. This is the perspective taken in this book, and where possible I have let the travelling people tell the story in their own words.

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11/here did they come from ? "Years ago there was no aluminium pots or kettles or anything like that. The farmin' people couldn't live without a tinker because they'd need big pots to get meal in, anyone feedin' calves, and buckets for milkin' their cows. And they'd have their kettles to be mended. They'd be prayin' to see a tinker. `I wish to God there'd be a tinker around. They're around too many times when you don't want them!' The travellers made all the cans. But since this aluminium stuff came out, they don't want the tinker at all... Oh, they couldn't do without the tinker and still they criticised him." (Doonie Connors) Not all the travelling people originated at the same time. Some families have been on the roads for centuries, while others have become itinerant in recent times. Moreover they did not all originate in the same way. First, tradesmen and specialists often became itinerant because the population in their area and consequently the demand for their skills was not great enough to allow them to remain sedentary. Secondly, many peasants were forced onto the roads through evictions, unemployment and famine. Ireland has long been a poor country and there has been a steady stream of the poorest peasants and labourers onto the roads for many centuries. During periods of major social upheaval, their numbers increased dramatically. Thirdly, there have always been "drop-outs" from settled society — persons who left their homes due to some personal misfortune or indiscretion or who simply chose to live an itinerant life. TRADESMEN AND SPECIALISTS Metal working is one of the oldest traditions on the road, and it is from the sound of hammer striking metal that the name "tinker" is derived.' As early as pre-Christian times, itinerant whitesmiths working in bronze, gold and silver travelled the Irish countryside making

8

A Western Sunset

ON

personal ornaments, weapons and horse trappings in exchange for food and lodging. By 1175 "tinkler" and "tynkere" begin appearing in written records as trade or surnames, and commonly before 1300. Just how many itinerant smiths there were; whether they travelled in family groups; and to what extent they identified themselves as a distinct class in these early centuries is unknown. Nevertheless, by the 1500s "tinkers" were well established on Irish roads. Walter Simson, a Scottish historian, writing in 1865 claims that Scotland had received much of its tinker population from Ireland by 1460. And both Simson and Brian Vesey-Fitzgerald have attributed the failure of Gypsies, also metal workers, to establish themselves in Ireland at this time to the stiff competition they met from native tinkers? In 1619 Thomas Gainsford, a soldier in the Irish wars, noted the existence of "...gravers in gold and silver called plain tinkers, who make chalices, harps, buttons for their sleeves, crucifixes, and suchlike." 3 Several of the numerous statutes enacted against vagrancy and begging from the 1500s to 1800s were aimed specifically at tinkers. During the reign of Edward VI (1551-52) "an Acte for tynckers and pedlers" was passed. "For as much as it is evident that tynkers, pedlers, and suche like vagrant persons are more hurtful than necessarie to the Common Wealth of this realm, Be it therefore ordeyned ... that ... no person or persons commonly called tynker, pedler or pety chapman shall wander or go from one towne to another or from place to place out of the towne, parishe, or village where suche person shall dwell, and sell punnes, poyntes, laces, gloves, knyves, glasses, topes or any suche like things or use or exercise the trade or occupation of a tynker." 4 In 1834 the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws estimated that there were 2,385,000 beggars (including dependents) on the roads of Ireland at least part of the year. Of these, tinkers formed a distinct and recognizable group. A resident of County Longford told the Poor Inquiry Commission in the following year that: "Ordinary beggars do not become a separate class of the community, but wandering tinkers, families who always beg, do. Three generations of them have been seen begging together." 5 And from Mayo: "The wives and families accompany the tinker while he strolls about in search of work, and always beg. They intermarry with one another, and form a distinct class." 6 Through the centuries other tradesmen such as tailors, weavers and shoemakers and local specialists such as harness makers, pig and horse castrators, expert thatchers, and chimney sweeps as well as musicians and story-tellers have also contributed to the numbers travelling Irish roads. Fifty-six year old Nan Donoghue from County Westmeath says:

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"Chimney sweeps had to travel through different parts until they came back to their own call-backs. Maybe one woman would want her house done in March — all her chimneys — another one in April. And maybe again before Christmas. They had all these places and had to keep travellin' around. Me father, me grandfather, me great grandfather, they were all sweeps. Me father'd go along, he had his own pony and car and often times he walked just carryin' his sticks on his shoulder and walk. He worked with Major Evans, Captain Grant and all these big people and priests. That was the time there were English in here. There's some of them livin' in Mullingar yet. Well, they wouldn't have a strange person so me father had that contract every year. The Rattigans were sweeps too only me father was more popular." Industrial decline, particularly the failure of the silk and linen trades in the early 1800s put thousands of urban tradesmen out of work. Weavers in Dublin, Drogheda, Cork, Bandon, and Clonakilty were particularly hard hit and many became itinerant. Almost any craft or skill which could accommodate mobility gave an occupation to wanderers on Irish roads. SECRET LANGUAGE The existence of Shelta or Gammon, the secret language of the travelling people, has often been used as evidence for their antiquity. Shelta consists of Irish words which have been altered and disguised by various techniques such as adding, dropping and substituting sounds. In some cases only one syllable was reversed. Cailin ("a girl") became Lakin or lackeen in Shelta. Shelta also contains some words borrowed from Romani, the language of the Gypsies, and some slang. Just how old Shelta is and how it was created, however, is problematic. John Sampson and Kuno Meyer, Celtic scholars who studied Shelta in the late 1800s, believed it was based on a pre-aspirated form of Irish spoken before the eleventh century.' As partial proof of its age,. Meyer cited an ancient grammatical treatise, the Auraicept ne n-eces (Instruction of the poets), which listed many of the same techniques for disguising words as he found in Shelta. Both Meyer and Sampson believed that Shelta was the remnant of a "secret language" created and spoken in medieval monastic settlements. They also suggested that once the monasteries declined, the knowledge of this language was passed down through the generations by the descendants of the metal workers and bards who had once resided in them, but men who were now itinerant. More recent studies have questioned the antiquity of Shelta, while admitting that it does contain some old linguistic material. In his comprehensive study of The Secret Languages of Ireland, Stewart Macalister concludes:

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Top — Living on the road near Dublin Bottom — Up in the Dublin hills

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"... the Shelta language, in its accidence and syntactic constructions, contains next to nothing ancient and exclusively Celtic. In its vocabulary, some of the marks of antiquity that had been most confidently indicated prove on closer examination to be illusory. But there remains a small heritage of earlier material, enough to show that for all its spuriousness it has some few links with the older secret languages of Ireland."8 More recently, Jared Harper, an anthropologist who studied the Gammon of Irish travellers living in the United States, has argued that "Shelta has claim to antiquity only in the sense that the devices by means of which it was formed are old." 9 Many outcast and occupationally distinct groups have developed their own specialised vocabularies or even complete languages to facilitate their dealings with majority populations. One hint that metal workers may have had such a specialised jargon by the 1500s occurs in Shakespeare's Henry IV. At one point in the play, Prince Hal boasts "I am so good a proficient in one quarter of an hour that I can drink with any tinker in his own language during my life."10 Thus whether Shelta was originally a secret monastic language or was created from Irish by early itinerants as a type of backslang meant to confuse outsiders is unclear. According to James Browne, a Dublin traveller: "It came about to avoid trouble. They formed their own language. Just by goin' up to a house, they'd want to think of a word to say to the other — what to ask for in disguise. So naturally, in time some traveller held on to them words and used them among themselves. Meantime they went and spread around the rest (to other travellers)." POVERTY AND EVICTIONS Poverty during various periods of Irish history has also forced settled Irish into an itinerant life. As the late Mick Donoghue described this process: "There was people in this country here who was terrible knocked about tryin' to live in a cabin and didn't have no work. They weren't able to pay the rent. So they packed up and left the cabins and took to the road and knocked out their livin' on the road. There's a lot on the road today that was never real travellers." The condition of the Irish peasantry by the 1500s has been described as one of the worst in Europe. An estimated four out of five Irishmen were landless. Most lived in crude sod shelters. The most impoverished and vulnerable to eviction were small farmers and "cottiers" (agricultural labourers) who rented small plots of land barely large enough for a patch of potatoes. Their lot, and indirectly the number of itinerants, waxed and waned with the state of the Irish economy and Anglo-Irish relations. When Connaught landowners

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introduced money rents in 1585, many tenants who did not have the cash to pay took to the roads. There they begged and collected rags, feathers and hides to earn money. Some left their families behind, while in other cases entire families became nomadic. Renewed fighting with the English in the periods 1641-52 and 1688-91 created severe social and economic stress. Many travellers believe their history dates to this period. "Years ago there used to be trouble with them evictions, the landlords you know. The people usedn't be able to pay their rent so they were turned out and they never went back again. There wasn't many travellers before that. There might have been an odd poor man that left his home. You know, these tramp men goin' on their own. And maybe a tinsmith. No, it was Cromwell's evictions. I heard now meself, I heard it from several people, Cromwell runned them out of this part and he runned them down to Connaught. He bate them off the bridge at Athlone. And some of them never had any homes then and they started travellin' from that. They were really settled people. Years ago when I was only young, they said that was the first startin' of the travellin' people." (Nan Collins) While some families may date to this period, the Act of Settlement in 1652 confined most of its attention to the removal of Catholic landlords and wealthier tenants, leaving the bulk of the population — craftsmen, small farmers and labourers — relatively undisturbed. Harvest failures in the eighteenth century (1728-29, 174041, 1744), caused additional hardship on the cottier class. But the worst period for the peasantry and one in which several hundred thousand families left the land began in the late 1700s and continued until the end of the nineteenth century. The increasing conversion of tillage land to pasturage led to large-scale evictions and unemployment. As agricultural prices fell, landlords and better-off tenants sought to increase their profits through the sale of beef, pork, mutton, and wool to the Continent and North America. Open fields and associated settlements were swept away, holdings were consolidated and sown with grass, and along with common lands, were enclosed by earthen banks and hawthorn hedges. Soon extensive sheep walks and cattle ranches spread through Roscommon, Sligo, east Mayo and Galway, Clare, Limerick, and Tipperary. Because pasturage required less labour than tillage many agricultural labourers were unable to find employment. A labourer from County Cork, described as "Hagarty — the beggar", testified to the Poor Inquiry Commissioners in 1835: "I am nearly fifty years old. I have a wife and four children, the eldest is only nine... My wife is begging these six years: we suffered great distress before she went; I had no employment, and could not get any. She went out every summer since, she did no more than support herself

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'Galway John' Ward tinsmith and part-time chimney sweep

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and the children; she brought home nothing. In the winter I used to gather twigs, and make little baskets for gathering potatoes. I would get 3d. or 4d. a piece for them. The neighbours used to give us the potatoes in the plentiful season. I was obliged to go out myself last May; we had another young child, and I went to carry it..."11 Conditions in rural Ireland at this time grew steadily worse due to rapid population growth. From just over two million in 1700, the population by 1800 had risen to almost five million. The increase created intense competition for land: with each new generation, the peasant's already small holdings were further subdivided between his sons until' many families no longer had enough land for subsistence. "As far back as me great grandfather, they had a home. But when he died, there was four or five sons. Well, the place was small and they fell out over who'd run it — who'd look after the place. So they sold it and got some money. They broke that up between them then and took jobs. There was what you'd call hire-fairs at the time, where you'd hire a man for the round of the year or maybe for six months for the harvest. So they went on the road then. Then the Crimean War (1854-56) started and they went out to war. When they came back, they took to the road to make more money than working with a farmer. Then they married in through the travellin' people. They didn't all marry travellin' girls, but they took them (others) on the road. They might take a house for the winter, but went on in the summertime. They did tinkering, more of them cleaning chimneys. Whatever they got the most money at, it didn't matter what it was, they did it." (Mick Donoghue) The increased demand for land during this period also drove up rents. The upsurge in population inflated the labour market and competition for available employment ensured that despite the rise in rents, there was no compensating rise in wages. Thousands of small farmers and cottiers who were unable to pay their rents were evicted, others voluntarily left their homes to look for work. Many became "spalpeens" (migratory farm labourers) from May until November. Some travelled within two or three counties of Ireland, while others emigrated to England and Scotland. To this day some travelling people from the West emigrate to Scotland each year to "tattie hok" (pick potatoes). It is impossible to know exactly how many spalpeens, dispossessed peasants and labourers joined the ranks of itinerant craftsmen and became permanent members of the road. One striking piece of evidence which suggests that many did is the number of present-day traveller names such as McDonagh, Ward, Maughan, Mongan, Stokes, Cawley, Joyce, Connors, and Collins which originated in the west of Ireland the area in which the peasantry was most destitute and where the

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Opposite —Living in a tent near Dublin

greatest number of evictions occurred. The crisis of the peasantry was compounded by numerous famines in the nineteenth century (1817, 1822, 1831, 1835-37, 1839, 1842) culminating in the Great Famine of 1845-48. As before the labourers and small farmers, who were heavily dependent upon the potato for their subsistence, were the chief victims. Tenants were evicted by landlords who feared that they would be held responsible for famine relief. In Kilrush, County Clare, 7,000 persons were evicted between August 1848 and January 1849. In three years the population of Ireland declined by over two million: one million died of starvation and famine-related diseases such as typhus and relapsing fever and an estimated one million emigrated. The remainder stayed on the road or entered government workhouses which provided minimal relief. Revealing an antipathy towards itinerants which already existed at this time, the historian Woodham-Smith noted that some places relief committees "...of hopelessly unsuitable persons had been sanctioned; in Glenties, County Donegal, the chairman was a tinker."12 It is a common belief that many travelling people descend primarily from families dispossessed during the famine. It seems unlikely however that many date to this period since all people on the road were dependent upon the settled population for subsistence and during the famine few people had food to spare. Indeed by the end of the famine the cottier class had all but disappeared. Survival must have been difficult even for tinsmiths and other itinerant tradesmen who were used to a nomadic existence. Numerous travelling families emigrated to the United States at this time. Fredrick Arnold, an American folklorist, reported meeting Irish "tinkers" in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts in the late 1800s. And today several thousand Irish travellers live in the southern United States. It seems unlikely therefore that many famine-struck peasants permanently joined the ranks of the travelling people. Most went onto the roads only until they could be admitted to one of the workhouses or make their way to the nearest port for passage out of the country. Poverty has continued to contribute to the number of travellers in the present century. One traveller relates the background of a Dublin dealer. He started off with a bad accordian. His mother was a Granard woman, in the county Longford. They had a little house — that time houses were only a shilling a week. She had five or six big sons, and they were very poor. The sons used to go out and they'd bring a big sack and they'd gather potatoes and they'd gather meal. There was a shop that'd give them so much a pound for meal and so much a stone for potatoes — they were very cheap at that time. Then the boys started to learn how to play accordians. And their family was

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too big for this small house so they started on their own on the road. That'd be over fifty year ago. They went around to the towns playin' accordians and singin' in the streets. And they were very tight about money and very mean people. A loaf would do them a week and a quarter of butter was the most they ever bought. They gathered up all the pennies and hae -pennies when they'd be done musicianin' and changed them into pounds. And they used to tie that up in a bundle till it got blue-molded. Later then, they came on and started buyin' up ponies. The first pony they ever bought was from Connemara. There was plenty of ponies goin' wild in the mountains and farmers that time would sell them for four or five pound. Well, they went down and bought up about twenty of these young foals and sold them. The first that bought these foals off them was the Dorans — Johnny and Felix. They kept goin' up and back to Connemara and they got rich. Now today, this family is one of the richest that's around Dublin. They got rich because they were so clever and mean. They could save their money." "DROP-OUTS" Sometimes personal factors which had nothing to do with the general economic conditions of the country sent people onto the road. A drinking problem, an illegitimate child, marriage to a tinker, or other socially unacceptable behaviour was often cause for leaving one of Ireland's small close-knit communities. Illegitimacy was especially stigmatised in the late 1700s and 1800s, and unwed mothers seldom made "respectable matches" if they married at all. Consequently, many were forced to become "strolling women" who walked the roads begging and prostituting. From County Carlow the Poor Inquiry Commission recorded the following testimony in 1835: "Very often women who have bastards are driven to begging, and usually go out of their parishes to beg: in this way they become inured to all the vices and miseries of a vagrant life, in very many instances prostitution is the result; and it was considered that almost all prostitution may be traced to that cause.'13 It is possible that some of these women and their families were absorbed into the travelling community. Alcoholism has also accounted for some Irish giving up their homes for a nomadic life. Among the peasantry the consumption of alcohol was very high, particularly in pre-famine Ireland when beer and whiskey were cheap and illegally distilled "poteen" (potato liquor) enjoyed wide popularity. Seventy-five year old Biddy Doran, now living "Goin' back a hundred year or more, me people lived in a cottage in the County Carlow where they was castratin' cattle and pigs for a livin'... The ole fellow was supposed to be fond of drink. They say he spent all

his money on it and got behind in the rent. When they (landlord) wouldn't let the family in the cottage no more, they had to go on the road. They travelled all the county Carlow castratin' pigs and stoppin' in old waste houses for the winter. That's probably how they first married into the road." A person who married someone already living an itinerant life was likely to be shunned by the local community and obliged to live on the road. Nanny Nevin's grandmother "...came from the North, from Derry. She was a country woman. Her father was a farmer. She was a Walton, Nanny Walton was her name. When she married me grandfather, she thought he was a farmer or a man that lived in a house because he was in the army. And when she found out her mistake — who he really was — she was a traveller on the road." This process has continued to the present: men or women who marry travellers usually live on the road rather than in the settled community because of the longstanding stigma attached to being a "tinker". A COMMON IDENTITY While thousands of Irish have moved onto the roads through the centuries, not all ultimately became travelling people. Many were nomadic for only a few months each year; others eventually emigrated or returned to the land with the onset of better times. Those who remained however gradually developed a separate identity. At first this identity was based only on the similarity in their lifestyles. But gradually it was strengthened by their growing isolation from settled society and intermarriage with other itinerants. As nomads, whose ties with settled society were short-lived, travellers have long been regarded with suspicion. Conrad Arensberg and Solon Kimball, who studied rural life in County Clare in the 1930s, noted that itinerant weavers and tailors as well as tinkers were disliked by local Irish because they were "travellers", while settled tradesmen such as the blacksmith had considerable prestige. Settled Irish were also alienated by the trickery used in horse dealing, the nuisance of begging, and the occasional pilfering of chickens and farm produce, trespassing and property damage. So although country people needed many of the services travellers provided, they rarely welcomed them once their work was done. The use of Shelta as the language of the road also strengthened their identity, As used by travellers today it is a true "cant" or form of disguised communication, whose purpose is to conceal the meaning from outsiders. Shelta words and phrases are interspersed in quickly spoken English sentences, many are warnings or commands such as "Staysh, the shades anasha!" (Look out, the guards are coming up!).

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Left — barrel top wagons at the Finglas Itinerant Site

5

The importance of Shelta to the travelling peoples' identity as a separate group is revealed in Mick Donoghue's comment: "Years ago, if other travellers caught one of them givin' a lot of Gammon to a stranger, they'd give him a right thunderin' beatin', and everyone would be alert to him. It'd be just like a traitor to his country." Several developments in the last 150 years may have sped up this process. Before the nineteenth century itinerants lacked shelter of their own. At night they slept in the kitchens or outbuildings of small farmers and labourers or in roadside hedges. They travelled on foot, sometimes accompanied by a donkey, and covered only small areas. Carts were apparently acquired in the late 1800s. It wasn't until the first World War that travellers adopted the canvas-covered "barreltop" wagon from English Gypsies who came to Ireland briefly to escape conscription. "Ah, its the gypsies that begined those first in this country. We'd never seen them in our life until the gypsy brought them. Sure, I'm seventyseven years of age. It must be sixty or seventy year ago... somethin' around the '14 war. The gypsies brought them from Wales. Then the Irish picked them up. First they swapped for them, then every traveller could nearly make his own caravan." (Jim Connors) At first only the wealthier travellers, generally the horse dealers, could afford them. But gradually they became widespread. The adoption of the cart and wagon made the travelling people self-sufficient in terms of shelter and hence less dependent upon the settled community. The use of wagons and carts also gave them greater mobility which in turn increased contact and intermarriage between different groups of travellers. The acquisition of such unique and easily identifiable possessions also heightened the tendency of travellers to view themselves, and be viewed by settled society as a separate group. Less than a century earlier in 1865, Simson had been able to write that "tinkers": "... are not easily distinguishable from common Irish peasants except that they are generally employed in some sort of traffic, such as nawking earthen-ware, trinkets, and various other trifles through the country." 14

26

@ R A M B L I N G C A N D Y MAN (Made and sung by "Rich" Johnny Connors)

The day that I left Ireland, sure things were very slack; 1 rambled over to Glasgow and I'm wishing to get back. I was gathering old pot metal and more times bones and rags; Sure all the little different things I put into different bags. To see all the little kiddies with their bones stuck in their hands And enquiring for Johnny Connors, he's a rambling candy man. An old man come to me one day, thought I was rather green, Down in the corner of his sack there were bricks you could plainly see. Sure I said, "Old man, take up your sack, sure I'm not in the game. You can't handle bricks or mortar to any rambling candy man".

"When we come over first, we pulled in: things were going bad. We pulled in this bit of waste ground and this old man he come up to us and he thought we were real, you know, that we would buy anything. But I suppose this man wanted a drink, he probably had his own problems as well as us".

Il/örk and Travel "A tinker was a man years ago who thought of a hundred ways of surviving. If he was sellin' delph and the delph failed him, he'd switch to somethin' else. He'd sell somethin' else or he'd buy somethin' else and resell it. There was always a hundred ways out. This was the real tinker, not just the tinsmith. He was a better survivor than the rest." (James Browne) Unlike most Irish who either own land or earn an income from wage labour, the travelling people have always been flexible and pursued a variety of subsistence activities. These activities catered to the occasional needs of the settled community and required mobility. In the recent past, travellers were itinerant tinsmiths, chimney sweeps, pedlars, basket and sieve makers, horse and donkey dealers, collectors and scavengers, farm labourers, and musicians. None of these occupations alone was very profitable, but together they provided enough food, clothing and cash to meet the needs of most families. THE TRADITIONAL WAYS As recently as the 1940s the tinsmith travelled from one farm house or village green to another repairing old vessels and selling new ones. On his back he carried the tools of his trade in a box known as the "budget". At farms he sat in the yard or kitchen replacing rusty bottoms in various tin containers and mending holes and leaks with the aid of solder and a "tinker's dam" (a ring of dough placed around the leak to keep the solder from running off). At the start of the milking season, he was often in demand to mend the earthenware coolers in which farmers once "set" milk before the era of modern creameries. By first drilling small holes in the broken sections, the tinsmith was able to lace them back together with bits of tin and wire. In a similar way he repaired delph serving dishes, plates and cups. The

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tinsmith also made new containers of various sizes: "ponnies" (pint mugs), 4-pint,9-pint, and 18-pint tins. On demand he could also make tea kettles, buckets, milk pails, small lanterns, tubs out of sheet iron, and even fancy cake tins. Some travellers also made implements for the illegal distillers of "poteen". Some tinsmiths were also "metal runners". As early as the late 1800s they collected scrap metal and cast iron objects such as broken pots and kettles. These were further broken up and melted, then the liquid was poured into sand moulds to produce smoothing irons, plough heads and iron hearth slabs. The liquid metal was also used to repair broken legs or fill-in holes in iron pots. The demand for the itinerant tinsmith varied. According to present-day travellers in Ireland there was never as much work for tinsmiths in the rich province of Leinster as in the poorer, more isolated regions of the North, West and Southwest. In 1960 there were 213 tinsmiths in the counties of Galway, Mayo and Roscommon, while only 29 in all of Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare.1 Other travellers swept chimneys moving from one town or "big house" (estate) to another. The sweep's main tools were a set of detachable rods and brushes and he was paid according to the number of pints of soot he collected. Nan Donoghue describes her father's work in Longford and Westmeath. "He had a big bag to catch dust and a small hand brush for sweepin' that up. And he had two size brushes in case there'd be any bends in the chimney. Then he had a scraper to scrape down the chimney and different size machines: 5-foot rods, 6-foot rods and even 8-foot rods. Bigger! And the weight of them to carry! But he carried that on his shoulder the same as if it were nothin' because he was used to it. And it was a very early job. Me father would be up at five in the morning. Some very big places, it'd take him maybe a week to do them. They were very big houses with an awful load of chimneys... It was a very dirty job, but there was great pay in it. The best payin' job out. The tinker that time got nothin', you know very little money for his work. But the sweep got well paid and he was very well respected. He had to be very honest because he'd be comin' in to parlours, different bedrooms with all this stuff, jewellery and money — very valuable stuff. Well, everything was left under a sweep, so's he had to be honest." Many travelling people were pedlars, travelling through the countryside selling delph or "waxy" (linoleum) which they had purchased as seconds from warehouses and factories. Travelling women always "hawked" small, easily portable wares such as almanacs, lace, scrubbing brushes, and needles from a basket they carried over their arm. These items were purchased in the larger towns they passed through. Most women also carried some of their husband's tinware and

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The finished product, hand made tinware

Griddle bread on an open fire

other handmade items including clothes pegs, baskets and even fishing lures made from feathers and horse hair. They preferred to sell their wares for cash, but farm wives, particularly in the impoverished West, often did not have money to spare. So they bartered for farm produce instead. Some carried "poke" bags with them from house to house. One end was tied to their waist and the other was thrown over their shoulder. Flour and meal were placed in these and later exchanged for more difficult to obtain items such as tobacco at country stores. A traveller recalled the poverty of Galway and her experiences peddling there: "It was very hard for a travellin' person to get a livin' in Galway. It'd take ages to get a few pounds because the farmers there had so little money. One time me and Mick sent clear back to Dublin to get this stuff to sell. We give a fiver for it and had to pay for it gettin' down be train. We thought Galway, account of bein' well populated with houses, that we were goin' to get plenty of money for these nice brooches, pictures and cheap rings. Well, I went out the first day with them and couldn't sell nothin'. Oh, they were wantin' the brooches and cheap rings, you know, in the country part where they couldn't get into towns. But when they'd go to pay me for it they wouldn't go for money, they'd go to give me a bucket of potatoes or cabbage. And I'd keep tellin' them, `I don't want no potatoes, it's the money I want.' You know, you can only carry so much potatoes. Well now a dear thing, maybe a picture that cost us ten shillings... One woman came out with two big sods of turf and she wanted me to give her the ten shillingy picture. Well I was tormented, so back I comes. I was all nerves goin' home because Mick thought I'd have a big pocket of silver. Out he came to meet me. `Oh' he said `you must have goin' miles. That pony is sweatin'.' `Oh' I says `I got fed up and rushed him comin' home.' 'Well, I'm glad you're back, I'm starvin' he said. And he had the kettle boilin'. I was afeared he'd say somethin' about the money so I kept laughin'. But I was goin' that way (shaking) inside in case I got a clout. Oh, he'd kick you too. Sometimes Mick was thick and he'd give you a box, maybe a good beatin'. `Well' he said `there's plenty of houses. Its well populated this Galway, isn't it?' `Oh, its beautiful' I said. `its only a scenery place though. They're very poor.' I was tryin' to explain to him. I wanted to wait till he had his tea got. I fried him eggs. I gave him all I could. `Well' he said, when he didn't hear me throwin' out the money. `Did you do any good today?' `I got plenty of food' I said. `I'm not talkin' about food, did you get any money? Did you sell anythin'?' `I did' I said `I think I sold about four little things to women that paid me. There's all I got. I had to give away half of it for food. I can't understand the people, they're all speakin' Irish. They were gabberin' like turkeys and wouldn't listen to me.' I threw down

M M

. about three shillings and Mick was expectin' four or five pound. Well he near kicked the basket into the air. The next day he had to go out himself and he found out then. We had to leave Galway for Clare, and we sold well enough in Clare. But Galway ... its the poorest county I ever seen of money. And you'd be et out with the little flies." When travelling women could not sell or "swap" their wares, they begged. "In the name of God and his Holy Blessed Mother have you e'er a bit of bread or sup of milk for me poor childer". For many the basketful of wares was little more than an excuse for begging. But whether peddling or begging, travelling women worked hard. "I'd often walk, say this to Bray, ten mile and carried a heavy child in me arms. And you'd have to enquire would there be e'er a house. Maybe six fields you'd see a house. So you'd climb in through the fields. We used to have an awful hard time gettin' over stiles. And you'd go there and maybe the woman would be in town and the man couldn't assist you nor buy nothin' from you. Go along to another and maybe the door would be slammed in your face. Walk away to another, out over ditches and hedges... it makes me lonesome and sorry to think of it. You. might do all that and get only two coppers. I wouldn't be able to get ten cigarettes." (Biddy Doran) When turned away empty-handed, some women switched from blessings to curses. "May God give you an angry cancer". Both were so commonplace that "it isn't worth a tinker's curse" became an adage in rural Ireland for something worthless and a "tinker's blessing" sadly came to mean something non-existent. HORSES AND BLOCKERS Horse dealing has long been associated with travellers. For some families it was the major occupation, for others it was supplementary. Full-time horse dealers, known as "blockers", travelled more widely than either the tinsmith or chimney sweep. The Sheridans travelled around Limerick, Tipperary, Clare, Cork, and Kerry and frequently further to deal at large horse fairs such as Ballinasloe in Galway. Between fairs they bartered horses and donkeys at individual farms or drove herds from the West where they were plentiful and cheap to the East where they could be sold for a considerable profit. Travelling horse dealers had a reputation for being good judges of the animals they dealt in, as well as shrewd and clever dealers. Settled Irish seldom expected to better them in a deal and some, in fact, paid travellers (known as "guinea hunters") to do their dealing for them at fairs. When the opportunity presented itself travellers bought and sold from country people and it was with the poor, often naive small farmers that they had their most profitable dealings. Young work horses and donkeys were sold to farmers or "swapped" for

34

The traditional way of collecting 'scrap' A bath for the author's horse

older, tired animals plus a small sum of cash known as the "boot". Older animals were then "knackered" (sold to the slaughterhouse) or made young and energetic again and resold to the unsuspecting. Mustard, pepper or some other irritant placed around the animal's rectum made it prance around long enough to convince the farmer that he was getting a spirited animal. By the time he realised his mistake, the traveller was miles down the road. Having gotten a "tinker's deal" came to mean that a farmer felt he had gotten a bad exchange. Horses were the cause of considerable hostility between farmers and travelling people. Whenever travellers made camp they turned their horses free on the side of the road to graze the "long acre." Because there was seldom enough grass on the roadside to feed them and they could easily wander, travellers often let their animals into fields. "Some travellers would stay up all night if they had no food for the animals. They'd stay up until the farmer went to bed and then they'd go down and open up the gate and put in the horses. They wouldn't put them in a skinny field, they'd get the one with the good rye grass growin' in it. They'd be up early in the morning then to take out the horses and tie them up again. The farmer would come on lookin' and he'd be lookin' around and he'd see the track of the horses. He'd say Was there any of ye up around the field last night?' And we'd say, `No, sure my horses were here the whole time'. Maybe the next night the farmer would be on the look-out, and they couldn't .let them in. Well, they'd go on with their rope and steal a couple of bales of good hay or else they'd go on to a big cock of hay out of the land and they'd steal a big bundle of that and put it under the horse's head. They'd look to see did they leave bits of hay behind, that way they wouldn't be tracked." (Nanny Nevin) Large herds of animals could cause considerable damage trampling crops and breaking fences. And irate farmers complained to the police or retaliated directly. More than a few travellers have had their horses' tails and manes cut, or worse, had their animals shot. FORTUNES Some women made a living telling fortunes as they walked from door to door peddling. Various methods were practised from interpreting the tea leaves left in a person's cup to reading palms and cards. Maggie Corcoran claims to have "reared fourteen childer on crystal". They were careful about whom they solicited from as fortune telling was illegal. Guards houses were studiously avoided. Moreover if they seemed too eager, it would detract from the powers many people thought they possessed. Some women simply kept a deck of cards in their peddling basket so that it was in clear view of the housewife.

36

37

As Clifford so aptly describes in the "Tinkers Wife"...: She cut the cards for girls And made their eyes glow bright, She read the palms of women And saw their lips go tight. "A dark man will marry you On a day in June, There's money across water Coming to you soon.

Oh he'll be rich and handsome, And I see a bridal feast; Your daughter will dwell in Dublin, Your son will be a priest."

Another method of making money was to cut small squares of bark from a dead tree, coat them with glue and roll them in lavender, wrap them in cellophane and sell them as cure-alls. The traveller claimed that the wood was from Lourdes and had been blessed by a curing priest making it more powerful than any holy water. He would open the package and tell the prospective customer to smell it. Impressed by the aromatic lavender scent, country people might spend several shillings for one small package. Perhaps the most elaborate trick involved the use of the "gladar box". Some tinsmiths in the West were so adept at this trick that they were known as "coiners" by other travellers, and one family was nicknamed the "Gladar Maughams". Armed with a small book-like wooden box, the tinsmith claimed the ability to mint coins. The two leaves of the box contained impressions of a half-crown or two shilling piece. The traveller approached a farmer implying that he could turn a small amount of money into a lot. To fully convince a suspicious farmer, he would give a free demonstration in which he poured molten lead solder into the box through a small opening in the top. Next he would ask the farmer for a bucket of water to drop the hot finished coins into. While the farmer was gone, the traveller quickly slipped a shiny new coin into the box. When the farmer returned he dropped the coin, now red-hot from contact with the molten lead, into the bucket of water. "He'd say `Here now' to the farmer `go and take that into town and see is it good'. So the farmer would go and hand it in to a shop, then he'd come back to get more. He'd give the tinker four pound, and the tinker would give him maybe a pound of those half crowns and two shillings. But these would all be good. The next thing then the farmer would end up goin' into the bank and takin' out a couple of hundred pound and hand it over. Then the tinker'd tell him to meet him on such

38

a day, but the tinker'd be gone on. And he'd have the farmer that much frettened, `If the law knows about it, you'll do jail', that he couldn't report it. Oh, they could have gettin' in serious trouble. The police could have gettin' them for fraudery making money. More of them would be that much ashamed, afeared that their neighbours would go around talkin'. There was only a few, `coiners' we used to call them, at that. Some of them got rich. They got plenty of money. More of them was that fond of drink, they'd have a good week's drink out of it and a good feed. I don't think there's any at that today. The farmers have gone too clever." (Nan Collins) TRAVELLING The close association of family names with certain parts of Ireland reflects the fact that most travelling people moved in restricted local circuits. The government census in 1961 found that 30 per cent travelled within a small local circuit and 45 per cent travelled within their province, while only 5 per cent claimed to travel countrywide? Tinsmiths, chimney sweeps and pedlars typically covered a small area. For this reason, they often became well-known local characters and sometimes received nicknames such as "Bawling Moll" and "Mary-ask-all" from the settled community. Mick Connors, a Dublin scrap dealer, describes the travel circuit his family used to follow in county Wexford: "My people only just travelled around the county Wexford, down as far as Wexford Town, Enniscorthy, Ferns, and Gorey. Then maybe they'd go back to Newtownbarry (Bunclody), Borris and New Ross. They might go as far as Arklow, that's only four mile out of the county, then the next week they might go back the same bloody road again. It'd take us a long time because we wouldn't be in a hurry — we wouldn't rush goin'. They went to Waterford once I think. I remember we were camped near the town just once, all right. And we went to Carlow a few times". Most families stayed on the road the year round. But some "wintered" in towns or villages. The horse-dealing Ryans and Sheridans returned to Rathkeale, Limerick to spend the winter months. Wealthier families rented accommodation, while the poorest took shelter in the ruins of abandoned houses. In the last fifteen years the pattern has changed as travellers have migrated to urban areas and become more sedentary. The travelling people usually moved and camped in groups of two to four related families, seldom more, for there was simply not enough work in most places to support a larger group. Sometimes they made plans to meet each other along the way, in which case they left road markers — perhaps only a bunch of grass or a turf sod. Others tied a

39

o .t-

41

piece of cloth to the tops of hedges to indicate their route. "Look at the four-cross roads and you'll see a bit of rag on the bush". Twentyfive miles was the longest distance they covered in one day. They camped in the same places, time and time again, usually on lonely roadsides beyond the edge of town. They looked for a place where the verge was wide enough to pull their carts or wagons off the road, where the ditch or hedges shielded them from the wind and where water and firewood were available. A traveller described one unpleasant aspect of what it was like. "We used to be nervous travellin' strange counties, that time the settled people was a bit rough with the Travellers. At night they'd come and fire stones and rocks on top of their camps, and comin' home from dances they were very rough. There's towns too where the police was bad. If a Traveller went to put up a camp or pull in, they'd kick them out ... wouldn't give them time for a cup of tea". Travellers were allowed to stay near a town or village as long as they were working. After that they were frequently forced to leave. In some places they were hardly tolerated at all. If they didn't leave of their own accord, the gardai would visit the camp and force them out. The treatment they received also depended upon the reputation of the particular traveller "clan". "Most kept goin' in three or four famiiies together. But me and Mick used to go on our own. And there was a couple of families the same. If you were on your own, you'd have a better chance travellin'. The farmers were more kinder then. If a farmer wanted a job done, potato pickin' or anything, we'd go in and help him. And you could be there for maybe three or four weeks and if you were honest and the farmer got to know you and trust you, he'd keep givin' you a bit of work. You could be there months."

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APPLEBY FAIR (from "Rich"Johnny Connors)

'Tis at Appleby Top you will find a horse fair, Which brings all these travellers there year after year. You'll see all the dealers with diddys all there, Sat cooking there scran around smokey wood fires. They'll have piebalds and skewballs, and flea bitten greys, Like the most of their owners they've seen better days, With a greasy-heel here, and a bog-spavine there, We'll take knacker prices for those at the fair. Sure you all know Bob Ferris, and young Billy Brough, Sure they've all had it off and they sold some good stuff, Between wibbling and wobbling, and speaking of grai, Sure we all will be thinking of Appleby Fair. Sure you all know Dan Mannon, he's a man who is game, He kept trotting horses which have brought him great fame, In company with Chick and he smokes a cigar, And he speaks of his daughter who drives a posh car.

rip_-- —_— -NM NMI ~ Imo b rf.■•—_----BM -NMI -AM=_ _w NMI - --

~Ts Iri

41)P-I.F —s)'

ToP You PIMA PIP q HORSE Ø11Z wir xa

vel-Aas asete YEØ RF-,Ea YEAR

s RlJt

rxa A-

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'THEW SAT Ø- 0-5 INN SaWa+ A -Rea, Sno-t)' NØ F/RØ

Although this song owes its origin to the English travelling community, most of the Irish singers we have recorded either knew it, or had heard it from other Irish travellers.

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The move to the City "Ah, there's more in the city now than ever was in it. Them all blew in this last thirty years." (Nanny Nevin) At the end of World War II there were fewer than fifteen travelling families in the Dublin area. By 1961 there were forty-six and today there are six times that number.1 Cork, Limerick, Galway City, and provincial towns have also experienced an influx of travelling people. The pattern is similar in Britain. In general they moved to the city for the same reasons as the rural population. The city offers economic opportunities not available in the countryside. As travellers say. "You can't get a livin' in the country anymore". With modernisation most of their traditional occupations became obsolete. The introduction of mass-produced tinware, plastics and enamelware in the 1930s and 1940s all but eliminated the need for the itinerant tinsmith. Plastic and enamelware containers do not rust, and factory made tinware was cheap and easily obtainable. According to Old Jim Connors, "There's no tinsmithin' now that people can buy plastic buckets. When a bucket wears out you just throw it away, no cause to put a new bottom in it. And you can buy them cheaper than I can make tins.... I hear they're even usin' rubber bullets in the North". Only a few tinsmiths can still actively practise their craft, mainly in the West, and few men under the age of forty know the trade. Chimney sweeps found work for a while, but in the last twentyfive years electric and gas heating have also eliminated their usefulness. The mechanisation of many farms all but eliminated the need for the draft animals itinerant horse dealers had previously dealt in. Today traveller men still keep horses, but mainly as a means of investing their money and for the sheer pleasure of owning them. Most horse dealing

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today takes place between fellow travellers. Farm mechanisation also eliminated the need for much farm labour. Improved roads and transportation, both private automobiles and bus service, made access to towns and shops easier. And as country women began to do their shopping in provincial towns, there was less demand for itinerant pedlars and dealers. Other supplementary sources of food and income have disappeared from rural areas. Until recently many farmers grew crops only for subsistence and did not market their produce. If they had a surplus it was often given to the travellers who begged at their doors or exchanged for services such as mending delph or tinware. With improved farm machinery and chemical fertilisers, farmers have increased their yield and with better transportation are now able to market their crops. Consequently they no longer have the odd bag of potatoes or tin of milk to give the travellers who come to their doors. "There's more privilege in the city than they have in the country and more of a population where they can knock out a livin'. In the country the houses are scarce and the small farmers have tightened up and the labourin' man doesn't have much. He doesn't have anything to give away. In the city travellers .has more of a chance of gettin' food and wearables. In Dublin they can get on a bus and for a couple of pence it will bring them to places where they can get clothes and food". (Mick Donoghue) The need to find new ways of earning a living has drawn the travelling people to urban areas. Collecting scrap metal is a very suitable alternative to the old occupations as it allows the same mobility and job autonomy that travellers have always enjoyed. Scrap metal collecting is an indirect outgrowth of tinsmithing. In the early declining days of tinsmithing travellers began to supplement their meagre incomes by collecting discarded metal and cast iron objects from farmers. Gradually the lure of abundant scrap metal from building sites, factories and private homes drew travellers to urban areas. The city also offered the opportunity for intensive and lucrative begging. As selling door to door declined, traveller women turned exclusively to asking for alms and there was no better place to do this than in the city, as a thirty-six year old travelling mother of ten explains. "The city people are richer and the houses are stacked up one against the other. In the country the houses do be far apart so you can't cover many in a day. But here its no bother doin' a hundred houses. There isn't hardly a door that I didn't knock at one time". Travellers have also found that there are numerous charity and welfare organisations in the cities willing to assist them. Convents dispense free bread, blankets and secondhand clothing to needy

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Living in Dublin

Dundalk Itinerant Site

47

families. In Dublin for example there are several "penny dinner" houses which provide meals for nominal sums and also hostels for emergency lodging. The St. Vincent de Paul Society has provided assistance for some families. And when the Itinerant Settlement Movement was first organised in the mid-1960s, wagons, tent canvases and trailers were given away or rented to travelling families for small weekly sums. Many heard of these opportunities and were drawn to the city because of them. Moreover the "dole", which was first made available to the travelling people in the early 1 960s, paid a slightly higher rate in urban areas than in the countryside. "Nearly all the travellin' people are in the towns now, there's hardly a traveller in the country at all. Them all moved to the towns on account of signin' on to this dole". (Paddy Maugham) Other aspects of urban life besides economic opportunity also drew travelling people to the city. Ordinary street lights which are scarce in the countryside are one example. In most cities they extend well beyond the suburbs providing light for all the families camped on the outskirts. When speaking about the old days travellers often mention the "loneliness" of camping on dark country roads always beyond the lights of the nearest town, with only a campfire and candle to brighten the night. Equally important is the attraction of pubs and cinemas which make evenings in the city far more exciting than anything in the countryside. Although "barred" from many pubs and cinemas when recognised as travellers, there are in fact more places to choose from in urban areas. Thus in the city travellers are given both more opportunity and anonymity. WORKING IN THE CITY Travelling men and boys make up a major portion of the bottom tier of Ireland's scrap metal industry. By collecting discarded metal objects such as car bodies, pipes, cables, and appliances from private homes, petrol stations, small businesses, building sites, institutions and city tips, they recover material which would otherwise be wasted. Unfortunately settled Irish view the collection of scrap metal and other waste items as a sign of dependency rather than as the useful economic and ecological service it is. The non-ferrous metal (copper, brass, aluminium, and lead) which travellers collect is sold to settled metal merchants who form the next tier of the industry. Ferrous metal (steel and cast iron) is sold to the merchants or directly to the foundry where it is recycled for export to England or use in Ireland. Travellers usually collect scrap in pairs — a father and son or two brothers. Working together not only provides companionship but also increases profits and provides assistance in loading heavy objects. Many travellers are small-scale collectors who gather scrap from door to

48

c.

.7t-

door in the suburbs from a pony and cart. This is the most elementary and least profitable form of "scrapping" since the use of a pony and cart limits how far from camp the collector can travel and how much scrap he can carry. The more successful collectors prefer to buy directly from factories and other large sources of scrap metal. "It's not worth the trouble goin' to the doors, all you get is an old bike here., maybe a cooker, and they'll ask you to pay for it". Travellers who have been in the city for some time develop regular stops where they become known. These private sources of scrap metal are considered privileged information and their location is a closely guarded secret. Large-scale collectors may act as middle men purchasing scrap from small-scale collectors and reselling it to metal merchants. Some of the more successful Dublin collectors used to make periodic trips "down the country" in their large lorries to buy scrap from poorer, rural travellers at a third to half the price it brought from Dublin metal merchants. While collecting scrap, travellers are alert to other ways of earning money. Men also deal in a variety of non-metal items such as old mattresses, furniture and small antiques which can be resold easily. Travellers accept odd jobs such as cleaning out the back of a shop or garage and taking away the refuse. Some of what they haul away may also be salvageable as scrap. A few repair lawn mowers and sharpen hedge clippers and knives. Mental note is taken of driveways that may need tarmacing, of furniture or antiques for sale, and of the location of scrap. This information is later sold to other travellers or settled Irish interested in buying or selling a particular item. "I was in town one day and I met a bloke, a dealer. `Do you know of anything?'says he. Nothin' much' says I. But I brang him up to where there was a tea set — a silver one. I knew where it was. I was asked to buy it and I wouldn't buy it. So I brang him up because the poor people now, to tell the truth, was bloody wantin' a few shillings bad'. Well he bargained, as true as God, for twenty minutes till he gave them a fiver. That I may drop paralyzed stone dead, what did he give me on the way back — over just bringin' him up and after he bargainin' with those poor people? A tenner". Because traveller men often appear rough and forbidding, many settled folk are hesitant and apprehensive about dealing with them. When home alone many women either refuse to answer the door or open it only wide enough to tell the traveller to go away. In an attempt to overcome this hesitancy scrap collectors request a series of items in hopes of triggering a response before the door is closed. "Have you any old scrap... mattresses... old batteries... bikes... any old clothes... furniture you might want to get rid of? Any old class of things to be taken away?" A good dealer is also persistent, dominating the conversa-

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16A101111Y

tion until he eventually wears the settled person down and forces them to look around for something to give. The travellers will rise to the challenge to outwit and manipulate settled people . They must live from the profit they make in dealing in scrap and other second-hand goods. One example of how subtly this may be done follows. One dealer accompanied by his brother-in-law and two young nephews approached a retired garda for scrap metal. The man led them to a shed where two automobile engines, several batteries and a large pile of used aluminium siding were stored. As in most dealing transactions, rather than offer a price that might be too high, the traveller made the garda state his asking price first. When he asked for eight pounds for each of the two engines, the traveller realised that he did not know the true value of the metal in his shed. Automobile engines at that time brought only three pounds from the metal merchant, while aluminium paid fifty pence per stone. With this in mind the dealer began to bargain enthusiastically for the engines, reluctantly agreeing in the end to pay fourteen pounds if the other "old stuff" was thrown in as well. When the garda agreed the travellers loaded the aluminium siding and batteries on to the lorry first, promising to return for the engines. That afternoon they sold the aluminium and battery lead alone for twenty pounds. They never bothered to return for the engines much less pay the owner the agreed-upon fourteen pounds. Scrap dealers take pride in being clever and are accorded respect by other travelling people for their abilities. Furthermore, travellers believe that it is up to every individual, whether traveller or settled person, to protect his own interests. Some of the side effects of scrap collecting create antagonism between travellers and settled Irish. Because "clean" scrap brings a higher price than "dirty" scrap, collectors must strip non-metallic parts such as the plastic or rubber handles on aluminium kettles and the plastic coating on copper wire from the metal. Fire is commonly used to burn off these unwanted parts or make it easier to break them off later. The smoke created in this separation process is a source of considerable annoyance to people living nearby. Large scrap piles are also an eyesore for nearby residents and passers-by. But because ferrous metals are relatively low paying, they are usually stockpiled until several tons or enough to make a trip to the metal merchant worthwhile have been accumulated. The average scrap collector does not earn much money. According to several large metal merchants, low-paying ferrous metals account for 75 to 80 percent of the metal travellers collect. In a typical example John Maugham and John Joyce spent five days collecting steel and cast iron and another day loading and transporting it to the foundry. The

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metal brought fourteen pounds or seven pounds each for six days' work. Another traveller commented, "It's not worth taking that stuff down there ... you'd make more begging in the city. There's hardly enough money in it for one man and they have to split it between themselves". Moreover, metal prices fluctuate widely with changes in the world metal market. Many Irish prefer to think that all travelling people are wealthy. Stories of the successful scrap collector or dealer who pulls a large bundle of bank notes from his pocket to pay for the scrap or furniture he is buying are cited as proof of this. The number of travellers who are able to do this is comparatively small and the practice is understandable when one takes into account the fact that they transact all business in cash and large-scale dealing demands a fair amount of capital. While rich opportunities for scrap collecting were one reason travellers were attracted to the city, it is now less profitable. The major reason for this is urban migration itself. Today there are so many travelling people in the city that competition for scrap is intense. In some cities the settled population have also taken up the trade and are now competing with travellers. In general people are more aware of the value of scrap metal and are inclined to ask travellers to pay for it rather than give it away free. BEGGING "There's much more begging today. Here in the city they have nothin' to do but get on a bus to carry them down to the city and sit down all day and get four or five pound. But years ago we had to do long country roads and me feet were sore from the gravel and stones. And then we'd be delighted to get a bit of food and we'd be thankin' God if we got enough. The money was scarcer then. Today people are richer and in the city they're more givish. That's what's encouragin' the young people to beg... It's gone so easy". (Biddy Doran) The money, food and clothing obtained through begging provides for many families' daily subsistence, and only the wealthiest families do not beg. There are two major types of begging: street begging and door-todoor begging. In the first, women and children solicit money from passers-by on city streets. In the second, they walk from house to house in residential areas and beg for food and clothing. When street begging women select busy locations: near the entrances to large department stores, near busy bus stops, in front of churches, and in Dublin, on the bridges which cross the River Liffey. The first person to beg at a particular location has rights to it that are recognised and rarely contested by other women. Only relatives share begging locations.

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Street begging occurs all year through. The amount of time spent on the street varies with the weather and season. It is most common during the summer when there are foreign tourists. Remarked Sally Flanagan, "I only wish I could get all the Americans to walk down the street without any Dublin people". Begging is also common during holidays such as Christmas and Easter when settled Irish are in charitable spirits. Some women intensify their street begging a full month before Christmas because "... after Christmas, they wouldn't give you the itch". The most profitable begging days are Friday after people have been paid and Saturday when city streets are crowded with shoppers. Travelling women say that the working-class are the most generous but do not have that much to give. Of those better off they say, "They like their money too much to give it away ... that's how they got rich". and "Rich people don't know what it's like to be poor". In street begging traveller women make a conscious effort to convey their poverty and need. They don a begging uniform of dirty, tattered clothing and a "rug" (shawl or blanket) which is wrapped around the body. A baby or small child is equally important. And if one is not available from the woman's own family, she will borrow an infant from another family in camp. Failing this, rags are stuffed in the shawl to resemble a baby. Settled Irish condemn this behaviour. "Don't tinkers have any pride?", "How can a mother take a baby outside and expose it to the elements?" and "Why are itinerants so dirty?". Yet the travellers' habit of adopting a begging costume and of taking a baby or small child with them begging is reinforced by the settled community which attempts to distinguish between women who are genuinely needy and those who are not. The most shabbily dressed travellers are judged to be the most needy and those accompanied by children receive more sympathy and money. Without the begging uniform the traveller gets very little. Some women beg more aggressively than others. A few merely sit on the footpath with a small cardboard box in front of them. They may look up and meekly ask for "a bit of help" but they rely primarily on looking pitiful enough that passers-by will drop coins into their box. Others pace up and down in front of shops or stand in the entrance. They may in extreme cases follow likely prospects as much as twenty yards up the street, speaking rapidly with outstretched hand: "Please mister, would you give us some money to buy a bit of food. The baby needs milk... and can't you see the burn on his face. I need money to buy a bit of cream for his face. Any bit of help you could give us and I'd be thankful". Women will often exaggerate their circumstances: "Could you spare a little help ma'am? My little child is dyin' of the hunger and I've no money to buy its milk. I've nine more fine childer

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ämil , life at Longfors , o. Westmeat

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in me wagon and me husband, God bless him, he's sick in hospital. I don't care about meself... it's the poor childer". One woman derived special pleasure from saying that her husband had deserted her for a "London girl". When these performances and entreaties fail, some women become belligerent and curse, insult or badger their clients. Women maximise the sympathy they receive by asking not for themselves but for their children. By asking for small amounts such as "a bit of help" or "a bit of change", travellers imply that settled Irish are stingy if they do not give. And they appeal to the religious or ethical emotions of the settled community by asking for help in the "name of God". They play upon the fears of the settled population. Because the travelling people are isolated from settled society and live a nomadic, "foreign" lifestyle they retain a mysterious aura. In the past, country people turned to travellers to perform spells, make love potions, cure infertility, and tell fortunes. Some of these beliefs linger and travelling women are able to capitalise upon them. One woman walked up to the window of a car parked at a petrol station, stared at the driver coldly and demanded money with the warning, "Never cross a gypsy!" The driver was so disconcerted that she gave her a pound note just to get rid of her. In another incident, a traveller was approached on the street by a young pregnant woman and her mother and asked whether the expected child would be a boy or a girl. After staring at the woman, examining her palm and feeling her abdomen, the traveller confidently predicted "a girl". This was the desired answer and both women gave her fifty pence. Street begging can be profitable although the amount received from a single individual is small. Ten pence is an average amount; anything less than a shilling is an insult. Fifty pence or a pound are something to boast of back in camp. Daily earnings range from a low of two pounds to a high of five. On holidays the rewards are higher and families with several members begging can earn a substantial income. As in scrap collecting and dealing, begging provides an opportunity for travellers to match wits with members of the settled community: some women claim only to beg for "the sport of it". Begging is also a relief from the boredom and tension of camp life. Door-to-door begging is more common than street begging. It is closer to the rural pedling pattern that travellers are familiar with and it is felt to be a more respectable form of begging. Mick Connors once boasted that, "No woman belongin' to the Connors would ever be caught wearin' a rug (street begging)". Settled Irish also regard soliciting food and clothing from door to door as a more legitimate subsistence activity than begging on the street for money. Travellers who regularly beg on the street will also beg "the houses" when they need clothing

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or when the police have become too active in the city. Women who beg in residential areas generally dispense with the begging "rug". Each pushes a pram or carries a large shopping bag to hold the food and clothing they receive. Those who go to neighbourhoods that are some distance from their camp take the bus or get a ride on their husband's pony and cart or lorry. The entreaties used are much the same as those used in street begging. They nearly always ask for small amounts: "a pinch of salt", "a grain of tea", "a sup of milk", and so forth. They can be persistent, asking for many different items and repeating each request several times despite anything the housewife may say. Travellers are loath to walk away empty-handed and in the end may even ask for nothing more than a glass of water — a request they believe can never be refused. Once the pram or shopping bag is filled, they place it out of sight of the door lest their clients think they have too much. If begging in the same neighbourhood that their husband is collecting scrap, they will empty the contents onto the cart or lorry. Since women sort through the clothing they have received and discard anything they cannot use or sell, settled Irish sometimes find clothing they have given to travellers thrown in their own hedges. Although this aspect of begging annoys residents, travellers see little point in carrying things they will not be able to use. Discarding clothing can also be a sign of contempt for the settled community and an assertion of the travellers' own pride. Remarked Mary Maugham, "They think just because you ask for something that you'll take anything and be happy with it". Travellers seldom discard food unless it has been opened or prepared for them. Then they fear being poisoned or of having been given bad food or served on dirty dishes. "You'd never be sure what had been in that cup before". Women who have been in the city for several years may restrict their begging to a small number of settled women, known as their "ladies", who save food and clothing specifically for them. In the best of these relationships, travellers are invited into the home for a meal and conversation. In some cases they share confidences and friendship. As a traveller remarked flatteringly of her lady, "She knows me life story". They may assist with light housework such as washing the dishes and shining silver. In turn they ask their ladies to make telephone calls, write letters to pressurise various government authorities into action. They also look to these women for a valuable emotional outlet; their ladies are safe persons with whom to discuss frustrations and fears which cannot be voiced in camp. Through conversation each learns about the other and many false stereotypes are broken down. At the very least names come into play and the traveller at the door is no longer just an anonymous beggar. And the standard begging techniques (the whine, stereotyped pleas and sym-

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All have duty to itinerants Answer to protesters PLEA tur charity and understanding. and a that the welfare of itinerant, i, the resprmsihitit•• of all of us, was made yesterday by the Roscommon counts manager, Mr. Sean 0 (:iollain. when he met a deputation from the Carrownabrickna Resident: Association. who are protesting against his decision to house a Tamil% of itinerant, in their area. Ar. n Gmllaut tid the for thea 2ami > ansi la, l•,or a ,

A

denotation. "Anything we have tinn w-nuld pay £300 Gn a w e have on loan from Cod, ryen While inn•t or ,hi. '•.our uwn (auntie, and we are thou¢ht it de,ir c Mid that in the end we will eel itinerant:, they a -red tha• • sin feel hy three. In Hiroshima should mil he where the mane,: they got only the imprint or had taken the pre.;ent site. But their charred bodies on the one who did not agree with the _round. deputation wa, Nr,. RO,,. " We will have to answer to Shannon. whit ,aid that ,he wa= their children, and to their ∎ sneaking on her own iteha:i. and • children', children, and I and not on beha:f of her par:. l'. -•• you will he responsible for the ' Gael. •

O'Connell Street Dublin

Dundnfnf, Co. Dublin

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pathy provoking stories) disappear, and they are appreciated as real people. Women and children beg directly from small grocery shops and butchers. Most suburban shops are visited several times a week by travellers requesting "a bit of help". Women who have been in an area for a long time often have regular butchers from whom they receive free or inexpensive meat. These begging exchanges resemble a "silent barter": the traveller wordlessly lays a few pence on the counter while the butcher quickly wraps up some meat, throws the money in the cash register and attempts to avoid direct eye contact with his regular customers who are watching. Explained Mary, "I just go into the shop and stand in the corner and he gives me something. He knows me". The combined value of the food, clothing and money obtained from door-to-door begging is substantial particularly when it is pursued daily and by more than one member of the family. The profit for many Dublin travellers comes from selling second-hand clothing at an open-air market known as the "Hill" held each Saturday morning. Here men also sell small appliances and other second-hand items they have collected during the week. Some make trips to Northern Ireland bringing back inexpensive merchandise, bales of material, children's clothing, rubber boots, and the like which they sell on the Hill. The settled dealers who sell there are resentful of the travellers who are newcomers to the market, and who can sometimes sell at lower prices since they obtain many things free. This antipathy is apparent by their practice of selling at opposite ends of the street from each other. The costs of begging can be high. Many women have been arrested by police and either issued with a warning or made to appear in court. Others have served time in jail.2 Travellers are also aware of the erosion in relationships that aggressive street begging causes. They are aware of attitudes towards begging and most have been asked at one time or another "Why don't you get a job?". One evening while sitting around the campfire Mary Browne and her father-in-law, Mick Donoghue, mimicked a typical begging scene. Mary played herself and Mick took the part of a settled man answering the door. Settled man: What do you want? Travelling woman: Have you any old clothes, a bit of food or anything? SM: Clothes? Where in the name of God do you think I'd get clothes for you? I'm only a poor workin' man meself. TW: You're lucky. SM: What do you mean lucky? Why aren't you lucky? TW: I'm only a poor itinerant and me husband's not very well. SM: What's wrong with him? TW: He's got a bit of the flu.

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Playing with the puppies at Rathfarnham, Dublin

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SM: Be God, I get the flu too and still I have to get up and go to work. Does your man work or what? TW: No, he only collects a bit of scrap now and again. SM: Ah sure, you's the ones who are makin' all the money. Where's the scrap go to? TW: Whatever he gets he buys a lot of firewood with it. SM: Ah sure, you's the ones who are tearin' down the ditches and everything. You have free firewood outside ... plenty of timber around you, loads of timber. TW: I've a lot of small children. SM: And what did you want all the children for if you couldn't keep them? What did you get married for then? TW: I'm not sure meself. SM: You don't know yourself. Oh, Be God, you should have known before you had all these children. Are you drawin' a big allowance for these children? TW: Sure, we're not gettin' anything for them. SM: How many children do you have? TW: Six. SM: How long have you been married? TW: Seven years. SM: What will it be when you're twelve years married? How many will you have then? TW: I don't know. SM: You'll keep havin' them will you? And your man's not workin' nor doesn't want to work. TW: He's not able to work. SM: Did he look for work? TW: He's tried a lot of places and couldn't get any. SM: What did he do before you was married? TW: Travelled. SM: Did you ever work? TW: No. SM: And there's no damn fear of you ever workin'. TW: Good man, would you give me something and let me on now? SM: You tinkers are all the same. Get away now and don't let me see your face around here anymore.

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THERE IS AN ALEHOUSE (sung by Andy Cash)

There are an alehouse all in this town Its where my love goes there he do sit down, And he takes a strange girl all on his knee And he'll tell her things that he won't tell me. For I do know the reason why, Is it because the girl have more gold than I? But her gold may melt and her silver will fly, And she'll see the day she'll be as poor as I. Then will he know I can wash and wring, And then he will know I can guard and sing (card and spin?) For I wish to god he took heed of me. And the day I ganged with my misery. There are two birds on top of a tree, Oh, some say they are blind and they cannot see, But I wish to god that old bird could see And then apples grow around a lily tree. Oh fye' oh fye' that girl she cried, It's because she have more gold than I, It's from Willie's company I'm cursed to find, (fly?) And the want of money it leaves me behind.

One of the most popular songs among the travellers we have met.

The Family Common to all travellers is a form of arranged marriage known as the "match". Until this century it was the accepted practice in most of rural Ireland as well. Matches are usually made between families from the same neighbouring counties who have a history of intermarriage. As Jim Connors states, "Our family nearly always married in between the Cashes, Dorans, Briens, and Connors. We never mixed up much with any outsiders, only Wexford folk". When families are tied together by numerous marriages, they develop a sense of solidarity expressed in the common saying, "There's no differ between them, they're married in through one another". Matches are usually arranged informally. In the past they were conducted over drinks at one of the annual fairs. Parents bargained over a small dowry: "I'll give them a tarpaulin, one knacker and ... I'll give 'em ..." Ideally both sets of parents outfitted the bride and groom with the basic necessities for life on the road; a canvas cover, blankets, utensils, and a horse and cart. Once both sides were satisfied with the agreement, their children were informed and arrangements were quickly made with a priest. Because the families came from the same or neighbouring counties, the prospective spouses usually knew one another at least distantly. This was not always the case however and in some matches the bride and groom were strangers to one another. Nevertheless, the couple were usually married within a few days. Sometimes a "matchmaker" rather than the parents would propose a marriage. A traveller known as "Cowboy McDonagh" makes many of the matches for the McDonaghs in Galway. "The matchmaker travels around and if he sees a nice quiet girl, he'll say, `Now that girl would suit. I know a boy'. They'd be relations of the matchmaker, maybe the young man is belonging to him. It may

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be his sister's son or his brother's son and he wants to see him doin' well and get a nice girl. He isn't thinkin' of gettin' anything, he's just lookin' after his relations wantin' them to marry into nice quiet people. He'll have a talk and convince them it would be a good match. The next thing, the match would be made". (Mick Donoghue) Besides family background, parents look for a number of characteristics in a prospective son or daughter-in-law. Ideally a girl should be "hardy", that is, strong and healthy, proficient at peddling and begging, and above all a virgin. Should rumours exist that she is not a virgin, the parents of the groom might call a "provin' match" in which both parents go to a church and the girl is made to place her hand on the Bible and swear before the altar that she is innocent of the accusation. In some instances, a suspected girl is also taken to a doctor for a medical examination. Girls who keep themselves "tidy" and "clean" and who take good care of their parents' campsite are also desirable. Physical appearance is secondary and in fact a girl that is too attractive is considered a liability since she can only lead to trouble by creating jealousy and attracting the attention of other men. "Travelling people don't care what the boy or girl looks like. What happens is the old people start taking drink together and they get real friendly while the drink is goin' well. And the next thing, they draw down the match. A match is made just like the deal of a horse. Once the father and mother is satisfied with the deal, the children is brought on to the priest and they're married. There's no love". The prospective groom received less scrutiny. He should be strong, not too fond of "the drink", able to defend himself and his family, and able to keep out of trouble with the law. Not all travellers feel that matches are good. "I know a lot of marriages made in pubs. They're no good. The people are never happy ... a person should be able to choose".. (Mary O'Beirne) The only alternative to the match in the past was the "run-away match" or elopement. The young couple simply ran away together fending for themselves or seeking help from sympathetic relatives for a few weeks until they were accepted back. If they had not already officially married, a wedding was arranged upon their return. Today, especially in urban areas, an increasing number of youths are choosing their own partners. For most couples marriage marks a rather abrupt transition from childhood to adult status and responsibilities. Travellers marry an average of ten years earlier than most settled Irish.' Until 1975 when the legal age for marriage in Ireland was raised to sixteen, many girls were married as young as fourteen years of age.2 Money, like household tasks, is rigidly divided between the sexes.

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There is little sharing. The money men earn from dealing, scrap collecting, and the "dole" is theirs to spend as they see fit. Most men give a couple of pounds from their weekly dole to their wives, but otherwise it is the woman's task to provide for the family's daily subsistence. This she does through begging, the sale of second-hand clothing and rags, and the monthly Children's Allowance. Many women keep post office savings accounts in order to have money to fall back on should they need it. "Years ago the men carried all the money. The women went out collectin' and if they got any money, the man'd always have his hand out for it. The women got nothin' years ago... There might be one woman that was a bit of a bully. She'd have a bit of courage and be able to take a beatin'. Well, she'd hold the money then. But a lot of us wouldn't be able for a beatin' and we'd be glad to hand up the money just for peacesake. The women aren't so foolish now as they used to be". (Nan Donoghue) One reason for this change is explained by Biddy Doran. "The women were under a compliment to their husbands long ago. They couldn't go away. They had only an ass and car and maybe ne'er a one. Now the women is independent. They don't care where the men go. If they go away, they've got no loss. They're drawin' the children's allowance, separation money, and all this carry on". To a large extent this is true. Travelling women today, especially younger women, are far less subservient and dependent upon their husbands than they were in the past. Violent quarrelling between husbands and wives is not uncommon. "The most cause of fights is drink and jealousy. There's a bad type of jealousy. All the travellin' men is very jealous of their women and the women are the same way with the men. The older the men get, the worse they get. Once they get drink, the least thing starts a fight". (Nan Donoghue) When one woman returned from the hospital after having her tenth child and learned that another woman had come into the trailer during her absence, ostensibly to borrow a box of matches, she started a loud argument with her husband claiming that he had "made little of her" and hadn't shown "respect for the children" by allowing another woman into their trailer. Long after there is any reasonable need to suspect a spouse of infidelity, the suspicion remains. Jealous men attempt to keep an eye on their wives by demanding that they stay close to the family caravan while in camp. A jealousy is often merely the stated excuse for starting a row. Frustrations and pent-up emotions and anxieties resulting from other grievances surface after one or both spouses have been drinking. Not uncommonly, verbal abuse comes to physical blows. When other

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families are camped nearby, a woman's best defence is to make as much noise as possible (usually by yelling and breaking windows and crockery) in order to draw their attention. If an argument begins during the day or takes place outside, a crowd may gather to watch. Wives air their grievances publicly for all to hear, in this way shaming their husbands. No one except close family members ever interfere and then only if the argument comes to serious physical blows. The mere presence of observers has a restraining effect on most couples. As a fight wears on, insults fly back and forth: "you dirty, fuckin' bastard" "you yellow-bellied pig". "Your mother was a whore!" is a woman's ultimate weapon and is guaranteed to put any husband in a rage. Marital fights are most common during the winter when so much time is spent indoors due to bad weather. The dreadful crowded conditions most families live in are then exaggerated and tensions mount. Travellers drink heavily at this time of year 'which in turn often leads to more fighting. One striking aspect of conflict between husband and wife is the swiftness with which the couple become friendly again. As one older woman remarked casually, "You know how quickly a black eye passes. I've had plenty of them in my time from my man". For many couples fighting relieves their frustration and anger which build up and which they find difficult to alleviate in any other way. Due to the crowded living conditions and the great amount of time couples spend in each other's company they must restore amicable relations or make life intolerable for the entire family. An additional strain on the husband-wife relationship is created by the strong emotional ties between men and their mothers. Many women are forced to compete with their mothers-in-law for their husbands' attention and devotion. Men go to their mothers for advice, sometimes taking complaints about their wives and marital difficulties to her. In such discussions mothers-in-law will defend their sons and blame everything on their daughter-in law's "bad temper", "laziness", and the like. Traveller women try hard to maintain strong ties with their married sons. This is especially true of the youngest son who in most families is considered the mother's "pet". "She saved him for herself" is a common remark acknowledging this. On one occasion a man confided to me, "I love me wife a lot, but to tell the truth, I love me mother more". The wife's authority and role in the family change during the course of her life. Her vulnerability is greatest as a young wife when she is cut-off from the security and aid of her own relatives and is forced to live much of the time with her husband's family. She is also busy raising and caring for her children who tie her to her husband and his family. As the years pass and her children grow up and marry, her power and authority increase. Sons usually side with their mother in a

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fight and protect her from her husband. They respect her both for the hardship and sacrifice she made for them when they were small and for the wisdom that age and experience confer. CHILD REARING Children are very important to travellers and large families are highly valued, especially by the men who feel that they are a reflection of their virility. As one father of ten boasted, "I'm the best baby maker on the green". According to Michael Donoghue, "Travellers want big families to have a big name like their fathers and mothers did". The average S traveller family is twice as large as the national average. Fully fifty-nine percent of the itinerant population is under fourteen years of age compared to thirty one percent for settled Irish4 In one Dublin camp, Holylands, each of the three women past childbearing age had had over twenty pregnancies. Biddy Connors has only nine surviving children; Nan Donoghue "has nineteen children livin' and three buried"; and Nanny Maugham has sixteen surviving children. The high fertility rate is explained in part by the lack of birth control and by the long reproductive careers of traveller women, who marry early and continue reproducing until menopause. In the past a high infant mortality rate served as a natural check on family size. Prior to 1960, 11.3 children out of every 1,000 born died in the first year of life.5 Today with improved living conditions and the increased accessibility of medical facilities fewer children are dying. Children are named after family members. Traditionally the first son and daughter were named after their paternal grandparents and the second after their maternal grandparents. Later children were named after their aunts and uncles and parents. Consequently the same Christian names are used over and over again and there are literally dozens of travellers with exactly the same name. To distinguish between the various Nans, Margarets, Winnies, Bridgets, Jims, and Martins of the same surname, names are prefixed with an adjective referring to some physical characteristic of the person. Three men in one camp were known as "Old Jim", "Big Jim", and "Slim Jim". The possessive is also used especially with children: "Bun's Jim", "Marty's Mary", "Sally's Billy", and "our Mylee". Some travellers claim that it is the children which keep husbands and wives together. "Travellin' women don't be long married when they have a baby, and the baby keeps them together because they really do love their children. They may be careless, but they do love their children and look forward to each baby and then another one comes along and another one. That's what keeps them together. They don't be thirty or even twenty years of age when they have a big family. Now take

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Mary, she's just twenty-two and she already has six children and another one comin' soon". (Mick Donoghue) Most parents are very fond of their children, particularly "soft children" or those less than two years of age who are still dependent. Much time and attention is lavished on them. Older children, in contrast, are seldom indulged and learn quickly to fend for themselves, relying more on their brothers and sisters for companionship and affection. They roam about the camp at will, playing on scrap heaps, building forts and push carts from scrap timber and amusing themselves with various games. They are allowed to eat whatever they like and help themselves to food whenever they feel hungry. Around eight years of age boys begin to help with chores: they collect firewood, haul water, look after the horses, and help their fathers sort and clean scrap metal. Girls have even greater responsibilities. They run errands to the shops and perform various chores such as preparing meals, cleaning floors, making beds, and watching their younger brothers and sisters. As adolescents both make a substantial contribution to the family income through scrap collecting and begging. Discipline is lax and inconsistent. The only place children are regularly reprimanded for misbehaviour is within the family's caravan or shelter. Here, because of crowded conditions, it is essential that some degree of order be maintained. Thus, parents are quick to strike or punish children for making too much noise or rough behaviour. Outside, children are permitted to do almost anything. Many elderly travellers complain about the way parents are bringing up their children. Old Biddy speaks for many: "Well, the childer now they torments me terrible. I gets a pain in me head thinkin' of the childer now ... They're the very same as childer with no parents. There was fear in the children long ago, they were afeared of their life if they done wrong. I was rough with them and still am a bit rough with childer. The way that I knowledged my little childer, if they done wrong or if anyone complained, that child was goin' to be bet and bet the right way. Not just playin' with them or just toppin' them. Now the parents is only laughin' at them. Whatever they'll do, let them be right or wrong, the parents is enjoyin' it. 'Ah, look at them now', 'Ah, listen to him', `Say it again Tommy'. Well, there was none of that years ago". Although there is little physical punishment, threats are common. If a child interrupts a conversation parents may shout, "Shut your mouth or I'll break your face" or "Shsssh, or I'll bounce your head off the floor". Similar threats are used in routine requests. One mother calls her children home by yelling, "Come here right now or I'll break your two legs". Physical strength is a highly valued trait and from early in life

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children learn to be "tough". They are taught to defend themselves and as much as possible to disregard physical pain. On one occasion two year old Tommy Browne was lightly slapped on one side of his face and then the other by his mother and insulted with remarks like, "How ugly you are!" and "What a cheeky boy". At first he withdrew meekly, but she only increased the abuse until he became "tormented" enough to strike back which was the desired response. Parents show no sympathy for a child who runs from a fight unless he or she is badly outmatched by an older child. Fighting is one of the few situations in which children are openly praised and rewarded for doing well. On one occasion a father paired his five year old daughter with a cousin of the same age in a boxing contest. After a few minutes, however, his daughter began to cry and refused to fight any longer despite his coaxing. Annoyed at this, he offered her cousin two bob to walk over and give her "one good box in the face to teach her a lesson" which she did. When children fall down or cut themselves parents hide any concern and attempt to shame or bribe them into acting "tough" and "brave". Children are also taught to be "clever". Cleverness is the ability to outsmart, outwit, or best others while preventing the same thing from happening to themselves. Among adults cleverness is manifested in many ways such as getting the best of a deal; selling scrap metal with concealed "dirt" in it; and telling others you paid more for an item than you actually did so you will be able to resell it later at a higher price. Being a successful beggar is one sign of cleverness and children who succeed are praised; those who do not may be ridiculed. Two young girls who returned to camp one day pushing a pram filled with food and clothing were teased by their parents about getting married as soon as the boys in camp learned what good beggars they were. On another occasion a father complained about his twelve year old son saying, "He's no good for nothin'. He can't even walk down the lane by himself ... Never brings a shilling home to his mother". From the point of view of the settled population some traveller children are neglected. They are often inadequately dressed, especially for cold and damp weather. They receive sporadic baths, insufficient rest, and often have poor diets. As in every culture a range of variation exists. Some parents are extremely conscientious, while others, especially those with a drinking problem, are relatively unconcerned. In general children receive no less care or attention than their parents give to their own needs. Most neglect stems from the physical conditions in which travellers live. Baths are infrequent because most families lack hot running water, and the task of carrying water in buckets to be heated over a fire and then bathing several children in a crowded and perhaps draughty trailer is too great to be done regularly. Many children are deprived a "good night's sleep" simply because the shelters

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they live in, whether they are tents, caravans or huts, are over-crowded. It is not uncommon for several children to share a single mattress and there may be as many as ten people sleeping in one hut. Neglect often stems from ignorance of what proper care entails. Baby bottles that fall to the ground are often picked up, wiped on a sleeve, and handed back to the baby. Preventive health measures for both children and adults are rarely taken. And except with infants, travellers wait until symptoms are acute before seeking medical attention. Many parents are not aware of what comprises a balanced diet. Bad cases of neglect which occasionally occur, usually happen in families where both parents have a severe drinking problem and are no more typical of travellers than they are of the settled community. Largely as a result of the problems which exist in raising large families, attitudes towards family size are beginning to change Some young women have followed the example of settled women they know or the advice of doctors and other experts and are now planning their families. "I think it's only right that a person who doesn't have a way of lookin' after a big family takes pills. A young person on the road getting married at fifteen or sixteen years and havin' a child every year is an awful thing. After twelve years married they're only young with eleven in the family and they're all crippled up. And what are they? Only twenty-seven years of age. It's weakenin' for both sides — father and mother. And it's bad for the children because the parents can't mind them all, they can't teach them right and wrong. I'd say about four or six kids would be plenty." KINSMEN A traveller's first loyalty is to his own wife and children and secondly to his immediate relatives or "close friends". Although travellers acknowledge both sides of their family background, descent is traced primarily through the male line. The Kin group created is known as a patrilineage. Most camps and travel groups consist of a part of the patrilineage, typically a middle-aged or elderly couple and several of their married sons. In urban areas where there are many travellers, camps tend to be larger, and several family groups often camp on the same site. Because travellers are mobile the size and composition of camps change frequently. A disagreement between brothers or simply a desire for change may cause some members to leave. Moreover, other relatives are free to join the group at any time. Members of the same Kingroup should be willing to aid one another in emergencies which may mean defending a relative in a fight or helping defray costs for a funeral. "If I had a close friend and I

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thought he was in any trouble, I'd stand be him". But beyond this, there is little co-operation and no formal organisation, despite the popular myth of "tinker kings." According to Mick Donoghue: "Some families just made a term between themselves. The Wards used to. I remember King Ward from fifty year back — John Ward. Then there was Martin Ward and then Lawrence, the last fella. It was some sort of an honour between themselves. They called him King, just the same as havin' a nickname. It wasn't through being a powerful man or anything like that... I never heard of a King Maugham or a King Donoghue". The only occasions at which large groups of travellers usually meet are country fairs, weddings and funerals. News of important family events is spread quickly by word of mouth (today aided by the telephone) and in the case of a death or illness, with the help of gardai and

MINISTER-ITINERANT MEETING IS SDUGIIT OVER 800 ITINERANT FAMILIES from all ditto Ireland. who have gathered in Ballinasloc for this week's annual fair. decided at a mating in the Town Hall yesterday to appoint a delegation to seek a meeting with the Minister for Local Government to discuss the possibility of allowing travelling people lo set up their own encamr-.ntents• It a hoped that the,YaCcung with Ga lesa y . at Monastetbo,ce. DrogBoland would take Marc during I Mena heda and in Co. Kern Itinerant Week in December. .A represenialire of the Dundalk Mr. lames Hanrahan, an Itinerant Resettlement Committee itinerant, who is a naive of announved that they ere arrengDrogheda, coat chosen to head the inF a grant to lwrbdtaae special delegation should a meeting 'e school testbooks TR-` travel tan aranged. Mr. Hanrahan headed a I children. s .-. writtenM four-man Irish delegation to the authors Council of Europe Consultauce There a re a t treuer: .: Assembly in Strasbourg last tnaniinti pep^le -n cae January, at which a draft recornmendation was alade to encourage • travelling people to play a role in national bonier working to tin• prove the petition of Itinerants. The recommendation which the Irish itinerants want to implement was: "To support the creation N • The Rev. G i hem-. I et national bodies constating of reprc• sentapres from goscrnmenta. gyps+ chairman or the Inch C:.r.. g and travo$ s communities as well itinerant Saill.11CriarAlf.aa, as voluntary organisations working Saturdas nigh: at d'Iattteig in :se in the interests of gypsies and other Duhlin Institute for Adult I du:, lion. raid ,hat the resnon-,hi'::s for travellers, and to consult these the tad that stiv man+ Inner.,me bodies in the preparhon of

Responsibility stir

itinerants with people, says priest

measures designed to improve the lid not yet have proper aaommoand position of the gypsies and other Jason. adcunaie schooling work opportunities. lay -in ourtravellers" relses and not atlas the Gosern• Up to the present there are no traveling people serving on the Father Pelvis. said : " I: ,s then -Gnsernmtat• sponsored Adsiso^ in the settled community who Committed on Itinerants. have refused to .accept lhs t::ner.mto Many Irish itinerant have as their niatdibours ase'mtla most recently returned to this country hear the retponsihd.ty dør that -Outstanding progress has Peon from England and more are es.r ds peeled to follow. as there are now made in people. ar:nuJw better opportunities for earning a mneøntn Only a small and vierlining here, particularly in the tar- dwindling. but sometimes s.vrtcroua macadam btwineø. Many of these minors:v would nose Jens itinerants returned emigrants, who wish to the iunttce dur to them' Father Feiris. refwdag lo the better their way of life and be allowed to sit up their own semi- Strasbourg report. snid that an permanent encampments on local example of the irresponsible use of council land, attended yesterday's the work was the draft report on gypsies and other travellers. submass meeting in Ballinasine. mitted to the Council of Europe. The report. he said. implied that WANT OPPORTUNITY there was legislative and adminis• A spgllaenan for the travelling trative discrimination agatnrt itinepeople aid yesterday that they rants in Ireland. Fr. ?chile said really wanted an opportunity to that this was cornrow nonsense. help themselves and they thought and he star very happy to have this that the Government should assist deported,of publicly refuting it. them by making it obligatory that The Government here. far from discriminating tenevery local council should provide hacmg ans. dencies acain.t our itinerants. had camping sites. Speakers at the meeting deplored been Joan,: everything within t o. recent incidents involving diuerants power to sic that Cher enjoyed their and local Iandaowners at Rahnon. I full rights of citisenship.

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Police quiz itinerants on knife killing A DONEGAL itinerant family ot nine and one other Irishman

Wee last night bela sectioned 7 Manchester police about the death of a tenth member of the family who was found stabbed to death on a rooftop In a de• lhouteion area of the city last Thursday. The police, headed by Chief u pL Charles Horan of Man. hester and Salford C.I.D., elieve that at least four memos of the family may have witnessed the fatal attack on James McDonagh, an unemployed labourer, who was born in sligo. The other nine in the McDonagh family, which includes a husband and wife and seven children were found by police last night on the Ml motorway between Manchester and Birmingham.

Pool of blood James McDonagh was found In a pool of blood with stab wounds the heart on Thursday afternoon—about 12: hours after pollee were called to a fracas at Moss Side in a demolition area of the city where a number of itinerant families are encamped. He is belteved to have been involved in a row which started when a brick was thrown through a Sat wØow, as a

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woman

teten to hospital with head injuries. Chief SupL Horan said last night that one other lreehman mai ••Delfag with lnaulrier. but as let no charges had been pØarred to the ease.

social workers. Once notified kinsmen will go to great trouble and expense to be present. This is especially true for funerals, when all those within a reasonable distance are expected to attend as an expression of solidarity and respect. In 1974, over a hundred travellers returned from England to attend the funeral of Felix Doran. Travellers are buried in the family's home county, often in the town from which their relations first went onto the road. "Me grandmother, grandfather, me mother, me father, all me aunts and uncles, all belonging to me is buried in the one place in Wexford Town. They all go back to the native ground to be buried". (Jim Connors) When large groups of travellers gather arguments and fighting frequently occur especially after drink has been taken. In the past they were so common at fairs that the expression "they're as cross as Puck tinkers" was used by rural Irish to describe any quarrelling individuals. Not all fighting occurs spontaneously at funerals and fairs. Long-standing animosities between rival Kin groups may linger until a full-scale `faction fight' breaks out. Just as in settled society, families are not all of equal status. While travellers are not divided into distinct classes, they do distinguish "rough" families from "respectable" families. These same terms are also

Big injustice to itinerants HE greatest Injustice to Itinerants In Ireland was that there was no place where they could stay without fear of eviction. This was stated by Mr. Victor Bewley, secretary of the Irish Council for Itinerant Settlement, yesterday. when be addressed the Limerick-Shannon Rotary Club at their monthly luncheon in Cruise's Hotel, limerick.

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Mr. Bewley, outlining the progress made in helping itinerants throughout the country. stated that many family groups of these bad strong family ties, and it would be a very bad mistake to break them up. In Dublin city and county over 100 families have been sited, be said, and 200 itinerant children were now receiving full-time education. Accommodation, however, was badly needed for 80 more more families. The Irish Council for Itinerant Settlement formed last year was a co-ordinating link for the 73 Itinerant settlement committees. "Øe find situations and people vary. People on these committees know the correct solution ia their owe areas," stated Mr. Bewley. Mr. Bewley referred to remarkable progress made by the Isane rants Settlement Committee In Co. Rorry with the full cooperation of the Dunry Counci.. a number They were p of small sites j.Y famllies40 of which • ' ready sited. They intended to build cottages on these siles, eventually. He hoped tai Limerick Coo

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Kion would provide four le homes for Itinerants e Christmas in Limerick re over 20 families needed to be sited. Speaking of the public reaction to itinerants generally, Mr. Bewley pointed out that the people could no longer plead ignorance of what was happen. Ing to itinerants on their own -Local authorities doorsteps. and committees badly need the support of public opinion." he said. Mr. Bewley added that the Itinerants were gathering around the cities and towns in order to make a living. Out of the total of 1.100 itinerant families in the country. 900 of them were anxious to settle down, to atop travelling around the country, and to educate their children. Some 400 families have been settled In different parts of the eounfalysalndleating considerable pro d that lUnerants were trevetu g the roads long before the Famine i,1r his country. "They are nr*%;a community, Their loyalty teligthetr family groups," he said.

Itinerants ? We treat dogs better ' Pte-9.

Rev. T. Fehily, chairman, and Mr. Victor E. H. Bewley, honorary secretary, of the Irish Council for Itinerant Settlement, in a statement for Itinerant the lack of progress made In itinerant settlement both In the Dublin areas and throughout the country. "Apart from a few bright spots, virtually no progress has been made during the last 12 months." they say. They add that we add be filled with a sense of a.,ame for what Is a national disgrace, for the crime that we have committed against our own people In the way we have treated this tiny minority amongst us: "Duly a few hundred families, yet we deny them a place to live. Many t horse or cow, many a dog or cat, will sleep more comfortably at night this winter than many an itinerant child." The statement outlines the steps taken by Dublin Corporation and Co. Council — the Corporation has provided three sites, but they accommodate only 55 famines--end adds that In other areas less than minimum requirements have been provided as an emergency effort, while in still other local authorities have spent thous. ands of pounds on something unsuitable for the purpose. The statement says that it is true that Over 400 families have now been provided with a place In which to live, at least to the extent that they need no longer fear eviction, but many are livIng In conditions which are utterly inadequate for. human living. Hundreds of children of travelling famitles are now getting full-time education and

In DO

used by working-class Irish to make status distinctions. (In some parts of Ireland "dirt tinker" and "flash traveller" are used). The most important criteria in determining a family's rank as either rough or respectable is their public behaviour and appearance. The roughs are said to be "low down", "backward", "ignorant", and "pure uncivilised". They often wear ragged or dirty clothing and frequently traditional traveller dress (long skirts, aprons, shawls, and heavy boots). Generally they drink more than average and because they are so easily identified as travellers by their appearance, they are usually barred from pubs and forced to drink outside. Rough travellers are sometimes seen sitting on the ground or footpath or drinking inexpensive cider and wine. It is also said that roughs fight and brawl more often. Women and children from rough families commonly beg on city streets. Respectables, in contrast, take more pride in their appearance and to some extent emulate the dress of house-dwellers. They drink Guinness stout and also whiskey and gin; rarely cider or wine. Respectable women confine their begging to the suburbs and many have specific patronesses. Rough families are typically the poorest travellers and live under the worst conditions. As a result, they find it difficult to maintain high standards of personal hygiene and appearance. Respectables are the more successful travellers, who own lorries, well-kept caravans, and even battery-operated television sets. In Dublin, the surname and county of origin of a family is often a good indication of their status. In general families from the West, notably the Joyces, Maughams, McDonaghs, Cauleys, and McCanns are regarded as rough, even though some may be quite successful. Families from the east, especially the southeast, such as the Connors, Cashes, O'Briens and Flynns are respectable. There are numerous exceptions however. DAILY LIFE Travellers think and act in terms of the present far more than settled Irish. They are accustomed to meeting needs as they arise and seldom worry about the future. In many respects they are being pragmatic for the real conditions of their lives — illiteracy, discrimination, low status, and poverty greatly restrict the areas in which they can succeed. For many the future has little to offer and few see it as being any better than the present. Hence they seldom defer gratification: they enjoy the things they have while they have them. Money is to be spent. As Nan Donoghue once remarked, "You're so long waiting for a bit of money, you can't save when you get it" When fifteen year old Anthony earned £5 collecting scrap he could have spread his pleasure over two or three days. Instead he spent it all in one day on a new

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Puck Fair, Killorglin, Co. Kerry

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shirt, the "pictures", five candy bars, five soda pops, and several ice creams. Only the more successful families can afford to save. Travellers view the world as a place where each individual looks out for his or her own interests. They expect bad treatment from others and interpersonal relations are characterised by mistrust and suspicion. Even the most innocent statements or actions are analysed for hidden motives. One evening Mocky Tom stopped by another family's hut on his way back from checking on his horses to report that one of their animals was missing — the rope had been cut. After he left, they pondered aloud why he had bothered to come unless it was really he who had cut the rope and was now trying to throw suspicion off himself. Because of this lack of trust there is little real communication between individuals. Despite the many hours travellers spend in each other's company, true feelings and emotions, other than those which surface during an argument, are rarely communicated. "Never let another man know your mind" characterises the secretiveness of traveller culture. A travelling woman explains "You have to be careful what you say, because travellers are always lookin' for things to use against yoü ... They try to bait you, to make you say something you'll be sorry for". One of the earliest things children learn is never to divulge family information. Although there is much suspicion and mistrust, travellers are nonetheless gregarious. The experience of living under crowded conditions together on the side of the road isolated from the settled community and its activities has made them value each other's company. They seldom engage in solitary pursuits. Leisure-time activities such as story-telling, singing, going to the cinema, gambling, and drinking are all done in groups. In fact, newlyweds often take a young brother or sister into their household for companionship. And the heavy drinking that takes place at funerals is said to "take away the loneliness". For travellers "loneliness" is a very real and frequently expressed fear. Many older men and women are talented story-tellers who act out their tales with a wealth of gestures and facial expressions. Invariably the tales are exaggerated. A good horse is always "the best horse you've ever laid eyes on", a child who stole an apple is described as capable of "stealing the eyes out of your head", and to have struck a man a good blow is to have "kilt him stone dead". Since exaggeration is so common, story-tellers often call witnesses to substantiate their tales. Red Mick was describing to a group of men and women an incident which happened to him as a child. He was bringing some stray horses back to camp when "we came to a canal and the horses wouldn't cross. So I got up onto my big mare and showed her the water ... But she couldn't swim and she sank to the bottom. She started walkin' across

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the canal, eight feet under ... I hung on for my life and I was hardly with breath when we got to the far side ...". At this point in a rather unbelievable story, Mick called his brother over to the fire saying, "Mylee tell 'em how the old mare crossed the canal". Mylee dutifully repeated the key parts of the story, almost verbatim, and then left to resume what he had been doing. Tossing is a popular form of gambling among travellers, as it is among many working-class Irish. It is played by simultaneously flipping two coins into the air and betting on how they will fall. Tossing matches occur frequently between teenage boys some of whom play daily in hopes of winning "picture" or "fag" money. Occasionally men will come over to join in. Soon after the men join the group, however, the stakes become too high for the boys to continue playing so they drop out to watch. By the time the stakes get as high as fifty pence a toss many men also become spectators leaving only the big winner and big loser(s) in the game. Tossing matches may last into the night and be resumed the following morning. Travellers say that it is unfair for a man who is winning "big" to leave the game as long as the loser is still betting. Many activities such as tossing are periodic, that is, they may be played many hours a day several days in a row and then not played again for months. Card playing, especially "pontoon" (blackjack) and "twentyfives" are also popular pastimes. Since many travellers cannot read the numbers on the cards they become proficient at adding up the number of spades, clubs, diamonds, and hearts on each card as it is played. They watch one another closely to make certain no one is cheating even though a player rarely wins or loses more than a few pounds in an evening. Winners invariably play down the amount they have won to diminish their opponent's suspicions about cheating, and the losing players tend to exaggerate their losses perhaps to encourage the winners to go easy on them. Back in camp, the reverse is true; winners exaggerate the amounts they won and losers play down their losses. Unquestionably, the activity many travellers enjoy most is drinking. For the heavier drinkers, other forms of recreation and entertainment are simply ways of passing time until they can leave for the pub. Only a handful of pubs serve tinkers. Most of these are workingclass pubs in the poorer areas of the town or city. However, some other pubs will serve them if the husband and wife go alone, and their dress blends naturally with the other customers. Most publicans will not serve travellers for fear of losing their regular customers, and because of the reputation travellers have for fighting. For almost six months the Connors drank nightly at a pub just a few miles from their camp. The publican opened up a small back lounge for them and in this way more or less isolated them from his other customers. During this

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period they did not create any trouble and probably spent more money on drink than most regular customers. Yet one evening when a woman became intoxicated and began to sing loudly several customers complained and the publican asked her to be quiet. When she continued to sing, he permanently barred the entire group from the pub. Many travellers would like to stop drinking completely, and nearly all desire to cut down their consumption. "Long ago I could drink two bottles of whiskey and walk down that lane. I suppose I'd do it all again, but maybe I wouldn't. Not if I had any little idea of what it'd come to. It's affected me in every way — me nerves, me health, me sight, and everything." (Mick Donoghue) Some young adults see the long range effects of heavy drinking in the older men and women and do not want the same thing to happen to them. Young and old alike often say, "Drinkin's a cancer" or "Drink is the ruination of the Travelling People". Periodically they take the "pledge". But abstinence for even a few months is extremely difficult. Those who are able to quell their thirst for alcohol are often unable to find a satisfying alternative to going to the pub. The pub is more than just a place to drink, it is also a place to play cards, throw darts, and sit together in a group in warmth and light. The loneliness and darkness of camp at night and the cold of winter, drive as many men to the pub as their need for alcohol. Realising the difficulties in total abstinence, travellers often compromise by taking the pledge for two pints of stout per day. But this too can be a difficult pledge to keep. Some complain that their thirst for alcohol is greater after two pints than when they started. Thomas took four separate "two-pint pledges" during the course of one year but was unable to keep any of them for more than a few weeks. On several occasions he had two pints and then waited until midnight — technically a new day — and then had two more so as not to break his pledge. Once he poured out a measure of stout from his glass and replaced it with whiskey explaining to me, "It's still just two pints". Many travellers cut down their consumption by going to the pub late in the evening, some only an hour before closing time. Other men take a limited amount of money with them, sometimes only a pound note — nearly enough for four pints. Next to drinking, the most popular evening activity is going to the "pictures" (cinema). Teenagers go at least once a week. And adults who have taken the pledge will go several nights a week rather than stay in camp and risk breaking it. Many cinemas however will not admit travellers. Westerns are very popular with the travellers. The similarity of the cowboy's lifestyle of nomadism, horsemanship, campfires, and wagons is appreciated and enjoyed. They are watched with great

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interest, and travellers are critical when things are not shown realistically, such as a posse galloping their horses over long distances without resting. While Westerns certainly do not create the standards for ideal masculine behaviour, they undoubtedly reinforce the value travellers place in being tough, clever and good at drinking. Travellers also enjoy other films but they are often handicapped by their illiteracy. An important scene involving a love letter or key road sign frequently require the viewer to be literate to understand what is taking place. In 1972 several travellers saw "Puppet on a Chain" and "The French Connection", two films about drug smuggling, but failed to understand the plot because they had not heard of heroin and could not understand its significance. Despite the activities mentioned, there is much idleness and boredom among travellers. As Nan Donoghue once remarked, "It's a terrible life when you sit around waiting for it to get dark so you can go to bed. And then you can't even sleep because of all the yelling and noise". An important way in which travellers attempt to keep life interesting is through continuous change. Travelling and moving camp are the best examples. The activities involved in taking down camp, travelling, setting up a new camp, renewing old friendships along the way, meeting new people, and seeing new sights not only cures boredom but adds much excitement to life. Even in the same camp families "shift" to different spots. Of course there are also other reasons to move such as the mound of rubbish which begins to collect or hostility between neighbouring families. But as one man said to me, "You get tired of lookin' at the one place all the time". Possessions too are frequently changed. Adults and children alike often "swap" or trade their belongings including carts, horses, radios, clothing, rings and religious medals. One cart had four different owners in two months. And Red Mick's accordian changed hands five times before it came back to him in a swap. Travellers even trade their shoes and boots. One night in a pub Briddy was wearing a pair of brown boots and Katie a pair of black shoes, they disappeared into the restroom and returned wearing the opposite. Travellers tire of their possessions quickly. Hence, if an item is not swapped, it might simply be discarded after a period of time. John Maugham once praised a pair of boots he had purchased, "I had 'em for nine months and they were still as good as the day I bought them". When asked what happened to the boots, he replied, "I gave 'em away ... just got tired of lookin' at 'em."

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OLD MAN (sung by "Pops"Johnny Connors) What brought you down from Kerry? said the poor old man; Sure they was coming through Ross Town and they had ponies big and brown And sure at me they did lick, said the poor old man. Bad luck to you young Gerry, said the poor old man Sure I run to take up my stick and I had to drop it quick And for that I'd roar and squeal, said the poor old man. Bad luck to you young Gerry, said the poor old man Now I happened to get a great fall over Gerry Connors wall May the divil ride them all, said the poor old man. Bad luck to you young Gerry, said the poor old man Sure it's the Connors is the blame and don't the country know the same And look at them running down the lane, said the poor old man. Wasn't I an unlucky whore to barricade me door? Wasn't I an unlucky whore? said the poor old man. Well if ever you cook a stew don't cook it near Ballaroo If you do your bound to rue, said the poor old man.

"My grandfather, Mickey's Jim, was up in Kerry, and the Moorhouses and the Connors had a row. Mickey's Jim was five-foot-three, and they sent for Mickey's Jim, all the Connors was beat and Mickey's Jim come down. So when he come down the Moorhouses run, and when they did they barricaded themselves in a thatched house, so my grandfather bored down through the thatch of the house, and they couldn't get out 'cause they'd barricaded themselves in. Anyway, they knocked him unconscious with an iron bar but he took twelve of them to hospital with him in the horse drawn ambulance".

*This wait is sometimes up to 4 bars long.

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Rdations with the Buffers' "...in nearly all areas, itinerants are despised as inferior beings and are regarded as the dregs of society. Many settled Irish feel that they would demean themselves by associating with them... Even those members of the settled population who regard them kindly as `God's poor', would not care to have them living permanently in their own district." 1 This is the way the Commission on Itinerancy characterised settled society's attitudes towards the travelling people in 1963. Unfortunately little has changed since then. In 1975 a questionnaire tapping attitudes towards a number of social issues including "itinerants" was administered to 412 Dubliners. The results showed deep anti-traveller feelings. Fifty-seven percent of the Dubliners questioned agreed with the statement: "The itinerant problem is so long-standing and deep that one often doubts that democratic methods can ever solve it". (author's emphasis). Fully twenty-two percent agreed with the statement strongly, while only fifteen percent strongly objected? Much of the hostility settled Irish feel towards travellers is provoked by the so-called nuisance aspects of their lifestyle — trespassing horses, petty pilfering and the unsightliness of campsites. The attitudes of settled Irish are also influenced by the type of contact they have with travellers. Begging is an annoyance, and occasional behaviour such as public brawling may be viewed as threatening and thus evoke hostility. For many, travellers are a constant reminder of the poverty which has characterised Ireland for much of its history. Barefoot children, carts, donkeys, makeshift shelters, and traditional dress such as shawls are all symbols of rural poverty which many Irish would rather forget. During the summer tourist season travellers can be a source of embarrassment. As the mayor of Galway City once stated:

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GET TOUGH MOVE ON ITINERANTS -Our laws are so archaic to deal with Itinerants that the more we do for them, the more they descend upon us," stated Cllr. Jut Burke at lut night's meeting of Limerick City Council when he refuted an allegation that Dundalk had housed the biggest number of itinerant, in the country and rimmed that Limerick bad cared for 37 families more than any other place in the country. The Council strongly criticised the actions of innerenta who are coming Into the city around Christmas time and causing serious damage and depredation to property in the Rbrhogue area They called for immediate action to end the idea that Limerick was "the mecca for itinerants" by enerting the law with the assistance of the gardai and introducing prohibition orders In different areas. I The matter arose when the Council received a deputation from the St. Patricks Rd. and 'Rhebogue areas calling on the 'Corporation to take immediate action to remove the 80 or 90 itinerants who were camping in the area near the Itinerant Settlement alle and were with out imitation and toilet facilities. Mr. Sheehan warned that the parents could no longer tolerate the Itinerants and they were considering withdrawing their Ødren from SL Patrick's boys and girls schools because their children were being harramed

Early morning police raid near Dublin Airport

and had money and geode taken from them on their way to school. Mr. Sheehan warned that there was now a danger that the growing resentment and (mitre. non of the local people was going to have an adverse reaction on the families living at the Itinerant settlement site and "these families are accepted Into the area and we are doing verything we can to ensure that they stay". he said.

Celt Klely warned that if a prohibition order was not introduced to the area Immediately and the itinerant„ were removed by the gardal. then the local people in the area were going to take the law Into their own bands next Saturday. Ald. Steve Coughlan said this was the usual Christmas invasion of Itinerants Into Limerick. We have housed more Itinerants than any other place In Ireland. These itinerants are harylog people outside churches and hotels, some of them do not conform to the law of God and man, he stated when he celledfor the strict enforcement of the law and the ruthlessness of gardal to remove these people who were playing havoc to the people In the area The Council decided that a deputation headed by the Mayor, Cllr. Gus O'Driscoll, would to going to the gardal today to have the Itinerants removed and slaps taken for a prohibition order In the area Immediately.

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"These people prey on the tourists, and visitors think there's only a bunch of tinkers down here. It's giving Galway a bad name". 3 Some of the resentment directed towards travellers may stem from more basic or underlying psychological factors. Their nomadism. for example, may be construed as a denial of settled society's basic values such as the value placed on land ownership. As a result they are feared and distrusted. The travelling people also appear to enjoy a freedom from responsibility and worry which some Irish envy and most regard as undeserved. SETTLED IRISH STEREOTYPES Over the years numerous stereotypes have arisen about travellers. Like stereotypes of any culture, they are oversimplified and generalised to include all members of the group. "Tinkers are all the same" is a common sentiment expressed by house-dwellers. Because travellers are seldom in one place long enough to get to know members of settled society, misconceptions and prejudices against them have little chance of being corrected by close personal contact. Travellers are frequently described as "lazy spongers" who live off the rest of the community while giving nothing in return. According to a forty-five year old Corporation employee: "I've no time for 'em. They're all alike — fightin', drinkin' and getting the dole to do it. The boys I drink with say the same, that people are pamperin' them. They get everything free, and there's a lot of Dublin people who need a lot but have too much pride". In the opinion of a Ballinasloe housewife: "They won't work. I remember a couple of year ago there was a whole lot of them on The Late, Late Show. Well, there was one young fella there. He was twentyfive. I think he had five children. Well, he said he wouldn't work. He wouldn't work! Now what are you going to do with the likes of that?" A judge from County Mayo whose comments made newspaper headlines echoed these sentiments: "These people take no cognisance of all the benefits granted to them by the State. They are literally living off the taxes paid by the hardworking, decent people of this country."4 The antagonism revealed in the above comments is unfairly directed towards all travellers. From the house-dwellers' point of view, itinerants simply choose to "live off the backs" of others. In fact, because of the handicaps imposed on them by illiteracy, outcast status and the loss of their traditional trades, they have little choice but to live the way they do. Moreover, few settled Irish realise or are willing to concede that by collecting scrap metal, second-hand clothing and other discards, travellers do in fact serve an important economic (and ecological) service, namely, they recycle resources which would other-

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wise be wasted. Travellers, especially the men, are often branded as irresponsible drunkards and brawlers. "They're not interested in bettering their position, they don't want to know about work and they don't pay for anything but drink. I am a barman and I have experience of these people and they are a menace to society. They are a dirty, mean breed of people." An extreme opinion was expressed by a city veterinarian: "They're animals really. Their children should be taken away from them, and the men sterilised. The way they treat each other... The other day I saw two men beating their wives on the street, even kicking them. They're all like that." In 1974 a newspaper report was published about a member of Ballina's (County Mayo) Urban Council, who suggested that travellers be sterilised and then sent to the Aran Islands. 5 Fortunately the settled community's image of travelling people is not entirely negative. Many feel, for example, that travellers are both moral and religious. But any stereotype, even a positive one, can be harmful. In the past the false stereotype that travellers are naturally healthy and well-adapted to outdoor life, allowed people to ignore the miserable conditions most families lived under. "People think we're healthy and strong for to suffer the cold and wet, because they've seen a man or a woman prowlin' through the houses lookin' for a livin'. And they'll say something like, `He must be healthy as a trout' or 'Ah, them's used to it'. But I'd really say that the people in the houses are healthier; not sayin' there aren't some travellers on the road very healthy. But years gone by traveller childer never got much care. The parents hadn't the way of doin' so ... That's what has a lot of travellers aged today." (Mick Donoghue) The belief that travellers are `happy' with their lives also allows people to ignore the plight of many families and has been used by housing authorities as an excuse for inaction. DISCRIMINATION Negative attitudes and stereotypes have resulted in numerous forms of discrimination, some more serious than others. Until recently, the general practice of the gardai at the request of local residents was to move travellers from the district as quickly as possible. "Years ago the law was very cruel upon the travelling people. When you'd pull up you might get a night. Then again maybe the law would just come when you'd have your camp fixed and tell you to pack up and leave. And if you didn't leave, they'd stand there until you did and kick the fire into your face just when you'd be gettin' a drop of tea. They didn't care if it was rainin' or snowin'. You had to get on, move

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out—lest you'd be summonsed and brought to court." (Nan Donoghue) The Local Government (Sanitary Services) Act passed in 1948 also authorises local sanitation districts to regulate the use of "temporary dwellings" and land for camping. The wording of the act leaves little doubt that it was aimed primarily at travellers, as a government report indirectly acknowledges: "...the usual approach by sanitary authorities relying upon the act is the purely negative one of prohibiting camping without providing for authorised camping places. The emphasis is on moving the itinerants out of the district rather than on the eradication of the problems associated with their camping in unsatisfactory and unsuitable places..." 6 Since then many Irish towns have passed bye-laws which prohibit camping within a specified radius, usually one to five miles of town. The Road Safety Act of 1961 further outlaws camping by restricting the distance from the roadside that tents or wagons may be parked. In other areas, residents or local authorities have dug trenches, built fences and emptied gravel and dirt in the entrance to campsites to prevent travellers from stopping in their area. Only in the last few years since the beginning of the Itinerant Settlement Movement have families in some areas been left alone. Constant movement has prevented travellers from exercising many of their basic rights. Although eligible to vote few travellers are able to since an individual can only be registered as an elector in an area where he owns land or is resident on the qualifying . date. Few collected unemployment assistance and other welfare benefits before the 1950s because of their social isolation and nomadism. Until recently travellers have used medical facilities only sporadically, primarily to give birth and also when serious illness or accidents have occurred. Their mobility was and continues to be a major factor. Many children fail to receive benefits such as innoculations available under the School Health Examination Service because their family's travel prevents them from attending school. Health services for adults such as pre-natal maternity care are often neglected, because of the inconvenience of attending a particular physician. Now that more families are living in urban areas, they are using medical facilities more often. Yet discrimination can still occur on an individual level. Under Ireland's medical scheme, citizens are required to select a doctor from a list of participating physicians near their residence. When this scheme first went into effect in 1972, women from Holylands, a Dublin camp, were turned down by as many as five local doctors before finding one to accept them. The vast majority of travellers are illiterate. Irish schools are organised to cater for a settled population not an itinerant one. And

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even though school attendance became compulsory in 1926, no real effort was made to see that traveller children went to school. As the Commission on Itinerancy noted: "It appears to have been decided by the Department of Education that it is impossible to deal effectively with the non-attendance of the children of itinerants at school under the existing law laid down in the Children Acts and the School Attendance Acts because of their quick passage from place to place and the requirement that a parent be convicted on a second and subsequent offence before the child can be committed to an industrial school for non-attendance at school".7 Although much work has been done in the last ten years to remedy this situation, only forty-two percent of school-age children attend school with any regularity.8 One result of illiteracy is that travellers are automatically excluded from employment which requires the ability to read and write, leaving only low-paying, unskilled jobs available to them. But illiteracy also handicaps travellers in other ways. It severely limits their knowledge of other opportunities such as public housing vacancies and public tenders for scrap metal which are often announced in the newspaper. It also hinders them in their daily life, sometimes forcing travellers to behave awkwardly in public places. In shops, for example, their inability to read labels means they may wander around aimlessly looking for the item they want. Unlike settled people, travellers have to ask for the article and hope that the settled person does not take advantage of them. At bus stops many cannot read the destinations or numbers. Several women at one camp identified the bus they wanted by a certain advertisement pasted on its side. After passing several well-marked road signs, one horse dealer took a complicated series of turns to finally arrive in the town of Birr. Because travellers cannot read, they must often rely entirely upon their memory, and in this instance he was simply following the route he had first taken to get there. Travellers may be denied employment for no other reason than their background. One girl worked satisfactorily as a waitress until she was identified as a traveller by a customer and then fired. Men I know made numerous attempts to obtain jobs as building labourers, but as soon as they were unable to provide their prospective employer with a street address they were turned down. One man was refused work despite several years' experience and a specialised construction skill (brick-laying) acquired in England. Travellers seldom mix socially with other Irish, and it has long been taboo for any "respectable" member of the settled community to marry a "tinker". They are often denied entrance to public houses, although barmen usually sell them alcohol to be consumed outside. Pubs that openly serve travelling people risk becoming known as

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"tinkers' houses" and losing their other business. Travellers are also barred from many cinemas especially local or suburban theatres. Even well-mannered and well-groomed adults may be denied admission if identified as travellers. The manager at one cinema justified this practice by claiming that in the past some youths from a nearby camp had made considerable noise and disturbed other patrons. The fact that he now turns away adults as well as youths made little difference to him. After experiencing trouble with a traveller, settled Irish often categorically deny all travellers any future assistance. In one town they were denied the use of a public washroom after several women began regularly using the hot water, and a crowd had congregated inside on several rainy days. In 1966 the Tipperary Council in a vote of three to one is reported to have removed the name of a travelling family which had been recommended for a house by the County Medical Officer saying merely that they had too much trouble with travellers in the past. 9 In 1973 it was reported that Fintan Coogan, the West Galway Fine Gael T.D., suggested at a Galway Corporation meeting that an electric fence be used to keep travellers out of public shelter in Eyre Square at night.'° The most active discrimination against Travellers revolves around the issue of settlement. Although most Irish claim to want "social justice" for travellers, they do not want them living next door. Proposals to build a "site" or house a family are regularly met with irate letters of protest, anti-tinker petitions and protest marches, picketing of local government offices, and/or threats of rent strikes. In a widely publicised incident in 1968, residents of Rahoon, a housing estate on the outskirts of Galway City, picketed a proposed site in their area and forced the Borough Council to abandon work on it. A year later a group of residents, angry because several families continued to camp on the roadside near the abandoned site, armed themselves with sticks, uprooted tents, and pushed the travellers and their belongings into the road. This incident gave rise in the national press to a new word, "rahoonery", meaning forceful discrimination against travellers.11 In other incidents, local government officials, who are well-aware that helping travellers has little voter appeal, have used city employees and private security men to bodily move travellers out of their area. Residents of another Galway suburb, Shantalla, protested at the housing of Ann Furey and her three children by blocking the path to the house and taunting them with placards and shouts of "No tinkers here ... We want our own people housed". Residents took this action despite the fact that Mrs. Furey had spent the previous two years squatting in a derelict house under miserable conditions waiting to be housed. In 1971 in the small town of Moate, County Westmeath,

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X00 march in protest over Mrs. Furey BOUT 400 people from the Shamans area of Galway l took part in a parade through the city last night In stest against Mrs. Annie Furey being housed In their .a. Later, for the third night in auceesabn, they gathered !side her house at 23 Fursey Road, danced, sang and sated "Mrs. Furey get out".

oughlan hits at lawless itinerants tinerants who do not "toe the and respect the law as (nary citizens deserve no .sideration, said Alit Stephen ighlan, T.D., at last night's cling of Limerick City Counwhen he condemned the duct of a number of Hiner. s. especially outsiders, who I caused considerable damage I disturbance. Lid. Coughlan raised the !ter when he referred to the ving of itinerants from the hey to Clare Street fr=R= ere they were moved ap(h. le told how a parish clerk I locked St. Joseph's Church night and discovered on the lowing morning an itinerant man who had hidden under of the seats and stayed the ht. as her husband had beaten • up. The clerk found that the i reh was soiled and this was crated two nights later.

indalism Ild. Coughlan said that itineIs who go into pubs drinking er and causing a hullabaloo en they come out were not sted. " We in Limerick have eady housed 18 families and are only going to house ierants who are natives of nerick. Let the other local horiues look after their own." said. He referred to the vandalism Ich had taken place at the of the new sites at t'- acme Cross in Ballynan cg ere over £500 worth of damege I been caused. He called on ;,Corporation to accommodate ierants on this site immediar to ensure that there would no further damage. 'he City Manager, Mr. T. F. Dermntl, pointed out that new is at Rathbane and Rhebogue std he available within a in time and he added that a year the Corporation would ke sufficient progress to bring laant.rant problem down to fercabte proportions. Eighteen re families were to be housed.

The crowd first gathered at Shantalla at about 7 p.m. They were to have marched to the Corporation offices at Dominick Street, where a meeting of the Corporation was to have been held. The meeting was called off, however. owing to the death of a councillor's relative. Instead the residents marched to Eyre Square, where they held a protest meeting and slated the Corporation for allocating Mrs. Furey the house at No. 23. Later they paraded through the city centre streets and stopped at the Corporation offices, where they handed in a letter of protest setting out their case. The text of the letter had not been revealed last night

Refused Then they paraded to Shantalla where a crowd of men, women and children gathered outside No. 23 and sang and danced. A member of the Residents' Association. Mr. Gay Cooke, appealed to them to go home. saying that their point had been made and they did not want anybody hurt but the crowd shouted "No, nn" and refused to go. Shortly before 9 p.m. Garda Supt. Gerald Colleran, who was on duty with a farce of about 40 gardai appealed to the people to go home. He told them: "The gardai have Instructions to clear this street if there Is any repel'. tion of the stone throwing or other incidents of last night. "If there are any parents here with children, I would appeal to them to take the children home." Supt. Colleran's appeal was turned down with a loud chorus of leers. Up to 9 p.m. the protest out. side Mrs. Furey's house was very orderly and there were only one of two very minor in. cidenta — in one of which a fire was started In the street but was quickly put out. Yesterday, the Mayor of Gal. way, Clir. Martin Div1Ily, said that the matter was now out of the Corporation's hands and was up to the law. Mrs. Furey earlier In the day appealed to the people of Shan. talla to give her a chance to prove that she would be a good neighbour when living in their area.

The derelict house where Mrs. Furey and her family spent several years

In peace Mrs. Furey, whose children, Margaret aged 9, and Brigid aged 5 are in hospital with chest trouble, was preparing to spend her third night to the house which has been under siege since she moved in. She said: "Itinerants are not liked in this city, hut I will be a good neighbour H I am left in She added: "The protest won't get nie to move out. After dv. ing up my roadside life 1:1 d for ten years in a tenement. I need a warm house for myself and my ehndrea who are not very well."

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Patty Maugham managed to purchase his own home with the assistance of the County Medical Officer. One week before his family was to move in, the house was set on fire and badly damaged. He made one attempt to have the damage repaired but several local residents prevented the carpenters from working. Although the individuals responsible were never openly identified or punished, the County Council acknowledged that local residents were responsible and built the family a new home in another location. Two years later they hesitatingly moved into the house, commented Patty apprehensively, "Next time my children could be in the fire". Discrimination often takes the form of verbal disparagement. "We're used to the word tinker, it's common in this country. I think it's very ignorant. I mean, there's no such thing as a tinker. There's a tinsmith. That's the proper pronunciation — tinsmith. Travelling people or people of the road is better". (Mick Donoghue) Pejorative labels such as "tinker", "gypo", "knacker", and even "cream cracker" (prison slang) are often used in reference to travellers. Occasionally they are used in direct epithets in face-to-face situations. The owner of a small grocery shop, for example, yelled loudly to the shopgirl who was serving a woman from a nearby camp, "Not that milk, that's not the tinker's milk. The tinker's milk is over there". Even when used jokingly or without malice such terms, by suggesting undesirability and social rejection, form what one social scientist has called the "language of prejudice". "One time I was goin' for water in Palmerstown and just as I had the water up in the cart this little girl says, `Look at the tinker!' Well, that hurted me. I thought to myself I was reared up proper, I shouldn't be called a tinker". (Michael Donoghue) While travellers resent being insulted or the object of jokes, there is little they can do about it. A teenager who obtained a job working for a cleaning firm listened silently as his fellow workers joked and called each other "knacker" and "tinker". He feared being fired if he defended himself. Discrimination is often more subtle than this. A young mother rushed her sick infant to a city hospital one afternoon. Both nurses who attended her were brisk and disapproving. As one filled out the admission form she gave the woman long reproachful stares whenever she could not answer a question. The second nurse who had taken the child away to put it to bed, returned carrying its clothing and dirty blanket at arm's length from her body and rudely dropped them to the floor at the mother's feet. Humiliated, all she could think to do was mutter a barely audible comment about how difficult it is to keep small children in a roadside camp. Travellers rights to privacy are routinely ignored. Unlike the

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House burned at Moate to prevent 'tinkers' »toving in

109

average housedweller who may refuse to answer his door, travellers lining in caravans and tents are vulnerable to any intrusion. Gardai may ignore the procedures they would follow if dealing with other citizens when pursuing investigations among travellers. When two plain-clothes detectives arrived in a camp looking for stolen goods they walked directly into caravans and huts without a search warrant or asking permission of the owners. Families in the same camp were visited weekly by several Legion of Mary volunteers. Because the Legionnaires provide spiritual rather than material aid, many families felt they had nothing to gain from these visits and that the "Legion" had no business in their camp. As soon as the volunteers arrived, conversations fell silent, lanterns and candles were often blown out and .many men and women moved to seats away from the doorway, sitting motionless in the dark hoping they would pass by. Some Legionnaires knew where they were unwelcome and did not stop. Others approached these visits with zealous determination and entered caravans and huts uninvited in order to cajole travellers into coming outside to say the Rosary with them. No matter how irritated travellers become, they rarely display hostility or anger. Rather they tolerate such intrusions with resignation. Men often avoid confrontation by leaving and forcing their wives to deal with the invaders. Only when drunk do travellers express their anger. Two Legionnaires were badly frightened one evening when a woman who had been drinking heavily that day yelled at them menacingly: "Fuck the Rosary.... don't come round here again". Travellers are especially sensitive to signs of condescension which are common even among the most well-intentioned Irish. A Legion of Mary volunteer who arrived in camp to lead travellers in the Rosary offered a special prayer for "Peace in the world and peace among all the travellers" adding "Now, that means no more fighting, doesn't it!" On another occasion she took a picture of the crucifixion from her pocket and chided an adult traveller for not going to mass, saying, "Look at Jesus' face, isn't he sad? Jesus is hurt when his children don't go to mass and we want Jesus to be happy again don't we?" A garda asked a woman who was standing outside a courtroom waiting for her husband, "When was the last time Old Tom beat you up? How much money have the two of you drank up lately?" It is unlikely that he would have been as rude and insensitive in conversation with a settled person. Traveller women are often complimented by outsiders on how clean their wagon, caravan or children are. Yet the implication is that travellers are not normally clean. Two social events planned for itinerants illustrate the awkwardness of most encounters between settled Irish and travellers when not directed towards a specific purpose. Both were Christmas parties (one

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Opposite — on pilgrimage at Croagh Patrick

arranged by nuns from a nearby convent and the other by a local settlement committee). The arrangements were meticulous, rooms were cheerfully decorated, entertainment was provided, and refreshments were plentiful. Yet there was practically no conversation between the volunteers and travellers who attended. What few attempts were made were generally stilted and short-lived. The travellers were seated together while the volunteers, primarily women, somewhat nervously served trays of food and beverages from one guest to another, using their trays as both an entree and a barrier in their approach to the itinerants. Once a tray was emptied, the women retreated quickly to the kitchens for more food. One woman good-naturedly advised an elderly man to finish his plate of sausages and potatoes or he would not be able to have dessert. Within half an hour all the food had been distributed and travellers at one party sat awkwardly balancing numerous cakes, sandwiches, and tea cups on their knees staring at each other uncomfortably. To fill the void, the scheduled entertainment (step dancing by local school children) began almost immediately. Given the lack of common interests upon which to base casual conversation it is not surprising that such events are uncomfortable for both groups. When outside their own realm, travellers tend to lose their confidence. This is especially true when alone in a public place or at the mercy of a settled person who has some power over them. When speaking to police, judges, priests, social workers, and others in authority, travellers are typically subdued. In some cases, they are overwhelmed by the unfamiliar vocabulary used. "There are some priests you can't understand them. Last Sunday neither me nor the man could understand what the priest was on about, we couldn't! Jim asked me. `Biddy' he says `I couldn't understand the priest'. `Neither could I' says I, `but what can we do about it? So we'll say our prayers anyhow" Even when it is important to do so, travellers rarely ask questions. Commented one woman in hospital, "I'd never ask a doctor `What's that for?' He'd think I was a pure eejit". Travellers experience an especially heightened sense of dependency and powerlessness when in the physical setting of the courtroom, church or hospital. As the distinguished social scientist Erring Goffman has pointed out, it is the person who controls the setting who has the psychological advantage in interaction. One reason traveller women rather than men have more contact with settled Irish is that traveller men loathe placing themselves in dependent positions and thus encourage their wives to handle interaction from outsiders. Travellers in general regard settled Irish with suspicion and distrust, but this feeling is especially true of doctors. One evening

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M

Mick's infant son became ill and Mick telephoned a local physician. After describing his son's symptoms, he was assured that the child would be fine until the next morning when he could be brought in for an examination. Dissatisfied, Mick rang a second physician who reluctantly agreed to come to the camp. Following a five-minute examination, he also assured Mick that his son's condition was not serious and left medication with him. But Mick was still suspicious. reasoning that any doctor who brings the right medicine with him before even seeing the child "can't know what he is talking about". Still uncertain, he took the infant to the hospital. Because travellers do not understand the cause of most illnesses or the limitations of a doctor's ability to provide a cure, they are doubly sceptical. "A lot of travellers won't go near a doctor. A lot of them say, `What's the use of goin' near a doctor? What will he do but give you a couple of pills, a powder or a coloured bottle and you're no better". TRAVELLER IDENTITY "It's all decided. Even if you had a second chance, you'd make the same mistakes and end up in the one place ... If you're a travellin' man there's only one road to travel". Many itinerants accept both their segregation from the settled community and their inferior social status as unalterable facts. The elderly are particularly submissive and often criticise younger travellers for deviating from behaviour they feel is proper for a traveller. One woman ridiculed her daughter-in-law for making each of her children wait in turn to be served dinner rather than allowing them to help themselves at will, saying, "She thinks she's just like the women in the houses... She's gone pure respectable". According to Old Biddy, "Travellers are gettin' so grand now that they don't think they're travellin' people at all. If they had'ta be let go, the way they used to be. If they had'ta be let.... But it's the money, the motor cars, the dole, the allowance, the pensions, and you know what I mean now. It's after making them very bold". On another occasion Biddy underlined the social gulf which she perceives to separate travellers from mainstream society by characterising settled Irish as "people of a different nationality". The travellers' -day to day experience tells them that nowhere in Irish society are they respected and granted the dignity accorded to others. Thus many grow up with a low opinion of themselves, doubting their own worth. "A knacker's an old horse that's useless and going to be knackered. That's what buffers call us because we're useless". "Now, a tinker is a ruffian — a bad person. He's a drunken man lookin'

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'If you're a travellin' man there's only one road to travel..."

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for a fight and going around lookin' for trouble. That's what they call a real tinker". According to one eleven year old boy, "Buffers think we have a disease, you know, they can't come near us". Some travellers act like the stereotype built up in the mind of the settled population, and project an image of low self-esteem and humility — commented James Browne, "Buffers class us as low down, so we play the part". In moments of stress and anger travellers often direct the insulting labels used by the settled community against each other, just as Blacks in the United States sometimes call each other "nigger". When a teenager refused to carry out his mother's request to get firewood, she yelled at him, "You tinker tramp. You're good for nothin'. Tinker tramp!" While drinking, travellers may call each other "You dirty knacker", "You fuckin' tinker" or yell "You're the lowest tinker on the road". During a fight with her husband one woman yelled, "My father wasn't a knacker .... My mother was a Gypsy right enough but not my father. You should treat me with respect. My father wasn't a knacker!" Pejorative labels are also used when joking. During the first few months of my research whenever I did something which was felt to be out of character for a "respectable" person travellers would comment, "You're a real knacker now". One evening as I stood in the door of my wagon yelling loudly across the camp for my husband to come for dinner, Big Jim walked by and commented"You're just like the tinkers now". In Mountjoy prison even the travellers' soccer team was disparagingly named by them, "the knackers". The attempts travellers make to conceal or deny their itinerant background also indicates the degree to which many have developed a low self-esteem. Before entering a city pub one afternoon a mother and her twenty year old daughter, both neatly groomed for the occasion, coached each other on the proper way to act so as not to be identified as travellers — "don't talk loud", "don't curse", "don't use Gammon", "go with manners", and "be friendly". Once inside the pub, I was used as a go-between to facilitate their acceptance as settled people. I was sent to the bar to order our drinks since I spoke "right" and was the only one who looked really `respectable'. I was also sent ahead to find the ladies rest room so that I could return with detailed directions on its location and enable them to walk directly to it. Because illiteracy is one aspect of their identity travellers are particularly sensitive to, some purchase and carry a newspaper with them when hoping to pass as settled Irish. One evening as an elderly man returned to camp carrying a newspaper under his arm, his nephew called out to him, "Tom, I'll tell you where you got that newspaper. You were sitting in the pub when a kid came around selling papers

116

and you wanted to make out like you could read so you bought one". To this Tom replied, "Shut your face!" But his nephew continued, "Well, if you didn't get it in a pub, you bought it outside and walked in like you were a scholar or somethin' ". It is not uncommon for travellers to stress any link they have with the settled community when dealing with house-dwellers or angry with each other. The claim "I was born up proper ... bred, born and reared in a house" is typical. Generally these ties are greatly exaggerated. If an individual's family once lived in a cabin during the winter, this may be used to imply that they were actually settled people. While sitting around the campfire one evening a woman reminisced about the joys of her childhood and boasted, "My father was never on the road ... and me mother wouldn't let a tinker past her door". At this her son retorted, "What do you think you are". In response she screamed, "I'm no tinker. Don't you call me a tinker!" In fact both her parents had been travellers, although her father, a chimney sweep and pedlar, after serving time in the British army was given an ex-serviceman's home where the family lived during the winter months. One evening in the pub the barman was overheard to instruct his assistant "Just throw the drinks into them". The travellers said nothing until the pub closed and one woman summoned her courage and confronted the publican with his remark, "Mr. O'Reilly, we're not dogs. We're not pigs that you can be saying `throw them their drinks'. My mother was no tramp or tinker, she was reared on Meath Street. My mother was well-reared and educated. I was probably reared up better than you". Fortunately not all travellers think poorly of themselves. All are proud of their ability to live by their wits: "Travellers may be stupid (uneducated), but they're clever". Many feel that if the settled poor were as smart as they are, they would not be living in slums. Instead they would be on the road where there is fresh air and open space and the money saved from not having to pay rent and utility bills can be spent on things that give pleasure in life. Travellers occasionally boost their own self-image- by ridiculing settled Irish, particularly members of the working-class who work long hours for low wages. Travellers, in contrast, need only work when they want to. After passing a Dubliner selling second-hand clothing one weekday, the young girl I was with bragged, "We only have to sell clothes once a week. Them others sell them everyday". The pride many feel in their identity as travelling people is most apparent among the successful families. The fact that many tarmacadam layers, antique dealers and better-off roadside traders avoid social workers and itinerant settlement committees, whose help they feel they do not need, is one reflection of their self-respect.

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Travellers are also proud of the special skills they possess. "A lot of travelling people are great tradesmen: great carpenters, tinsmiths, horse dealers — they know all about a horse. They're great at different things. Well. if they could have been educated at all, they would have been very smart. You wouldn't know what they might have been". (Nan Donoghue)

Mrs. Furey waits for a decision GALWAY CORPORATION last night got a fivepoint proposal from Shantalla Residents Association on the re-housing of Mrs. Furey. After a

•

Mrs. Furey

special meeting of the Corporation it was

From Frank A. Byrne in Galway

announced no decision on the proposals would be

MORE THAN 250 residents of the Shantalla district —among them teenagers — marched peacefully to the offices of the Galway City ,Cdnncil last night. Some carried placards which react,' "No tinkers hem..”. "We want justice," and "House the people first."

taken until tomorrow. About 250 people took part in

issued a statement yesterday in

last night's protest march which they said the people of

organised by Shantalla Residents Shantalla had treen maltgned in Association to Dominick Street the media and also by the where a special meeting of Church during the last few days. Galway Corporation was con' I 2 it:i sidering the opposition to Mrs,; n Furey and her family movin~.~ into 23 Fursey Road. Many of the marchers carried t• placards. Slogans declared "We' want our own people housedColineille Rd.", "We want justice —Colmcille Rd." and "No linkers here." A delegation from the assuratinn went into the council chamber and addressed the members. A spokesman for the dele• gatlon, Mr. John Robinson. said they were formally received by the Corporation and they had put a proposal to the Corpora- . Ilan which was beneficial to Al a meeting of ylulliugar Mrs. Furry and her family. roe l umnulssioos•rs y eater.

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Itinerant family

buys home

ü'halever further action the residents' association would take would depend on the Corpora. Lion's reaction.

Farber yesterday what nu:ht have liven a falrc'lihe entivnt for Sti•. Frury ended in di, appointment. she was offered a hone in Role•• noire in es:hange for her ionise m Shantalla but re-nil sI, 3 m It..h,-, ine h••r move In tn•Ilt pm"mio, the are., ti !r I •.1•,. ..-t sir '.4 gi tlr.•r,• 114•ibra. Ti. _" :,W1 1.11111111. ..1,0.011 Inlet,,. ,r Ildeo . p.... ,inl i tine .art 110.0 :a.. lw" tb.m.:ml faul,. 60 ,.• le -311% tars Furry 0 t e l Ow 1.1 1,.., 0 a hen e, ...ßn.1 not In• 1,.1 nil.. \haniaila sh, I.,' let in I.. „ n•tee ..t tie slum I ~..

120

Mrs. Furey: Shantalla's new 'plan'

day, dornmeots were signed ell tog +auction fur Ism' sale Its Mrs. glary Reilly ut her tested local authority house at I athrdi at Alen. Mulllogal to an Ill...rant thigh Nes In for L1.71111 At Iler '''- ' 'is murting. a teller u.rs re •ci11.11 Iron a untidier to residents in Cantata! s r, fel lar r ohlrr1111g 1., Ilt-"sale lit It, .rills. 1.1,1 II n I.„till.,l rrls Ils al :sl r, ir, er that Ii~• unhcr• ~, m1.1 out I1;;411s "Moose btu +air II tiri sl.11ul that fir b•ih. Is ioa Ilel and has sis .tm.h, it heint frum a

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A spokesman said it was a peaceful demonstration. A deputation of three representatives of the demonstrators were cheered as they entered the Council offices to meet the 12-member Corporation. During the 25-minute meeting members of the deputation put forward a five-point proposal which, they believed, was a solution to the problem of Mrs. Annie Furey. Questioned by journalists outside the Council's offices in Dominick Street. the spokesman said the proposal did not include ali.,wing Mrs. Furey into her 'new council home In Fursey Road. "But we tee) that our proposal, if backed up by the Councillors, will be see), beneficial to Mrs. Furey." added the spokesman, The proposal is tieing considered by the councillors. A statement will not be issued by them m.,.,='r» After mnmtr There

AT vest " the Galwa! swap in Fu

. (he arrangement 461412111,510-

ably have been givepl king of the Corpora ; Mrs. Mary Conroy 177) and her son, loseph (40), touched by the terrible conditions in which Mrs. Furey has to Inc. agreed to allow the itinerant family unto their Bohermore home while they moved into the house allocated to Mrs. Furey in Shantalla. PETITION "Why won't they let me live in a council house." said Mrs. Furey last night. " What hase 1 done to any of them? I just want to rear my children in a decent home." When news of the swap arrangement was received in Bohermore area a " We-don't want-you-either" petition was sent around all the houses in the estate and signed by the m:donty of residents. Residents in Liam Mellows ler race listed there obicctiuns ro Mr. Furer Mr. Michael h oily, who lit es in No. S. ,aril there were already two iGrw.a•

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HILE the people of Shantalla in Galway adamant that Mrs. Annie Furey and her two cl will be kept out of their neighbourhood, Galway Corp) which meets tonight to discuss the situation, is u to revoke its decision to give Mrs. Furey the house Fursey Road, Shantalla. The chairman of the 40U-,ml aying rent as long as I ber Stantalla Residents Agri... slate state over my head". non, Mr. John Geary said ve►, ,I p Garda spokesman In terday that already there wAt ;aid that Mrs. Furey wt one itinerant family housed In provided with full ncries. e go

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Integration— final aim for itinerants NTEGRATION must be the long-term goal U the gap between itinerants and the rest of the community Is to be farrowed. the national co-ordinator of the Irish Connell for Itinerant Settlement. Mrs. Joyce Shouldice, said in Ennis festerday. "While we must accept the and fact that some of the travellers du not. so far, desire knegreuun into the settled cornnuttily set tt is obvious that a large percentage of them do," lies. Shmddtce said, in her tddreos to the annual meeting If the council. Progress in the field of letticment bad been quite tncouraamg and of the esti• hated 1.400 itinerant families ihroughout the country, 700 sere time settled, JSO in houses lad 330 on sites. she said.

Dealing with the subject of Iducatton. Mrs. Shouldice called In the Department of Education Is rethink its present policy of

tea itinerant n Itinerant, Mr. Bernard agen, has been elected vicernan of Carrickmacross t Fein Currant].

Foxrock aids its itinerants The Fasted: Itinerants Settle. ent Committee has expressed

myk at Is. mertine of the tent aclnernrv„ John Watt and John Blaney on land owned by the insh of Foxrock snit Colon.

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t statement from committee ember Mr. Laurence Cassidy S that , lore these meal "have :ed undlsi',rhed in the Fox. rk area for a snrwdcrahle ne, the committee feels that eeyth:ne possible should be inc locally to hela them." .A member of the committee. r. Lawrence Cassidy (19), a amity .t„dent, SL t(illian's, is nvid,n11 temporars accommuda. in in his home. The cornttec in arranemi, to have Ute rat repladed and as well as ppivrng other assistance is arm;; "appropriate advice” for men Mr. Cassidy also say, that the meintete wishes to thank the :al conference of the Society St. Vincent de Paul and the •al residents "who are helping replace some of the lost uipmenl."

favouring integrated education for travelling children. The Parliamentary Secretary is the Taoiseach, Mr, John Kelly, speaking to the council, said the main obstacle to the betterment of itinerants, either socially or educationally, was the lack of understanding on the part of the netted community with consequent opposition to settlement proposals. " It has been demonstrated that a high proportion of itinerants wish to settle and that the local authorities are willing to provide the first step, hut are deterred from doing so by the active bosdity of the local com• munity," he said. The chairman of the council, Rev. Tom Febily, said : "It is, I think, a very significant and encouraging development of our work that we have travellers present at our annual geennl meeting this year to speak to us of their ideals, to advise us and to participate in our future planning. Both as a national council and a local organtatlon, it Is very important that we constantly consult with the travellers themselves," he added. An itinerant mother of five from Mullingar, Mrs. Julia McDomagb, who attended the meeting with her husband. Michael, and daughter Nell, who is an Inter. Cert. student In a boarding school near her home, said she had always found life on the road very hard. "I now feel that I'm part of a settled community and my children mix freely with the neighbours. It's very Important that all itinerant children should be educated", she added. The Bishop of Klllaioe, Most Rev. Michael Harty, said "When we live clone to the problems of itinerants we may be more conscious of whoa remains to be done than of what has been done but on taking a national view of the problem we must admire the extra. ordinary achievements of the various Itinerant settlement comtaltteee. He added: "I do not have to remind the Irish Council that the real task Is not winning arguments but winning the support and understanding of the settled community."

Patience is a virtue peculiar to children of itinerants THE QUESTION .f judges, gardai, released on his own bail, the garda itinerants and bail intrigues me. having no objection, and the case Last week 1 reported the case et was adjourned for a week. [If he could be released yesterday four itinerants charged with theft on his own bail, why not last of liquor—a mother, father, son and daughter-in-law. They were week?) if the garde knew where to find accompanied in court by a child, and Justice Good reprimanded the the son and his wife, why not ask for and execute the warrant im• mother severely for bringing the child into court, asking her why mediately alter lunch-hour? Or tell she hadn't arranged for a baby- the court, and at least spare the sitter, [They were arrested at four mother the wait:' Must the mother i , the morning.) The justice and and children be subjected ro gards agreed that, in a serious case another day-long sitting neat week.' like this, independent bail was It the garda knew where all these itinerants live, and was willing ,o necessary, though' the itinerants let them free on their own bail asked to be released on their own yesterday, why were they held in bail. Independent bail is normally custody at all! I am intrigued. asked to ensure that defendants tum up in court. In this case obsi. ously, the defendants' own word and bond was not considered sufficient. The mother was released on her own bail, to enaure that there was someone to look after the child, and the others were held in custody. Yesterday, when the case was due for hearing. I found the child and an elder sister sitting on the steps outside the court. The mother had asked them to stay there, so that she would not be reprimanded again for neglect, in bringing them into a courtroom. The children sat there from ten-thirty in the morning the mother being a punctual MAJOR move towards solving Galway's itinerant person, and the case was not called problem was made yesterday when four families were until one o'clock. The father came placed unopposed in a new ramp site at Rahoon, two miles ap from the cells below and the garde told the court that they "were from the city. The development came four weeks after looking for" the son and hes wife. members of the local residents' association had declared that The girds peered down the steps it would " react violently" if such a move took place. into Ute cells 'below. But, following three weeks of wants the Department of Educes The cue was loft standing till patient negotiation, the familie,. tinn carry out a survey on how the afternoon. Ths'itigØts were comprising 211 men. women and • hest to tackle thi: particulat not called until 4.45. The children children, were allowed onto the problem. rematsod outside all the time, Its chairman. Str. Paul Donsweld Mittishalty mad quietly on the site—un a compromise with the ran. pointed out yesterday. stage. The gØ informed cha local fanning community. court.. with a amlk, that the son last October Ga:way Corpora " When there are already 40 sed ht. wife had "..tØ14Ø" lion decided after pressure to children in a class a big influx That is, they bad dicaped from back down on a decision to pro• of itinerant children creates lawful . custody doring Moth-hour. vole a two.acr• camp site there additional difficulties. We think Mg liked far, ad received, a warfor up h, l0 families with a extra teachers may he needed rens (gr their agnat. T e son was and th.s is why we would .ike compound for hones. Them dua' or auotl>ar e The The compromise reached tie. the Department to earn: out a day,:said, sad ho kÄa!r when tween County Manager. Sfr, survey " b.fadr. no WW1. "mg 21:11 Austin Sharkey and the rent.. dents associaltun resulted in the £8,000 site being scrapped m favour of a fifth of an acre one: a promise that only four families would be moved to and that no animals would be allowed.

Itinerants back at Rahoon

But horses are out

A

Itinerants' animals' ambulance

A new £1,1011 animal amme. lance, operated hy The Itaysirdr Animal Welfare ('entre. •ame unto vrvu e r,.•t.'roas for the exclu-ive treatment o' lineram; anorak at camp snes rat the Dublin area. In the past sax year,. the centre — based at a 28arre farm at Kilgralgu,•, D,nhoyne, Co. Meath — flas spent more than £'25.1100 in this work. Rev. Tout Fehrly, chairman of the Dublin Itinerant Settlement

Vatican Among those present were Lord Birsay, Judge Advocate, who beaded ■ delegation from Scotland. Delegations front a number of Burpean countries also attended. Preaching concelebrated Mass in the Pro-Cathedral Buller, Archbishop Cluatto, president of the Pontifical Commission for Migrants sad Tourists. Vatican City, said the Irish council and community erez=ittas were doing outstanding wort for the settlement of itinerants. Fr. Febily was Øleetd chairman; Mr. Victor Bewley, outgoing gametal% was elected vfcs•shaeanta; Fr. Christopher Jnes, Bilges was sheeted seas. Ism, and Mir Ells= '[cherry was elected trimmer. Pat GGelvin of Ennis and Sister May Cannel was sleeted to the national igaØe

By Nell McCafferty

IN THE EYES OF THE LAW

Committee. oho attended the blessing of the ambulance at the Four Courts lintel, isre.eidad £100 towards toe centre'. annual budget of 11000 Cp to now. arc ,entre has been ' finavl ed from British funds. with i less than £i in rennesoss lis Irish people. Father Fehily urges I support hy Irish people and . organisations.

t 1

Screened The new site, which 1s being given garda protection, is beside a new link road into Salthill and well he screened from thu public. Piped water has already been laid on and tour chemical toilets. Tarmac bases have been provided for the caravans. Galway itinerants' settlement committee has expressed satis. faction at the Baboon compro raise, which was worked out atter an appeal from the Bishop Most Rev. Michael Browne, fot talks to resolve the dispute peacefully. There are now three fully serviced Itinerant camps in the city. two of which were set up in the aftermath ot the most recent flare-up in Rahoon — on August 23—when seven itinerant families were driven out of a temporary road-side camp. The other camps are at Sntpo Avenue, Newcastle and at Rock. Barton, Salthill. The oar-arro Newcastle camp has five families of 23 men, women and children and the Salthill camp has foul families of 31 men, women and children. All camps are specially super• vised and a nominal rent charged for the caravans, which were donated hy Galway Inner. ant Settlement Committee. Galway Corporation plans to provide two more sites in the city—making a total of Five. These camps, the locations of which are s till secret, will accommodate eight families. The 36 children in the New. castle and Salthill camps are already going to school. but tho Itinerant Settlement Committee

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The end of the road ? As long ago as 1913 an article entitled "A Fast Disappearing Clan: the Irish Tinkers" predicted the end of life on the road.' Yet today there are I ,700 travelling families in Ireland and an equal number living in the British Isles. 2 Two major factors account for the travellers' persistence. First, for generations they have stood at the bottom of Ireland's social and economic system, a deprived and stigmatised minority group. Such discrimination as forced mobility at the hands of irate farmers and the gardai and more recently by-laws against camping within a certain distance of many towns, have acted to keep travellers physically and socially isolated from settled society. Secondly, travelling life has to a certain extent perpetuated itself. Because travellers are rejected by the settled community they have been forced to rely entirely upon one another for marriage partners and companionship. Hence the influence of the family in travelling society has been particularly strong. Despite the many hardships, some travellers see definite advantages to life on the road. This has become especially true in the past few years as the gap in the standard of living between settled Irish and travellers has narrowed. THE APPEAL OF "THE ROAD" While most Irish are certain of the advantages of settled life, not all travellers are equally convinced. The hardship of itinerant life for most families today is acute only in the winter when cold, wet and windy weather makes travelling and camping difficult and unpleasant. In the past travellers who were able to obtain houses generally occupied them only at this time of year. The "comfort" that housing provides including heat, electricity, running water, and toilet and bathing

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Christmas week in a Dublin suburb

123

facilities, remains one of the major incentives for families to settle. Many parents have settled for "the sake of the childer" in particular for the better care and education they will be able to provide for them. "I only stay in the bloody house for the sake of the kids, I'd rather have the road meself ". (Patrick Maugham) For successful families such as large-scale dealers, tarmacadam layers and roadside traders, many of whom live and travel in England, life on the road is especially viable and there is little incentive to seek integration into settled society. Many own well-equipped mobile homes, large lorries, portable television sets and other luxury goods which enable them to maintain a comfortable lifestyle. Most travelling people place a high value on their autonomy and independence. "I'm me own boss" is a common boast. Life on the road appeals strongest to traveller men, who have fewer daily chores and responsibilities to cope with, than to women who provide the family's daily subsistence and care for the children. Speaking for many women, Mary Maugham remarked, "Travellin' life is a lazy life — for the men". Both men and women take pride in their resourcefulness and ability to live as travellers. They are also aware of the advantages of not having tö pay rent, rates and taxes on the road. Nan Donoghue, with some exaggeration, explains: "Years ago travellin' was full of hardship. But today being on the road is heaven on earth. You have no worries for rent, electric bills and you can sleep in the morning. In a house you have to be up very early worrying about the home. All the money goes on the home. But on the road all the money goes for yourself. It's a better use of money" This is the reason many travellers who were once settled give for leaving their homes and returning to the road. Marty and Mary Maugham were housed in Manchester for seven years before returning to Ireland; today they live in a barrel-top wagon. "Me wife and me both had jobs. We were up at half seven each morning. Five days a week up at half seven and for what? Just to pay the bills and rent. After seven years we still had nothing and me nerves were nearly gone" Travel and change are highly valued aspects of life on the road which many families are reluctant and often unwilling to give up. Although there is no longer the same economic need for most families to "shift" (change camp) or travel, the vast majority continue to be at least semi-nomadic. Many change camps several times a year and some leave the city to travel the countryside during summer. As one woman remarked, "St. Patrick's Day I start to get restless, Easter I get itchy heels and May Day I'm on the road". Even those who now live in sites or houses may keep carts, tents and wagons so that they can travel when the

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125

mood strikes them. In 1972 after five years of settlement in Labre Park, a Dublin site, ten of the families paid their rent and left the site during the summer to travel. The reasons for moving can vary, but sometimes it is simply the desire for a change of scene. The road also provides companionship. When in the company of their social equals, travellers escape the insults and constant reminders of the low esteem in which they are generally held. As one traveller bitterly remarked: "They think they're above us, that they're better. But they're not. There's a lot that's livin' in houses that isn't half as good or as decent as a `knacker'. I'm telling you they aren't. They try to be above the travelling person, they try to make dirt of us. But it's them that's the real dirt, at least some of them. A person that's well-reared, a really respectable person, won't mind if you're a tinker or who you are as long as you don't bother them. That's how you find the real low type of a person that's livin' in the houses. They think they're something if they have a house or a nice dress". A major disadvantage for those who settle is the loneliness of living in the settled community without the moral support of friends and relatives. It is also the reason many who wish to settle prefer "sites" to conventional housing. On sites they have many of the benefits that housing brings (amenities and access to schools for their children) plus the companionship of friends, without the stress of living among settled population. The hostility many Irish display towards travellers can make families uncomfortable even when they have adjusted well to settlement in every other respect. One woman whose family was recently housed bitterly relates how she was reminded of the antipathy that exists towards travellers. "Well, we were comin' home one day — me and John and Michael. We had our shoppin' and we were laughin'. I was after gettin' paint and all and we were thinkin' about what colour to paint the house. We were thinkin' we'd get wallpaper next week, somethin' else the next, these sort of flowers for the garden... Here we were real happy. But we lost all heart with the house when we heard what these fellas were sayin'. These settled men were standin' right beside us — a crowd of them. They were takin' down timber from a lorry to put up a railing out beside their door. We had to wait while they were takin' down the timber because of the way the lorry was parked and the traffic goin' by. One of them said, `Hold on a minute, we won't be long. We only have a few things to take down'. Then this other fella points and says to me and John, `Look at them dirty knackers!' I looked over to where lie was pointin' but never opened me mouth. This Reilly man and woman, (Michael knew them but he didn't look over at them because

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the settled people was all beside us), were after comin' from the dump with this load of stuff — copper and brass. Well, that was worth a few bob to them. "Then this (settled) fella says, `Here last week your man Jim, is that right Jim?' he shouted over. `Jim took off his workin' boots and he only had them for two weeks. And he just left them down to run up for cigarettes. He put on his light shoes to run up. And left his workin' boots there after paying good money for them. One of them....' I needn't tell you the swearin'. `One of them bleedin' bastards took them. If I had me way I'd burn them out. They shouldn't be allowed. They have more than the people in the houses. Look at all the money they have and the scruff and the dirt of them. If I could know the fella that took the boots.... Them bleedin' tinkers. See the trailers they have? And the fancy cars and still they rob. Look what we're earnin' a week and look at the way we're sweatin' for it', he said. "Well, I was thinkin' if they ever find out we're `knackers', we're done. Then our Michael said, `Sure, I wouldn't blame them! Aren't they right when they can get things for nothin'? Don't you know the price of things today? They'd be bigger fools.... weren't they right when he was a fool to leave his boots there'? 'My God', the man said `it'll never happen again. I'll get one of those knackers yet'. Well, I wasn't able to speak, and John never opened his mouth. But Michael kept sayin', `They're right! They're not fools to sweat themselves workin'. Wouldn't you do the same? I wish I could get money as easy as that'. `Oh— no!'the men said, `don't get that into your head' ... When I saw the last piece of timber comin', I said, `Come on boys quick'. I had no heart to look at the paint then. What's the good if they find out we're `knackers'? ". Many of the families who take housing do so in the hopes that their children will eventually "pass", that is, be accepted as settled people and not identified as "tinkers". Others want a degree of anonymity and respectability for themselves. As long as travellers live on the road apart from the settled community, they have little chance of integrating. Not only are they readily identifiable, but there is much less incentive to try to "pass" when in the sole company of other travellers. Thus before an individual can hope to lose his stigmatised identity, he must abandon this nomadic lifestyle. Once housed, many families attempt to keep their address a secret from other travellers, even family members, in order to ensure their anonymity. According to one woman, "The worst thing about the road is you always have your relatives on top of you. And if you move into a house they'll be there drinkin' and fightin'. If I got a house I wouldn't tell nobody". Some of those who wish to integrate into settled society and leave

128

Going to school at Brav County Wicklow 129

their travelling background behind them have been able to do so. One daughter of a family housed in a small town in the Midlands in 1954, has successfully passed. The Reverend Mother at a local convent took a special interest in her as a child and helped her through school. After completing secondary school with honours, she obtained a scholarship to receive specialised training in Dublin. Today she works as a technician, shares a flat with a settled girl and dates a boy from the settled community. Most travellers who wish to `pass' are pessimistic about their ability to do so in Ireland. "People always find out you're travellers. It must be the way travellers dress. And if it's not that, it's the way they speak, the way they go on — their movements. It seems to be their walk. You'd nearly know a traveller. If they're dressed in satin and if they had all the gold hangin' out of them, you'd know they were a traveller. You never can hide it. Whatever's in it, you can't hide it". EMIGRATION TO BRITAIN Because anonymity is so difficult to maintain in a small-scale society such as Ireland, emigration is often a better answer. Once there travellers can move into flats or houses in large industrial cities such as Birmingham, Huddersfield or Manchester and are able to pass as `working-class' Irish. Other immigrants, often Asians and Pakistanis, who occupy the neighbourhoods most travellers move into, are unfamiliar with the clues which in Ireland signal traveller identity. According to James Browne, "There's less of that `class distinction'. Any travelling man or woman can walk into any shop in England and get whatever he likes. They can't do that in Ireland". "The whole crowd of us in this site could walk into a pub in England and be served. But here, even at Christmas, we have to split up in small groups". (Tommy Connors) As a young man, one son of a large travelling family left Wexford and emigrated to Wales. There he obtained a job working in a coal mine. He married a Welsh woman and after ten years became a mine foreman. No one in town is aware of his background, he even kept it a secret from his wife for several years, and he continues to take precautions to ensure that they do not find out. When a crew of Irish traveller tarmacadam layers arrived in his town one day looking for work, he left the area for the entire day rather than risk being recognised. He has cut off most ties with his family and has returned to Ireland only once to visit them. Occasionally some of his brothers visit him in Wales, but when they do they are careful of their appearance and behaviour. He keeps extra clothing in his house in case kins-

130

131

men visit. He does not want their appearance to cause anyone to question his own background. One brother who went to Wales for a summer stayed in a larger town ten miles away so that he would not have to worry that townsmen would realise he was a traveller from the way his children acted or by the jobs he and his wife engaged in. A young traveller girl from Kilkenny whose parents were housed several years ago, but who are still known locally as "tinkers", emigrated to England. She had not attended school while in Ireland. However, once in London her brother, who had emigrated previously, taught her to read and write. Next she acquired a job on a factory assembly-line making brushes. When I first met her on a visit home, I asked her if many other travellers lived in London. At this, tears welled up in her eyes and she had to struggle to answer. She did not know that I had been talking to her grandmother about the family's life on the road and assumed that something about her appearance or manner had revealed her itinerant background. When she left the room to get tea her grandmother remarked sympathetically, "Once you make it you don't want to look back". Only families who remain on the road in England, and to a lesser extent those who live together in large groups in urban slums, are readily identifiable as Irish "tinkers". These families have been the focus of considerable hostility. In an incident described in the press as the "Battle of Doe Bank Lane" local residents of a Birmingham neighbourhood spent £600 for 1,000 loads of soil to dump on an area where travellers had previously camped. In another incident, 242 students in a Balsall Heath, Birmingham grammar school were purposely kept home in protest against a traveller camp near the school. 3 Even travellers who emigrate and are able to escape the stigma attached to traveller identity may choose to remain travellers. Many of the Irish travellers who emigrated to the United States in the 1840s fleeing the potato famine still practice semi-nomadic trades such as house and barn painting, speak gammon and identify themselves as travelling people. For generations large segments of the gypsy population in England and other countries have lived in houses, yet they have retained their identity and periodically resume an itinerant life. The vast majority of the approximately 1,500 Irish traveller families who have emigrated to England remain on the road. Thus, while many aspects of their culture may change, there will undoubtedly be travelling people for generations to come. THE FUTURE Some travellers such as Biddy Connors believe that life on the road is virtually over and that settlement and integration are inevitable.

132

Some say 'life 011the road is virtually over:...

"Travellers will keep movin' into houses. Well then, their children and their children again — grandchildren and great-grandchildren — them'll be gettin' married to the neighbours, the same as the people in the houses. Then after some time, I'd really say that there wouldn't be any travellers". Others claim there will always be travelling people. Many express the belief that travelling "is in the blood" and consequently that complete integration into the settled community is impossible, even if desirable. "Twenty years, even forty years from now, I'd say travellers will still be shifting from one place to another. Out to Ballyfermot, to Finglas, to Coolock .... Even if they settled in houses, they'll still go around in the summertime or drive around in vans. The way things are goin', I'd say a lot of settled people will be coming onto the road because of taxes and things. There are plenty of people — not real travellers — livin' in caravans now. There are plenty around Galway and more around Dublin." (James Browne) Since 1965 and the beginning of the Itinerant Settlement Movement in Ireland, many travellers have been encouraged to settle. "Between the law and the civil people ... they're goin' to get rid of the travelling people as fast as they can. They're tryin' to get them off the road. That's why they're educating the children, so when they put them into a house, they'll be able to live with their neighbours. There was a time when they didn't care if travellin' children ever got to school, but no more". Of the `travelling' families in Ireland, 468 or twenty-seven per cent now live in standard housing among the settled community. An additional 368 or twenty-two percent have moved onto "sites" and are now semi-settled in trailers and small houses known as "tigins" and "chalets". 4 These figures contrast sharply with the situation just fifteen years ago when virtually all families lived on the roadside in tents and wagons. s Do these figures, which show a definite interest in settlement necessarily represent a trend towards integration and the loss of the travelling people's unique identity? All settlement can be said to promote the eventual integration of travellers in the sense that certain positive changes in appearance and behaviour do occur. Generally settled families are neater and cleaner in dress and appearance than those living on the road, who lack running water and bathing facilities. This improved personal appearance makes the settled `traveller' less conspicuous to his neighbours and this influences his social acceptance. Some behaviour such as begging to which settled Irish object also declines following settlement. In houses, habits of families are directly observed by their settled neighbours, and

134

thus they are pressurised into being more sensitive about behaving in the approved ways. On a very limited scale some social mixing has begun to take place between newly housed families and their settled neighbours. In several towns traveller men attend residents association meetings and a few have joined local credit unions. Teenagers have joined local boxing clubs and Girl Guides and attend local dances. One boy from a housed family in County Cork went to Germany in 1972 representing Ireland in a sporting event. Through a consciousness-raising campaign over a number of years aimed at members of the settled community, the Settlement Movement has also made progress in changing attitudes towards travellers. Nevertheless, the stigma of traveller identity can be particularly long-lasting especially when groups of travellers are housed together. As a result of the Housing Act of 1931 an extensive building programme was undertaken to re-]louse Ireland's poor. In some areas traveller families who were renting small cottages, or were living in derelict houses on the edge of town for the winter, were among those housed. In Bray County Wicklow, Athlone County Westmeath, Granard County Longford, and Tralee County Kerry, virtually entire terraces were allocated to traveller families. Some families eventually returned to the road and others emigrated to England. The majority of those who remained settled, however, never integrated into the larger society and after three generations of settlement they still identify themselves and are labelled by the community as travellers. In 1930 a terrace of eight two-storey houses was built in Bray, County Wicklow. The original occupants were all families who had previously lived on the street in one-storey earth shacks. Among the original occupants were three itinerant families (all with the same surname); the remaining five houses were occupied by the settled Irish. Through the years as settled Irish transferred to other houses the vacancies in this terrace were filled mainly by the descendants of the original itinerants, largely because housing authorities found settled Irish unwilling to move in with "tinkers". By 1972 when I visited the area, nine of the twelve houses in the terrace were occupied by this "itinerant" family and the terrace was known locally as a "tinker" ghetto. Over the years some of these `itinerants' have married settled Irish but most have married travellers and many again live on the road. Settlement on official "sites" can have the same effect by placing travellers together and away from settled Irish. As one woman from a site outside Loughrea, County Galway commented: "It's a nice site but as long as we live here, we'll always be tinkers". Thus settlement does not necessarily lead to integration. While government policy is settlement and integration, will public opinion allow it? A major change in the attitude of the general public

135

is an essential ingredient for this policy to succeed. Some travellers do not wish to settle, but those that do find the obstacles enormous. Many traveller children are going to school and a small but dedicated group of volunteers and professionals work away. Progress is slow and difficult. The `itinerant problem' is still a contentious area in Irish and in British society, and it would be a wise man who could foretell what the future held in store.

136

He come creeping when I was sleeping, Came to my window, was down so low, He knocked and knocked at my bedroom window. Saying, who is that at my bedroom window That is knocking so boldly and can't get in? For I am here, I'm your own true lover I'm here this three long hours and can't get in. Then she raised up off her down soft pillow, She opened the door and let him in. With love and kisses they blessed each other When this long night was slipping in. For I must go, I can stay no longer, For the cocks are crowing for day. For I must go, I can stay no longer, For I'm only the ghost of your Willy 0. Saying, What have took your lovely blushes? Or what have ate your grand cheeks away? The cold, cold seas took my lovely blushes, And the worms have ate my grand cheeks away. I must go, I can stay no longer, Into the bay called Biscayo. For I'll be guarded without hand or pilot, For I'm but the ghost of your Will 0. I must cross the burning mountains That's into the bay called Biscayo. I'll still be guarded without hand or pilot, For I'm still the ghost of your Willy 0.

A superb version of the baIlad, The Grey Cock. Because of the elaborate decoration used by the singer, the enclosed tune is a simplification of what Bill sang.

MARIE FROM GIPPURSLAND (sung by Bill Bryan) @

Oh the first come up was a blacksmith with a hammer and anvil in his hand He said he'd hammer a new foundation in Marie from Gippursland. He hammered her, he hammered her until his sides were sick and sore, And after all his labour she leaked in the place where she leaked before. Oh the next come up was a saddler with a needle and thread all in his hand He said he'd sew a new foundation in Marie from Gippursland He awled her, he sewed her, until his sides were sick and sore, And after all his labour she leaked in the place where she leaked before. Oh the next come up was a baker with the flour and soda in his hand', He said he'd bake a new foundation in Marie from Gippursland He baked her, he roasted her until his sides were sick and sore And after all his labour she leaked in the place where she leaked before. Oh the next come up was a big ploughman with a horse and plough all in his hand, He said he'd plough a new foundation in Marie from Gippursland. He ploughed her, he harrowed her until his sides were sick and sore And after all his labour she leaked in the place where she leaked before.

Oh the next come up was a timbexman with the axe all in his hand. He said he'd axe a new foundation in Marie from Gippursland. He chopped her, he sawed her until his sides were sick and sore, And after all his labour she leaked in the place where she leaked before.

Ah but now the next come up was a big tinkerman with a soldering iron in his hand, He said he'd solder a new foundation in Marie from Gippursland He rozzined her he soldered her until his sides were sick and sore, But after all his labour she never leaked in the place where she leaked before.

We have never come across this song anywhere else, either from travellers or settled singers, though there are a number of songs similar in theme to be found in print, notably "Tom Tinker", from DYurfey*s, Wit and Mirth, or Pills To Purge Melancholy, vol. 6, (pub. 17 19-20).

FLOWERY NOLAN (sung by Michael MacCarthy aged 45) Oh he lived upon the Stokestown Road Convenient to Arphin A man called Flowery Nolan, a terror to all men. He reached the age of seventy-one and he thought himself it was time For to go and get a missus and his wedding would be no crime. Oh several maids came offer to him and from them all he fled, Except one young fair maid, her fortune was rather high, So he took and he married this young fair maid to be his wedded wife.

The wedding it lasted two nights and one day, 'ti1 one night going into bed, Old Flowery turned all to his wife and these are the words he said: "You think you are my wedded wife, but 1'11 tell you you're not, You are only but a servant maid and better is your lot. "Oh there are two beds in my bedroom and take the one to the right, For I lived all alone for seventy-one and I'q lie alone tonight". When Mrs. Nolan heard the news she thought her husband queer, So packing up her belongings and from him she went away. So she tramped the road to her mother's house and it's there she did remain. So all you young pretty fair maids a warning take by me, Never wed an old man until you're fed up of your life, Because you'll be coming home again like Flowery Nolan's wife.

"He was an old bachelor for years, he used to be always talking about gettingmarried, but when he made up his mind to get married, he'd wait until the next year, and the next year, and he'd go on that way until he was seventy-one years of age. The farmers around told him it would do no harm to have someone to look after him, so he advertised in the paper, for a wife. It was a joke more than anything else. All the lads around the parish were more blaggards than anything else, so a lot of the girls came around pulling his leg, Letting on they were going to marry him. This one really meant it, out of all her jokes, till she got the dirty turn-out". Although the song is about a farmer the singer assures us that it was never sung by anybody but travellers. Michael is the only person we ever heard sing the song, and we have been unable to find it in print.

Notes CHAFFER 1 1

Oxford English Dictionary (Compact Edition)

2

(Oxford, 1971), vol. 2, p. 3329. Walter Simson, A History of the Gypsies (London, 1865), p. 329. Brian Vesey-Fitzgerald, The Tinkler-Gypsies (Dumfries, 1907).

3

Quoted in D. B. Quinn The Elizabethans and the Irish. (London, 1966), p. 167.

4

Quoted in J. J. Jusserland English Wayfaring Life in the Middle Ages (London, 1889), p. 155.

5

Report of the Commissioners on the Condition of the Poorer Classes in Ireland (London, 1835)

6 7

8 9

10 11 12 13 14

vol. 32, part 1, p. 574. Ibid., p. 495. John Sampson, "Tinkers and Their Talk" Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society (1891), vol. 2, p.p. 204-21 and "Shelta or Sheldru Chambers's Encyclopedia (1893), vol. 9, p. 389. Kuno Meyer "On the Irish Origin and Age of Shelta" Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society (1891), vol. 2, pp. 257-66. Stewart Macalister The Secret Languages of Ireland (Cambridge, 1937), p. 163. Jared Harper "Irish Traveller Cant: An Historical, Structural and Sociolinguistic Study of. an Argot" (University of Georgia thesis, 1966), p. 67. William Shakespeare, Henry IV pt. 1, act ii, sc. 4. Op. Cit., p. 668. Cycil Woodham-Smith, The Great Hunger (London, 1962), p. 183. Op. Cit., p. 58. Op. Cit., p. 329.

CHAPTER 4 1

2

3

4

5

CHAPTER 5 I Report of the Commission on Itinerancy 2

CHAPTER 2 1

Report of the Commission on Itinerancy

(Dublin, 1963), p. 137. 2

Ibid., pp. 37, 141-42.

CHAPTER 3 1

2

140

Ibid., p. 120. See also the Department of Local Government's "Count of Itinerants: 13 January 1971" which recorded 248 families in Dublin. Begging is illegal. The Vagrancy Act of 1847 makes it an offence to beg or to encourage a child to beg. Conviction can result in imprisonment for a period of up to one month. Permitting children to beg is also punishable under the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act of 1904 and the Children Act of 1908. Both acts impose fines and periods of imprisonment.

The average age of marriage for travellers born since 1930 is 18.17 for women and 21.61 for men. (M. H. Crawford and George Gmelch "Human Biology of the Irish Tinkers" Social Biology (1974) vol. 21, p. 325). Because travellers in recent years have been marrying at an increasingly early age, the Archbishop of Dublin (encouraged by social workers and members of the Itinerant Settlement Movement) appointed a priest to supervise all traveller marriages in Dublin. Other priests have similarly been appointed around the country. As a result, couples must now go through the same procedures as settled Irish before they will be married in the Church. This means, at the minimum, a wait of six weeks while the "banns" are called. Those under twenty years of age are also required to attend a period of premarriage counselling. The average number of children per fertile traveller woman aged forty and over is 10.43. (M. H. Crawford and George Gmelch "Human Biology of the Irish Tinkers" Social Biology (1974) vol. 21, p. 326). Figures for travellers were computed from the Department of Local Government's 1971 "Count of Itinerants". Figures for settled Irish were taken from Who's Who, What's What and Where in Ireland (1973). This rate fell to 7.6 per hundred when only births since 1950 were computed. Yet it was still twice as high as the then national average of 3.1 per hundred. Figures are from the Report of the Commission on Itinerancy (1963) p. 47.

(Dublin, 1963), p. 102. The results of his "General Social Attitudes Pre-test" were provided by Professor Davis of the Economic and Social Research Institute.

3

Irish Times 23 August 1969.

4 5 6

Evening Press 22 November 1971.

7 8

9 10 11

Irish Times 5 March 1974. Report of the Commission on Itinerancy

(Dublin, 1963), p. 53. Ibid., pp. 65-66. Figure computed from statistics provided in the "Report on the Educational Provision for and Needs of Travelling Children" prepared by Sr. Colette Dwyer, the National Coordinator for the Education of Travelling People. Irish Times 9 June 1966. Irish Times 13, 27 June 1973. Irish Times 5 September and 23 October 1968 and 23 August 1969.

CHAPTER 6 1

D. J. O'Connor, "A Fast Disappearing Clan: the Irish Tinkers" Ireland's Own, vol. 22, p. 5.

2

Figures for travellers in Ireland are from the "Sixth Annual Report of the National Council for Travelling People" (9 May 1975). According to informed estimates there are 1,500 to 2,000 Irish traveller families in England. (Eton Daley and David Smith: personal communication). For more information on complaints of Englishmen against Irish Travellers in Birmingham consult the following newspaper accounts: Birmingham Post 18 April 1970, 23 September

3

1970, 5 January 1971; The Guardian 3 July 1963 ("City Declares War on Irish Tinkers") and 10 July 1963; Evening Mail Report 4 May 1971 ("City 'Red Alert' as Tinkers Move In"); and Birmingham Mail 30 April 1970 and 2 June 1970 ("Deport These Tinkers — Councillor Urges Action on Nuisance Element"). 4

Figures are from the "Sixth Annual Report of the National Council for Travelling People" (9 May 1975).

5

In the 1960 census 1,073 out of 1,198 traveller families lived in tents and wagons. (Report of the Commission on Itinerancy 1963, p. 145).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe many things to many people. Patricia McCarthy and Eithne Russell, pioneer social workers at the Dublin Itinerant Settlement Committee, gave me invaluable support throughout my research. I also wish to thank Drs. Joel and Betty Barnes, Victor Bewley, George Bowles, Liam Clare, Fr. Michael O'Donoghue, Dr. Michael Flynn, Tom Furey, Vincent and Margaret Jones, Eilis McCullough, Tom Murphy, Dr. Cyril White, and many members of the Itinerant Settlement Movement for their help and friendship. This study has also benefited from discussions with Willie Guy, Michael Lineton, Judith Okely, and David Smith, colleagues doing research among English and Scottish Travellers. I owe a great debt to my past professors Charles Erasmus and Manuel Carlos of the University of California for their interest in my research among Travellers and their role in my graduate training. Michael O'Brien has expressed concern not only for this book but also for the issues and people it deals with beyond the call of any publisher. My greatest debt, of course, is to the Travelling People in particular the families of "Holylands" who not only tolerated my questioning and intrusions but made me feel at home. While every family in Holylands assisted in some way, I especially wish to thank my good friends Nan Donoghue and Mick and Katie Connors. I would also like to acknowledge Biddy and Jim Connors, Johnny Connors, Nan Joyce, and Paddy and Nan Maugham, and the late Mike Donoghue. SHARON GMELCH Pat Langan and the publishers would like to thank in particular The Irish Times who made available library facilities, help with promotion and co-operation over the period when many of the photographs were taken. We are also grateful to Pat and Jim Carroll and their friends of the Singers Workshop London for their great help with the songs. Our thanks to those who co-operated in so many ways, and of course especially the Travellers themselves. The songs on pages 27, 43, 65, 97, 137, 138 and 139 were recorded from Irish Travellers in Britain by Pat and Jim Carroll and Denis Turner with assistance from Pat MacKenzie and Barry Taylor, in the Summer of 1973 and from March to October 1975. The words and music for their songs have been transcribed by the above persons, and the rights are reserved by them on behalf of the Travellers concerned.

141

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(Appendix A): 475-793. Pound, John 1971 Poverty and Vagrancy in Tudor England. London: Longman. Quinn, David Beers 1966 The Elizabethans and the 1932 "Further Notes on Tinker's Cant. " Irish. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. Bealoideas 3:290-303. 1934 "Some Notes on Tinkers and Their 'Cant'." Rehfisch, Farnham (ed.) 1975 Tinkers, Gypsies and Other Travellers. London Academic Press. Bealoideas 4:259-63. Ribton-Turner, C.J. 1972 (1887) A History of Vagrants MacLysaght, Edward 1950 Irish Life in the and Vagrancy and Beggars and Begging. Seventeenth Century. Dublin: Eason and Son. Monclair, New Jersey: Patterson Smith. MacMahon, Brian 1967 The Honey Spike. Sampson, John 1891 "Tinkers and Their Talk". Dublin: Bodley Head. Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society 2:204-21. MacRitchie, David 1889 "Irish Tinkers and Their 1893 "Shelta or Sheldru". Chambers Talk". Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society Encyclopaedia 9:389. 2:350-7. Simson, Walter 1865 A History of the Gypsies. 1894 Scottish Gypsies Under the Stewards. London: Samson Lowe and Son and Marston. Edinburgh: David Douglas. 1904 "Shelta – The Caird's Language". Gaelic Stephens, James 1914. The Demi-Gods. London: Society of Inverness 24:429-68. MacMillan. Maher, Sean 1972 The Road to God Knows Where. Sutherland, Ann 1975 Gypsies: the hidden Dublin: The Talbot Press. Americans. London: Tavistock Press. Masterson, J.G. 1970 "Consanguinity in Ireland". Synge, John M. 1907 The Tinker's Wedding: A Human Heredity 21: 1-12. Comedy in Two Acts. Dublin: Maunsel and Co. Meyer, Kuno 1891 "On the Irish Origin and the Age 1912 In Wicklow and West Kerry. of Shelta". Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society Dublin: Maunsel and Co. (Pust series) 2:257 - 66. Vesey-FitzGerald, Brian 1907 The Tinkler-Gypsies. 1909 "The Secret Languages of Ireland". Dumfries: Scotland. Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society (second series) Walsh, Brendan M. 1970 "Marriage Rates and 2: 241-6. Population Pressure: Ireland, 1871 and 1911". Ministry of Housing and Local Government 1967. Economic History Review 23:148-62 Gypsies and Other Travellers. London: Her Williams, T.D. and R.D. Edwards (eds.) 1956 Majesty's Stationery Office. The Great Famine. Dublin: Moody, T.W. and F.X. Martin (eds.) 1967. The Woodham-Smith, C. 1962 The Great Hunger. Course of Irish History. Cork: Mercier Press. London: Hamish Hamilton. Muller, Edwin 1943 "U.S. Tinkers". The Father Yoors, Jan 1967 The Gypsies. New York: Simon Mathew Record 37:9. and Schuster. O'Brien, George 1918. Economic History of Ireland Zircon Publishing Ltd. and the Irish Times 1973 in the Eighteenth Century. London: Maunsel Who's Who, What's What and Where in Ireland. Dublin: Geoffrey Chapman. & Co. Bealoideas: Journal of the Folklore Society of Ireland 3:170-86.

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Illustrations page 3 4 6 9 I1 11 13 13 15

source George Gmelch Boy and Horse At Puck Fair, Killorglin Co.Kerry Pat Langan Pat Langan Girl and Boy Pat Langan A Western Sunset top— An eviction scene from Lawrence collection of National Library of Ireland. Pat Langan A Galway tinsmith Pat Langan top— In the Dublin Hills Pat Langan bot— On the road near Dublin top— Mud Cabin, Gweedore Co. Donegal, from Lawrence Collection of National Library of Ireland. Coolock, Co. Dublin Pat Langan George Gmelch 'Galway John' Ward

15 17 19 Living in a tent near Dublin 21 The traditional wagon at Finglas 24/25 Five wagons at Finglas Co.Dublin 25 Horse and Cart 29 top— A man, a horse and a dog bot— Man and wagon 29 31 top— Handmade tinware bot— Making griddle bread 31 top— Tea time 33 bot— Washing dishes at Galway 33 top— Collecting scrap 35 bot— A bath at Blessington 35 The mouth of a horse 37 40/41 Jim Donovan and his pony, Finglas 41 Near Dundalk Ballyfermot Dublin 45 47 top— Makeshift home, Dublin bot— A little garden at Dundalk 47 49 49 51

top— Finglas Itinerant Site bot— Sorting scrap top— Old travelling man bot— Flower girl 51 51 right— `Nanzer' Rathfarnham An old traveller 53 56/57 Living on the roadside, Longford Co. Westmeath Grafton Street Dublin 59 61 right— Dundrum Co. Dublin left— O'Connell Street Dublin 61 63 Playing with the puppies, Rathfarnham 67 Mother and daughter at a Dublin wedding 69 After a Connors-Doran wedding Drying clothes at Rathfarnham 72

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Grannie Connors top— A muddy face bot— Dressing a baby Bath time at Rathfarnham top r.— Three little girls bot r.— Cooking rough at Dundalk top I.— Boy with accordian bot I.— Mother and daughter Sligo Girl with dog, near Roscommon The Connors family at a wedding Jim Connors at a wedding Three children Woman and donkeys at Puck Fair Having a laugh, two children A beautiful purse top— Starting young bot— `Big Jim' Connors Father and two children Early morning police raid, near Dublin Airport A wash by the roadside, near Galway top— Selling novelties at Puck Fair bot— Katie and `Red Mick' Connors Annie Furey and her old `house' at Galway top— Burned house at Moate Co. Westmeath bot— Camping at Coolock Co. Dublin 'Climbing the Reek', Croagh Patrick Co. Mayo At Dundalk Itinerant Site Riding bareback at Dundrum Co. Dublin At Puck Fair, Killorglin Ella Coffey and friend Outdoor market `The Hill' Dublin Christmas Week in a Dublin suburb One of the Browne family at Rathfarnham Wedding at Bird Avenue Dublin Walcot School Bray Co.Wicklow A be-jewelled child

George Gmelch Pat Langan George Gmelch Pat Langan George Gmelch Pat Langan George Gmelch Pat Langan Pat Langan Pat Langan Pat Langan George Gmelch Pat Langan George Gmelch Pat Langan Pat Langan Pat Langan Pat Langan Pat Langan Pat Langan Pat Langan Pat Langan Pat Langan George Gmelch George Gmelch Pat Langan Pat Langan Pat Langan Pat Langan Pat Langan Pat Langan

George Gmelch Pat Langan Pat Langan George Gmelch A richly painted wagon at Finglas Pat Langan Old hands Pat Langan