Migrants and Cultural Memory

Migrants and Cultural Memory: The Representation of Difference

Edited by

Mícheál Ó hAodha

Migrants and Cultural Memory: The Representation of Difference, Edited by Mícheál Ó hAodha

This book first published 2009

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Copyright © 2009 by Mícheál Ó hAodha and contributors

All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

ISBN (10): 1-4438-1114-9, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-1114-9

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction ...... vii Mícheál Ó hAodha

Chapter One...... 1 Irish Travellers and “Country People”: Folk Narrative and the Construction of Social Identity Fionnuala Carson Williams

Chapter Two...... 19 Extracts from “The Turn of the Hand”: A Memoir from the Irish Margins Mary Warde

Chapter Three...... 27 An Brief Exploration of Shelta and some of it’s Historical Functions Zara Power

Chapter Four...... 37 Irish-American Travellers: Some Historical Representations Yann Ryan

Chapter Five ...... 47 Polish Gypsies: Aspects of the Roma Socio-Cultural Experience Marek Isztok and Joanna Talewicz-Kwiatkowska

Chapter Six...... 57 Irish Travellers and the Legacy of the Stereotype: Some Considerations Tony Ryan

Chapter Seven...... 67 The Music of the Rainey’s Rediscovered: A Priceless Aspect of Irish Culture David Ryan vi Table of Contents

Chapter Eight...... 75 Modernity, Diversity and the Question of a Shared Past: Two Irish Traveller Women Share Their Thoughts Maria Rieder

Chapter Nine...... 85 Public Policy and Irish Travellers: Exclusionary Policies and Approaches Eleanor Carey

Chapter Ten ...... 97 Some Notes on Johnny Doran: The Irish Traveller and Uilleann Piper Extraordinaire David Tuohy and Mícheál Ó hAodha

Contributors...... 109

INTRODUCTION

This volume is an exploration of the image that is the Traveller/Gypsy, the nomad, the migrant and the outsider/“Other” within the frame of articulation that is European representational culture. It is another small addition to the burgeoning subject areas that are Migration/Diaspora Studies and Irish Studies. The global flows of mass-migration and mass- media dissemination that are a commonplace today have overcome centuries-old physical divides as evidenced between diverse peoples and cultural groups. They have also created innovative spaces for the exploration of issues relating to cross-cultural and identity representation. Academics, cultural analysts, writers and artists all increasingly work in transnational and transcultural spaces, spaces which Arjun Appadurai (2001)has referred to as "imagined worlds" (2001, 329). These new creative spaces are environments where alliances and allegiances coalesce, dissolve, and coalesce again as relating to particular ideas and images which are continuously re-staged across, rather than within, stable nationalist cultural narratives. Postcolonial diasporas have served to both intensify and accelerate this undermining and reconfiguring of (hitherto) dominant cultural narratives. Nowhere is this disruption of narrative more in evidence than in the case of diaspora peoples and cultural groups such as Travellers, Roma (Gypsies) and other migrant groups. As outlined in the essays that comprise this book the diverse and often-reductionist representations of such “outsider” groups disrupt the narratives which define dominant cultures and hybridize the discourse. In the process they serve to remind us that cultural identities are always fluid and heterogeneous and may disrupt such “traditional” concepts as the “nation” or what we may define as “home” or “abroad”. Volumes such as the following hope to provide a forum for an enhanced dialogue between the old and the new, the local and the foreign, the indigene and the migrant. Through such a dialogic process we can ensure that the voices “from the margin” can begin to be heard both inside and outside of the dominant discourse.

—Dr. Mícheál Ó hAodha Department of History, University of Limerick, Ireland

CHAPTER ONE

IRISH TRAVELLERS AND “COUNTRY PEOPLE”: FOLK NARRATIVE AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF SOCIAL IDENTITY

FIONNUALA CARSON WILLIAMS

The demographic makeup of Irish society has undergone recent rapid change in recent times. In a small island where, for centuries, only two languages were present to any extent, with English being predominant, there are now over fifty in everyday use. A distinct group, with its own ‘distinct language register’ and, indeed, culture has, however, been here all along and the newcomers have raised awareness of it.1 To quote from the booklet accompanying a recent touring exhibition in Northern Ireland:

Today we are becoming more and more aware of the multi-cultural dimension within our society-a trend which is set to grow and develop. This exhibition encourages you to explore and appreciate the varied histories and experiences of our people and our times.2

The group, along with groups of recent arrival such as those from China, is one of those featured in the exhibition. The group is, and always has been, very much in the minority. In Northern Ireland there are only about one and half thousand of them in a total population of about 1.6m, while in the Republic of Ireland there are about 28,0003 in a population of about 4.2m.4 Thus, in the whole island, they make up about .5 percent of the total population of about 5.9m. Although such a small minority, it is probably reasonable to say that everyone in the majority group has an opinion about them, despite the fact that few would have any direct contact or know any of them on a personal basis; one of the two things on which the opinion is largely based is oral tradition so it would be important to try and see how that tradition is brought about.5 What has distinguished this group from the general population is the fact that they were economic nomads, travelling in family groups from one place to another, the equivalent of the

2 Chapter One

Macheros in Spain. As with them, membership is by descent and they are largely landless in countries with large numbers of farmers. In Ireland, in oral tradition, there are insider and outsider names for both the minority and majority groups. The names now considered politically correct for the minority are those they use themselves-Travellers, or Travelling People- but it took until the very end of the last century for this to become so and, indeed these terms, as far as I can see, have not, as yet, made it into mainstream dictionaries, or even regional ones.6 On a popular level such people are still referred to as ‘gypsies,’ even though they are not Roma. Until about five years ago there were no Roma in Ireland, however, Roma from eastern Europe now live here. In a recent conversation I heard a middle aged woman explaining Irish Travellers to her aunt by saying ‘They’re our gypsies’.7 In turn, Travellers call non-Travellers ‘country folk,’ ‘country people' and also ‘Gorgios,’ a word borrowed Romany, which can be pejorative.8 Travellers seldom recount origin legends about themselves and this is in great contrast to the general population, many of whom have definite beliefs as to the origin of Travellers. The commonest belief is that Travellers became landless because of the great famine period in the late 1840s (1847-49). In my questionnaire in preparation for this paper which was designed to be answered by non-Travellers I included the question ‘Where and when do you think Travellers originated? And here are the responses:

The Famine caused people to take to the road and stop relying on the land. and

I always heard they originated in the West of Ireland and went ‘on the road’ at the time of the famine.

A further response also suggested that Travellers were formerly settled but that a catastrophic event had caused them to be dispossessed of their land:

Dispossessed people at time of plantations,9 that is, in the seventeenth century.10 A similar group live in Scotland and a common belief about their origin is that they were people displaced at the time of the Massacre of Glencoe in 1692. It has been suggested that this belief tells more about the event than the group it is explaining. That such and such an event, for example, the famine, was so catastrophic that it caused people to be displaced to this day and that the continued presence of Travellers is, in fact, a constant reminder of that terrible period. It is

Irish Travellers and “Country People” 3 interesting to see that in some cases Travellers themselves have taken up this and other similar origin legends possibly, Judith Okely suggests, because they were readily understood by non-Travellers.11 In a note published in 1971 about a visit to a Traveller, or, as the collector James Gow calls it, ‘tinker’ camp Gow says:

My last question before saying goodbye was why the tinker craftsmen took to the road as a travelling people. My tinker friend told me that the reason given by his father and grandfather was that the tinkers were once settled tin smiths, but when the famine came to Ireland they took to wandering on foot. He also told me that the budget [or compact toolkit] was a relic of those days.12

‘Tinker’ is another common name, particularly in the southern part of Ireland,13 for Travellers because many Traveller men were tinkers, or tinsmiths, that is, they made utilitarian tin items such as mugs and buckets which they and the women then sold by going from door to door of farmhouses. Travellers also mended tinware and one informant told me how a Traveller man would regularly come to her family’s farm when she was a child to do this. He would arrive ‘about dinner time,’ that is, in the middle of the day, and would work in the kitchen. When everyone else had finished eating he would be given a big plateful of potatoes and a lump of butter and he would get a mug of buttermilk, ‘They loved buttermilk,’ she added.14 Besides being fed he would be paid. The practice at this period of sharing home and food implies a certain amount of trust between Travellers and farmers.15 One source suggests that tin smithing was only taken up by Travellers in the mid-19th century ‘when the raw material used, tin plate, became cheap and plentiful’16 but one Traveller woman maintained that prior to tin smithing there was still a connection with metal and that some men were ‘metal runners,’ that is, they made ‘castings for ploughs’ and, indeed, some were still doing so at the time she spoke.17 Factory-made aluminium, and then plastic, goods became widely available in the 1960s and Travellers had to adapt to this. A student, in her response to my questionnaire, said that in her neighbourhood there is a respected Traveller who now makes cake tins in the shape of numbers for birthday cakes for a local bakery and also copper scoops.18 Similar people live in Scotland and the title of a biography published last year refers to this occupation and its demise: Last of the Tinsmiths, The Life of Willie MacPhee.19 Although only some Travellers were tinkers (and, indeed, there were tinsmiths who were not Travellers) the name ‘Tinker,’ which was once simply an occupational name, became generic for all Travellers and has, when used by non-Travellers, become pejorative as in such

4 Chapter One current, widely-known expressions as ‘You’re a wee tinker,’ meaning ‘a naughty little child,’ while ‘tinker’ on its own is defined in one recent dialect dictionary as ‘an ill-disposed, ill-tongued woman’.20 In comparison, even today among Travellers, status is attached to having been a ‘maker’ or skilled tinker.21 The expression used in the general population ‘Not to give a tinker’s curse about something’22 contrasts with how seriously the curses of other marginal or powerless figures such as widows were usually regarded,23 however, it may be an expression of bravado. In 2002 Bairbre Ní Fhloinn, a non-Traveller folklorist with a steady, long-term interest in Travellers, edited ‘Storytelling Traditions of the Irish Travellers,’ a miscellany of narrative.24 In her accompanying essay she concurs with an earlier conclusion by Tom Munnelly saying ‘Travellers’ stories do not differ substantially from those of settled people, at least with regard to subject matter’.25 There is, none the less, a little narrative, or a little in the narrative, that identifies Travellers as a separate group from the rest of the community and one who might be looked down on by it, for example, a group with separate identity at the mercy of a stronger one is referred to in a version of the popular folktale The Dragon-slayer AT 300.26 Ní Floinn features a version of this told in 1930 by Nora ‘Oney’ Power with the attached moral ‘He [the hero] told them all that his good luck came from a little bird, because he divided what he had with her. “And never,” says he, “refuse help to the poor”.’27 It would be instructive to look at versions from the general population to see if this moral is added. In the few kindly checked by Bairbre Ní Fhloinn it was not present. In her essay she does point out that ‘A number of stories recorded from Travellers extol the virtue of charity’.28 Daniel O’Connell was a 19th century politician who became a folk hero.29 In many tales told about him he helps the underdog and one of his nicknames is ‘King of the Beggars.’ While most of the narrative about him has been recorded from the general population, a complex of tales, anecdotes and motifs was collected between 1967 and 1969 from one Traveller-Patrick Stokes-among them a jocular piece called ‘The Tinkers’ Hotel,’ in which O’Connell buys a hotel from an enemy for a week and destroys its reputation with the general population.30 Traveller identification with the Holy Family when they were homeless occurs in folklore, for example, in a prayer called ‘Our Lady of Travellers’ collected in Belfast in the 1980s from a Traveller girl. The last verse runs:

No room for Lord Jesus The night he was born

Irish Travellers and “Country People” 5

Oh, strengthen us when We must bear the same scorn!31

Some of the general population’s lore associates Travellers with the Holy Family in a negative way, for example, in the folktale where Mary’s request for a pin to fasten her cloak is refused by one person but granted by another [AT 750* Hospitality Blessed]. In the most frequent sub-type the request is refused by a tin-smith but granted by a blacksmith. The blacksmith ‘is then blessed with wealth and stability, while the latter [the tinker] is condemned to wandering and misery.’32 In an article on all the versions of this tale the writer says that the tale as such has only been collected in Ireland but it is linked to the international motif A 1650 Origin of different classes-social and professional33 and adds ‘Among other things these express tensions between the settled and the travelling classes and again between the esteemed and the despised trades. By showing how the various parties have brought on their respective lots by their own deeds, the settled community is absolved from responsibility for the plight of the poor and unsettled.’34 The same functions could also apply to the following:

Before the crucifixion of Christ no blacksmith could be found who would consent to make the nails. But a tinker agreed to do so. Hence, from that day to this the tinker is condemned to wander the roads of the world for his livelihood.

This version was actually collected from a blacksmith whose skill was regarded as much superior to the white or tin smith.35 A similar story has been collected from Travellers but with an important difference, that the tinker who made the nails was red haired.36 Perhaps this is an attempt to introduce some damage limitation on the story emanating from the general population? The same collector also found the following in the same district:

The tinker says that there is one day in the year on which he can steal without sinning. Some say that Good Friday is the day, others are not sure. They say that a tinker stole one of the four nails that were forged to crucify Christ and thus they have this privilege.37

This story connects Travellers with the crucifixion in a positive fashion and, moreover, supplies a licence for them to steal within certain bounds. It is very much an insider story because, although tinkers sometimes made nails, they customarily made and used rivets in manufacturing items. Nailers were distinct and separate trades-people.

6 Chapter One

Attitudes to and of Travellers can also be deduced from proverbs. It is quite unusual that Travellers should be mentioned at all, considering what a tiny proportion of the population they formed. The proverbs include: ‘If ifs and ands were pots and pans there’d be no need for tinkers,’ or, in a rhyming variant, ‘for tinsmith’s hands.’38 In other words, tinkers were indispensable. The proverbs date back to the time when Travellers were providing a welcome service and are not current. The vast majority of proverbs in Ireland has been collected from the general population, however, a few have also been collected from Travellers. The one quoted, ‘If ifs and ands…,’ was used by both Travellers and non-Travellers. Nearly all of the few collected from Travellers are, in fact, used by all and are common international ones. There is one: ‘Mislō granhēs thâber. The traveller knows the road’39 which was collected from Travellers and which, in all the years that I have studied proverbs, I have never come across elsewhere. Further sayings, those known as wellerisms, which mention Travellers and which have only been collected from the general population run ‘“Everyone to his own taste,” said the tinker as he watched the ass eating thistles’ and ‘“One sack, one sample,” as the tinker said to the man picking [choosing] nails’.40 A comment with another wellerism featuring tinkers from a place called Balla, is that they are ‘people who are bold and independent [?],’ undesirable traits in this context.41 ‘“It might be all for luck!” as the tinker said when he missed mass,’ with the comment ‘to miss mass was the greatest misfortune’ leaves us in no doubt that this is a slur on Tinkers and concurs with other narrative in depicting Travellers as people who treat Christianity lightly.42 Proverbs and wellerisms certainly mark Tinkers out as a distinct group within the population. It is difficult to judge the degree of derision intended in the other examples but it seems likely to me that, in the wellerisms, the intention is to add humour at the expense of the tinker. In an article on blason populaire ‘Ethnophaulisms for Ethnic Immigrant Groups: Cognitive Representation of “the Minority” and “the Foreigner” the authors suggest that ‘otherness’ is determined by three factors- language, complexion and facial appearance. Most are negative but some are neutral, and blason populaire increases with the size of the minority group.43 The earliest reference so far to Travellers in Ireland is in a 17th century clergyman’s accounts (c. 1672-80, and slightly beyond) where ‘There are frequent references to “tinklars” or “tinkers,” and the transactions with them,’ to a goldsmith [sic] being ‘called in to mend a kettle’44 and to appearance as marking Travellers out as distinctive. His description does not mention complexion or facial appearance, but says the women in the family group that visited annually had ‘very dark hair and eyes’45: the

Irish Travellers and “Country People” 7 typical colouring in Ireland is dark hair and light eyes. It might be said that all minority groups within Ireland have not prompted the creation of negative lore about them by the majority. The Quakers [Religious Society of Friends] and Palatines, for instance, are noted in the lore in what is at least a neutral manner.46 Right at the start I mentioned ‘language,’ and above I have quoted a proverb in the ‘distinct register’ of Travellers; the second question on my survey was ‘What language do Travellers speak?’47 One respondent said ‘I have only heard them talk English,’ however, all the others named something extra: one said ‘Romany [and] English’ and Cant, Shelty, and ‘English with a southern accent’ were also mentioned. The general belief is that Travellers speak a language other than English, often said to be a code used so that non-Travellers cannot understand. Here is an example which was collected in 1890, or soon after, from John Barlow, then aged 79, in Liverpool, and published in a book called The Secret Languages of Ireland48 which, no doubt, went some way towards perpetuating the belief that the language of Travellers is secret. Although some proverbs, sayings, blessings and curses49 have been collected in this register, practically no folktales, and so on, in it, and certainly none recently, has been preserved. In that which has been saved is a version of the migratory legend ML 4050 River claiming its due, ‘The hour is come but not the man’.50 As regards content there is no obvious reason why it should not have been told in English, nor is it a migratory legend that is unknown in the general population.51 With some notable special cases the folklore and other aspects of Traveller life have largely been unpublished. Extensive detailed memoirs were written to accompany the mapping of Ireland in the 1830s. Throughout these very detailed writings, which contain quantities of ethnology, there is only one reference to what might be the Travellers under discussion, a place-name, Tinklers Ford in County Donegal.52 It is significant that this is not a minor place-name but rather a major one as it belongs to a whole townland, which is a sub-division of a parish, a land division particular to Ireland. While this is the only official place-name that I have found, George Gmelch says that ‘in some villages roads were named after them such as “Tinkers’ Lane”.’53 In the two main folklore journals in Ireland Travellers have only received sporadic attention, despite an article in an early issue of Béaloideas together with a very encouraging appeal in an appended editorial note and including the statement that ‘These “travellers”…have been the medium for the spread of folk tales and all manner of traditions…’54 The editor, Séamas Ó Duilearga, knew this from his own personal experience.55 In the first fifty issues of Béaloideas (1932-82) there were nine pieces, with a total of 130

8 Chapter One pages, or so, while in the first fifty issues of Ulster Folklife (1955-2005) there have been a note and two articles with a total of 28 pages devoted to Travellers, and this cover illustration.56 While this is frustratingly little, coarse mathematics show that statistically it is more than such a small proportion of the population might warrant. Publication has not been steady but a good deal of recording of Traveller folklore has been made, enough, as mentioned, to show that there is a close overlap between the tale types of Travellers and non-Travellers. While tale types and style closely overlap there are occasional variations according to the teller as we saw above with the moral about giving to the poor and here, in a version of AT 653 The Four Skilful Brothers collected from Traveller Johnny Cassidy in the 1960s. The fourth brother is asked:

‘Which would you rather now,’ says he, ’to be the best Tinker [sic],’ says he, ’that ever caught an iron in his hand-there’s nothing,’ says he, ‘that you won’t do-or your seventeen pound [the year’s pay]?’ I’d rather be the best Tinker,’ says he. ‘You’re the best Tinker,’ he says, ‘that ever caught an iron in his hand. There’s nothing,’ says he, ‘that’ll stop you,’ says he, ‘that you won’t do.’

Of course, his skill as a tinker stands him in good stead and, although the four brothers all have a hand in rescuing a lady, she judged that it was the tinker’s skill which was used in the rescue that had played the biggest part and so she choose him as her marriage partner, an outcome that might be Traveller-specific.57 On my questionnaire I wanted to ask about beliefs in as natural a way as possible so began by asking about what I considered is a commonly held belief ‘Do you believe that Travellers are good at fortune telling?’ Then, as a follow up, I added ‘What other things do settled people believe about Travellers?’ and here got the following traditional stereotypical beliefs found internationally about minorities: ‘unhygienic, uneducated, dangerous, violent, drunken, cunning, suspicious of settled people,’ ‘they don’t pay tax, they leave a mess behind and they don’t want to settle down’ and ‘they keep to themselves and are often rowdy. There are rumours of incest and closely related marriage’. Such hurtful beliefs are evidently contagious: in explaining the subject of my paper-that settled people in Ireland have certain beliefs, and so on, about Travellers-to a colleague from abroad he was immediately able to respond as follows ‘Yeah. They’re dirty, dishonest, steal children?’58 Another student said that his sister at first refused to let a Traveller use their phone but then changed her mind because she thought they might put a curse on the family. A further response was that ‘Many can’t read or write but they

Irish Travellers and “Country People” 9 manage to drive Mercedes!’ the implication being that illiteracy and owning expensive cars do not square up. The narrative of the general population often tries to show how Travellers aren’t what they seem, for instance, that they seem poor but are actually wealthy. The narrative of non-Travellers also intimates that Travellers are prepared to take advantage of them as, for example, in that about horse dealing (some Travellers used to sell horses). Sadly, the negative depiction of Travellers in current narrative shows no progression from the stereotypes in the older material. The referents, such as the means of transport from horse-drawn to motorised transport, have caught up with the changed way of life of Travellers but the messages have not, as demonstrated in this contemporary anecdote:

There were two tinkers and a wee boy and they were in a van and a policeman stopped them. And they were hammering into [physically attacking] the wee boy. And the policeman said, ‘Hold on, what did he do?’ ‘Oh,’ they said, ‘if you knew what he’d done, you’d be hammering into him too!’ ‘Why, what did he do?’ ‘He’s just eaten the tax disc.’59

Multiple slurs are actually crammed into this short piece-physical violence to a child, not paying tax, and deception. Just as the referents in the narrative about Travellers reflect contemporary society the genres, too, have altered. Instead of religious tales and the longer folktales one is more likely to find contemporary legends, such as the following, and even joking-riddles60:

A friend who worked in Eastwood’s scrap-yard told me in 1980 that Travellers (Gipsies, as he called them) who regularly came in to sell scrap metal said their grandfather had died. After the wake they went to the undertaker’s (O’Kane’s in Donegall Street, Belfast) with the coffin saying it was no longer needed as a cousin from ‘somewhere down south’ had brought one up with him for the grandfather to be buried in. The undertaker told them to place the coffin at the bottom of the yard. They thought it was hilarious the shock the undertaker would have got when he opened the coffin to find their grandfather’s body still in it. They also told him [that] they had moved to Scotland for a while and that they expected to get away with it.61

This particular narrative portrays Travellers as being prepared to disrespect their dead grandfather simply to save the price of a coffin. In reality, current Traveller death ritual is overt, involving elaborate funerals

10 Chapter One and large numbers of people, and deep mourning dress is worn for a prolonged period in contrast to the rest of the community.62 The final insult is to add that the Travellers left the country until the fuss died down which may reflect envy about the ability of Travellers to move. Like the anecdote, the legend faithfully reflects the new reality for Travellers: that the days of tin smithing are over and that some Travellers adapted to a new means of livelihood, albeit still connected with metal, scrap-metal dealing. Another anecdote from the general population but collected in Irish rather than English, continues the theme of the disrespect of younger Travellers for older ones:

One day a pair of tinkers were going along the road. They were a father and son and they were arguing. Finally the father said to his son ‘If I’m master and you’re master who’ll drive the ass?’63

The first question on my questionnaire was ‘“Travellers” is a new term. Please give any other names that you know’. While ‘Travellers’ is a new term among the general population, it is a self-ascription as this response in 1952 to a Folklore Commission questionnaire demonstrates ‘They are known in the district as Tinkers, but they never refer to themselves as such-they say “Had ye any ‘travellers’ around lately?’64 Besides ‘Tinkers’ and ‘Gypsies,’ the responses to my questionnaire included ‘gipos,’ a slang version of ‘Gypsies,’ and ‘Knackers.’ The ‘knacker’s yard’ or ‘knacker’s’ is colloquial for abattoir, and the link is to the Travellers’ association with horse trading, and the inference that Travellers’ horses are only fit for the abattoir. The word ‘nacer’ for ‘tinker’ has also been collected from Travellers.65 Although exhibitions such as ‘Our people our times’ is, no doubt, helping to alleviate harmful and dangerous stereotyping at the same time as it is circulating, the stereotype that the general population has of Travellers is unfortunately being kept alive in another exhibition. This one is in Belfast Central Library and is of items from private printing presses. One is a broadsheet with a prayer, possibly from oral tradition, which begins:

God keep my jewel this day from danger From tinker and pooka and black-hearted stranger66

In the material that is available, Travellers are more sharply defined in the narrative of the majority than vice versa, however, more has been collected from non-Travellers than from Travellers and, certainly, more has been collected by folklorists who belong to the general population than by insiders. A shift that has occurred recently is that

Irish Travellers and “Country People” 11

Travellers have become more self-aware and publicly self-assured which should help to have a positive affect on the narrative of all. Winnie McDonagh, Education Development Worker with the Traveller Education Project in Finglas, Dublin, says:

I get great enjoyment when I meet a group of ethnic women at the various seminars and meetings that I go to, where there may be one or two other Travellers, a Jewish woman or women from Jamaica, South Africa, China or somewhere else. It’s great to sit down and compare other peoples’ cultures, lives, traditions and customs in a positive rather than in a negative way. Why do we always seem to get caught up in the in the negative differences and why can’t we see what’s behind the type of dress or costume people wear and the traditions or customs they follow? I think once you get beyond that and see people as people, then you can learn a lot of things from them.67

Notes

1 For the progression of the official and legal position from the 20th century on see Aoife Bhreathnach ‘The “Itinerant problem”: the attitude of Dublin and Stormont governments to Irish Travellers, 1922-60.’ in Irish Historical Studies. XXXV No. 135 (May 2006) pp. 81-98; Robbie McVeigh ‘Racism and Travelling People in Northern Ireland.’ Seventeenth Report of the Standing Advisory Commission on Human Rights. Belfast 1992; and Appendix 2 ‘History of Legislation and other Milestones.’ in Travellers Citizens of Ireland, Our Challenge to an Intercultural Irish Society in the 21st Century. Compiled by Frank Murphy CM, and Cathleen McDonagh, edited by Erica Sheehan. Dublin: The Parish of the Travelling People of Dublin, 2000, pp. 212-214. 2 Crozier, Briony Our people our times. A history of Northern Ireland’s cultural diversity. Belfast: Northern Ireland Museums’ Council, 2005, p. 4. Second part of the short introduction which begins ‘Museums help to document and tell the stories of our journeys, marking out points in our history through the collection of artefacts, documents and oral histories, and illustrating ways of life which help our understanding of our past, our customs and our traditions. Today we are becoming more…’ 3 Ó hAodha, Mícheál ‘A Countercultural Group?-A Discourse of “Difference” concerning the Image of the Irish Traveller.’ Ulster Folklife. Vol. 50 (2004) pp. 51-70, p. 52. Besides those in Ireland there are about 10,000 of Irish descent in the United States of America, mainly in and around Murphystown, Georgia, with some in South Carolina and Texas, there since the mid-19th century, and a few in England and Scotland. See Michael McDonagh ‘Origins of the Travelling People’ in Sheehan, Editor, op. cit. (in endnote i) pp. 21-25, p. 22. 4 Total population figures for Northern Ireland 1,685,000, and for the Republic of Ireland 4,234,925, both from http://en.wikipedia.org

12 Chapter One

5 The other is the mass media. In the six months from January to July 2006, for instance, there were 1,000 references to the word ‘traveller,’ many of which would have been to the group in question, in the Dublin based Irish Times, a Monday to Saturday newspaper, see www.irishtimes.com In newspapers people who are Travellers tend to be defined as such whether or not this has any relevance to the item in question. 6 For terms given in a specialized dictionary see William Cauley Canting with Cauley, A Glossary of Travellers’ Cant/ Gammon. Transcribed and edited by Mícheál Ó hAodha. Dublin: A. & A. Farmar, 2006. Equal opportunities monitoring forms for all job applicants have become usual in the past few years in Northern Ireland. They include a question about ethnic origin and often mention Travellers in this category, for example, the current University of Ulster form where Question 6 lists the following options ‘White, Indian, Pakistani, Black African, Black Caribbean, Black Other, Irish Traveller, Mixed Ethnic Group, Bangladeshi, Chinese’ and ‘Other’. 7 Ruth Norris (née Carson, born c. 1949) to Irene Hardman (née Carson, born 12 August 1917) early summer 2007, both from Coraskeagh, Ballybay, Co. Monaghan, and referring to Travellers in Monaghan calling recently at RN’s sister’s farmhouse in that townland. 8 On 1 April 2007 when she called at my door I asked Mary McCann, a Traveller woman, probably in her 40s, who sometimes lives in Belfast, what Travellers call settled people and she immediately said ‘Gorgios,’ pronouncing it in the same way as the English word ‘gorgeous’. On 17 August 2007 I asked another, possibly older, Traveller woman, who had only called once before (about a month previously) and who therefore did not know me as well as the first, what Travellers called us and she said ‘The settled community’. When I said ‘Not Gorgios?’ She said ‘Oh, Gorgios’ houses.’ 9 Carson Williams, Fionnuala ‘Traveller Questionnaire.’ January 2007, distributed to mature 2nd year part-time Humanities Degree students at the University of Ulster Belfast Campus, Spring 2007. 10 Irish Heritage Studies, University of Ulster, Belfast Campus, ‘Traveller Questionnaire’ January 2007, distributed to mature final year part-time Humanities Degree students at the University of Ulster Belfast Campus, Spring 2007. 11 Okely, Judith ‘An Anthropological Perspective on Irish Travellers’ in Irish Travellers: Culture and Ethnicity. Edited by May McCann, Séamas Ó Síocháin and Joseph Ruane. Belfast: The Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen’s University of Belfast, 1994, Chapter 1, p. 14. 12 Gow, James ‘The Irish Tinkers.’ Ulster Folklife Vol. 17 (1971), pp. 90-92, p. 92; the camp was in North Antrim. No date of the visit is given but it appears to have been some years before the note was published. 13 Confirmed in my Questionnaire in a response from Jean, 50s, born and reared Coalisland, now living in Dungannon, County Tyrone ‘”Tinkers” a term used “down South”.’

Irish Travellers and “Country People” 13

14 Collected on 4 August 2007 from Irene Hardman, see endnote vii for her details. Although he was mending tinware he was referred to as a gypsy, as all such tradesmen appear to have been in the northern part of Ireland. 15 This is largely confirmed in the responses to the ‘Travellling Folk’ queries of the Irish Folklore Commission’s Schools’ Collection Scheme in the late 1930s. On p. 15 of Irish Folklore and Tradition, the booklet prepared and published in 1937 in Dublin for schools by Seán Ó Súilleabháin in connection with the Department of Education, there is a question ‘Are these “travellers” generally welcome?’ 16 Crozier op. cit., p. 12. 17 Mac Gréine, Pádraig ‘Irish Tinkers or “Travellers”’ Some notes on their manners and customs, and their secret language or “Cant”.’ Béaloideas Vol. III (1932) pp. 170-185, p. 174; perhaps ‘castings for ploughs’ were plough shares. 18 Jean, see endnote xiii for her details. 19 Douglas, Sheila Last of the Tinsmiths, The Life of Willie MacPhee. Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2006. 20 Fenton, James The Hamely Tongue, A personal record of Ulster-Scots in County Antrim. Newtownards: The Ulster–Scots Academic Press for The Ulster-Scots Language Society, 1995. 21 There was a further category of tinsmith, a ‘mender,’ one who had just started to learn the trade. James Gow’s informant ‘explained how it was the tradition that no tinker should hire himself to a boss who would expect him to do unskilled labour as this would lower him in the eyes of his family and fellow tinkers. “Think,” he said, “of a craftsman being a labouring man”.’ Gow op. cit. pp. 91-92 22 As in ‘I wouldn’t give a tinker’s curse’ which is current in Belfast in the north of Ireland, but widespread and of long standing collected, for example, in Tuam, County Galway in the west of Ireland in 1952 ‘”I don’t give a tinker’s curse for you (or it)” is a local saying’ Irish Folklore Commission Ms 1256, p. 106. Also in use is the variant ‘naw gie a tinker’s damn,’ glossed as ‘not care a straw’ in Fenton op. cit. under ‘tinker’. George Gmelch refers to a ‘tinker’s deal’ meaning ‘poor value for money’ in To Shorten the Road. Traveller folktales from Ireland. George Gmelch, Essays and biographies, and Ben Kroup, Editor of folktales. Dublin: The O’Brien Press Ltd., 1978 ’On the Roadside in the 1930s,’ p. 25 23 Lysaght, Patricia ‘Is mairg a thuilleann mallacht bhaintrí…’ [‘’Woe to the one who deserves the widow’s curse…’] Sinsear, The Folklore Journal. 8 (1995), pp. 101-109. 24 Ní Fhloinn, Bairbre in The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing. Vol. IV ‘Irish Women’s Writing and Traditions.’ Edited by Angela Bourke et al, Cork: Cork University Press in association with Field Day; U.S.A. and Canada: New York University Press, 2002, pp. 1263-1283. 25 Ní Fhloinn, op. cit. p. 1268 26 Aarne, Anti and Stith Thompson The Dragon-slayer, The Types of the Folktale. Helsinki 1973; see also Seán Ó Súilleabháin and Reidar Th. Christiansen The Types of the Irish Folktale. Folklore Fellows Communication No. 188. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica,1967. 27 As quoted in Ní Fhloinn op. cit. (in endnote xxiv) p. 1276.

14 Chapter One

28 Ní Fhloinn op. cit. (in endnote xxiv) p. 1268. 29 uí Ógáin, Ríonach Immortal Dan, Daniel O’Connell in Irish Folk Tradition. Templeogue, Dublin: Geography Publications, s. d. but 1990s. O’Connell was born in 1775 and died in 1847. 30 Court, Artelia Puck of the Droms, The Lives and Literature of the Irish Tinkers. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1985, pp.161-164. 31 Collected by Aileen L’Amie in the 1980s from a Traveller girl at the Glen Road caravan site, Belfast. 32 Ó Héalaí, Pádraig ‘Tuirse na ngaibhne ar na buachaillí bó. Scéal apacrafúil dúchasach’ [‘The smith’s weariness on the cowherd. Apocryphal legend.’] Béaloideas. Vol. 53 (1985) pp. 87-129, pp.127-128; versions collected up to press. 33 Ó Héalaí op. cit. p. 87. 34 Ó Héalaí op. cit. p. 128. 35 Murphy, Michael J. Now You’re Talking… Folk tales from the North of Ireland. Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 1975, No. 102 p. 130 and p. 151 collected from Pat Crangle, blacksmith, aged about 80 in 1950, Raholp, County Down. 36 Mac Gréine op.cit. p. 177, collected from Travellers in County Longford in 1930 or soon after. 37 Mac Gréine op.cit. p. 177. 38 Another runs ‘A tinker’s wife and a tailor’s wife are the two that never agree.’ Like tinkers, tailors were also economic nomads, travelling from farm to farm in search of work, however, tailors travelled alone so perhaps this led to perceived contention between the wives who were able to accompany their husbands and those who were not. 39 Macalister, R. A. Stewart The Secret Languages of Ireland: With special reference to the origin and nature of the Shelta language, partly based upon the collections and manuscripts of the late John Sampson, Litt. D. Sometime Librarian of the University of Liverpool. Cambridge: University Press, 1937, Reprint New York: AMS Press, s. d., p. 147. Also collected by Pádraig Mac Gréine and published in his article cited above (in endnote xiii) p. 184 ‘20. The traveller knows the road [tonight]. The mislóer granies the tober [achunsc].’ 40 Carson Williams, Fionnuala Wellerisms in Ireland Towards a Corpus from Oral and Literary Sources. Proverbium Yearbook of Proverb Scholarship. Supplement No.12. Burlington: University of Vermont, 2002, taste/tinker wellerism No. A 288.1, County Roscommon 1973, and sack/tinker wellerism No. A 253.1, Belfast early 20th century, with the comment ‘said by a seller to someone who takes too many samples when buying something’. 41 Carson Williams op. cit. No. B 92.1 ‘”Sinn féin atá ann,” mar dubhairt na tincéaraí i mBalla’[‘”It’s ourselves,” as the tinkers in Balla said.’] County Mayo c. 1900. 42 There is, however, no proverbial material in Ireland that comes anywhere near the degree of denigration of Roma in the proverbs of other places; see, for example, Isabela Denize ‘The Roma Proverbs: Momento of Social Exclusion and Never Ending Persecution?’ Proverbium: Yearbook of International Proverb Scholarship. Vol. 24 (2007), pp. 109-117.

Irish Travellers and “Country People” 15

43 Brian Mullen, Drew Rozell and Craig Johnson in Group Processes & Intergroup Relations. 2000, Vol. 3 (1) pp. 5-24, also available at http://gpi.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/3/1/5 44 Chart, D. A. ‘Account Book of the Rev. Andrew Rowan Rector of Dunaghy, Co. Antrim. c. 1672-1680.’ The Ulster Journal of Archaeology. Third Series. Vol. 5 (1942), pp. 67-76, p. 76 and p. 75 respectively. I am indebted to William Rolston of The Ulster Historical Foundation for suggesting that Dr. Chart’s article might be in this journal. 45 Public Record Office of Northern Ireland D/1614/3 Account-book of Andrew Rowan of Dunaghy, 1672-80, as quoted by Sinéad Ní Shúinéar in ‘Irish Travellers, Ethnicity and the Origins Question’ in McCann et al, op. cit. (in endnote xi) Chapter 4, p. 64. Andrew Rowan was born 1634/5 and was rector of the Parish of Dunaghy, near Ballymena, County Antrim, where he lived, from 1661 until his death in 1717. Details of Rev. Rowan from J. F. Rankin et al, Editors, Clergy of Connor from Patrician times to the present day based on the unpublished Succession Lists compiled by Canon J. B. Leslie. Belfast: The Ulster Historical Foundation and the Library Committee of the Dioceses of Down, Connor and Dromore, 1993, p. 572, and from A. E. de W. Waller ‘The Rev. Andrew Rowan (1634/5-1717).’ The Genealogists’ Magazine. Vol. 8 March 1938, No. 1, pp. 17- 18. Mr. Waller was a descendent of Rev. Rowan and the account book was inherited by him. 46 For extensive analyses of stereotyping in addition to the article mentioned in endnote xlii see Risto Järv ‘The Only Good Stranger Is a Dead Stranger? Stereotypes.’ In Identity of Peripheries Minorities, Borderlands and Outskirts. VanaVaraVedaja. 5. Tartu: NEFA, 1997, pp. 27-40, and other articles in this publication. 47 For a discussion of this ‘distinct register’ see Dónall P. Ó Baoill ‘Travellers’ Cant-Language or Register?’ in McCann et al, op. cit. (in endnote xi) Chapter 11, pp. 155-169. 48 Macalister op. cit. information on informant p. 135 and p. 138, ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ pp. 139-40. 49 Macalister op. cit. ‘Proverbs,’ pp. 146-147, ‘Wishes Good and Evil’ p. 147, ‘Shelta Stories’ pp. 147-151. p. 135 and p. 138 50 Macalister op. cit. ‘Gloχ sharog na Srōinya The Red Man of the Boyne.’ pp. 147-148, see also p. 149. 51 Almqvist, Bo, Compiler and Editor Crossing the Border, A sampler of Irish migratory legends about the supernatural. Dublin: desktop publication, 1988, pp. 16-18. 52 McWilliams, Patrick Index to Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Series. People and Places.. Belfast: The Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen’s University of Belfast, 2002. 53 Gmelch and Kroup op. cit. (in endnote xxii) p. 35. 54 ‘This article is, to my mind, one of the most important contributions made to this journal during the five years of its existence. In congratulating Mr. Mac Gréine on his work in an almost untilled field we hope that he will continue his researches,

16 Chapter One

and that others may be encouraged to follow his example, and by their study of the ‘traveller-folk,’ their manners and customs, language and traditions, provide material to folklorists…These ‘travellers’…have been the medium for the spread of folk tales and all manner of traditions… [Séamas Ó Duilearga] ‘Editorial Note’ to Pádraig Mac Gréine’s article ‘Irish Tinkers or “Travellers”’ Some notes on their manners and customs, and their secret language or “Cant”’ Béaloideas Vol. III (1932) pp. 170-185 (article) and pp. 185-186 (note). In twelve years of teaching two of my students have collected from Travellers. 55 Ní Fhloinn, op. cit. (in endnote xxiv) p.1264 describes how in County Clare in the 1930s he had ‘made a collection of folktales from a travelling chimney sweep called Paddy Sherlock’ one of which was, in fact, published in the same volume of Béaloideas as Mac Gréine’s article on p. 434. This and other of his tales which were published in Béaloideas were located by Ní Fhloinn and referenced in Note 8 p. 1264 of her article. 56 Gow op. cit., Gmelch, George ‘The Barrel-top Wagon: its History and Impact on Irish Travelling People.’ Ulster Folklife. Vol. 25 (1979) pp. 54-60, Ó hAodha, Mícheál ‘A Countercultural Group?-A Discourse of ‘Difference’ concerning the Image of the Irish Traveller.’ Ulster Folklife. Vol. 50 (2004) pp. 51-70, and the front cover of Volume 25, which is an illustration from Gmelch’s article. 57 The Cassidys 1967 whisht…Irish Traveller Folktales and Songs, recorded by Alen MacWeeney in Labre Park, Ballyfermot, Dublin. New York: Pavee Point CD001, a compilation by AMW, 2002, No. 9 ‘The Four Brothers.’ Transcription from the insert and details from note 9 in the insert. 58 J, 30s, raised in Chile of English descent. The belief that Travellers might steal children is demonstrated in this lullaby from Scotland quoted in a Dublin publication with only a simple statement ‘Here is a Scotch lullaby connected with the tinkers:- “Hush ye, hush ye, dinna fret ye,/ The Black Tinkler winna get ye.”’ [‘Hush you, hush you, don’t you worry,/ The Black Tinker won’t get you.’] Helen Weldon ‘Tinkers, Sorners, and Other Vagabonds.’ The New Ireland Review. Vol. XXVI (Sept. 1906-Feb. 1907) Sept. pp. 43-47, p. 44. 59 Collected on 25 July 2007 by me from IC, male 60s, from County Tyrone, who heard it recently from TC, male, of County Armagh. 60 ‘Why do seagulls have wings? So they can beat the gypsies to the rubbish dump.’ Collected from IC on the same occasion as the anecdote. He told it immediately after the anecdote (see endnote lxi for details). I had asked ‘Do you know any stories about Tinkers, Travellers, Gypsies?’ 61 From Sean, 50s, born and still living in the Markets area of Belfast, in response to Question 6 on my Questionnaire ‘Do you know any stories about Travellers? Can you please outline them overleaf?’ 62 When I said to a Traveller ‘You’re all in black’ she replied that it was for ‘a wee babby’s funeral. I have to wear black for six weeks out of respect for my sister-in- law. Her sister has to wear black for six months. It’s for respect.’ Collected from Mary McCann on the same occasion as mentioned in endnote viii.

Irish Travellers and “Country People” 17

63 Carson Williams op. cit. No. B 127.1. Response in Irish from County Clare to the IFC 1973 questionnaire on wellerisms ‘One day…”If I’m…ass?” said the tinker to his son.’ 64 Irish Folklore Commission Ms 1256 p. 99 County Mayo, from old people in the district who were farmers. 65 Mac Gréine op. cit., p. 181. 66 ‘Treasures of the Library: Private Presses’ exhibition Summer 2007. The Cuala Press Ltd. Hand Coloured Print No. 239 ‘Prayer for a Little Child.’ Dublin, Ireland, probably early 20th century. Susan Mary ‘Lily’ Yeats (1866-1949) and Elizabeth Corbet ‘Lolly’ Yeats (1868-1940) sisters of the poet William Butler Yeats, ran the press. The illustration shows an anxious mother looking out at her toddler with a Traveller family passing on the road on a cart (along with other elements in the prayer). The broadsheet is one of four on display from Cuala Press (1908-1987) and there is no comment on the content; I do not know how many there were to choose from. 67 Winnie McDonagh ‘My experience of discrimination.’ In Sheehan, Editor, op. cit. (in endnote i) pp. 120-126, p. 126. While the various minority people have opportunities to learn about one another in such places as Pavee Point Travellers’ Centre, Dublin, and the Multi Cultural Resource Centre, Belfast, there are still too few opportunities for the general population to participate.

CHAPTER TWO

EXTRACTS FROM “THE TURN OF THE HAND”: A MEMOIR FROM THE IRISH MARGINS1

MARY WARDE

Autobiography is not something we simply read in a book; rather as a discourse of identity, delivered bit by bit, in the stories we tell about ourselves, day in and day out, autobiography structures our living.2

This narrative is us, our identities.3

Edward Ward was born near Dunmore,County Galway on the 24th of August, 1915. Both of his parents came from a long line of Tinsmiths. His father Patrick Ward was born in Tuam County, Galway on the 5th of March, 1880. His mother Mary Stokes came from Roscommon. He learned tinsmithing at an early age from his father and his older brothers. Theirs was a family of nine – including two sisters and five brothers. All are now deceased (RIP). Edward died on the 29th of August, 2002 peacefully at his eldest son’s home in Parkmore, Tuam. Edward was a much-loved and respected man throughout the county. He spent most of his early life in Galway city apart from two-and-a-half years which he spent in care with his brother Jim (in Letterfrack Industrial School) and another two-and-a-half years in foster care near Ballina, County Mayo – and in County Sligo. He spent five years in London but returned to Ireland before World War II. Edward married Bridget Ward in 1941 in Tuam – they were married for 57 years before Bridget died in 1998 (RIP). Edward made many pieces of copper and brass for different organisations. Some pieces of his work are in a pub in New York and in various Irish Centres in England. Edward never bragged about his work – he was a modest man and always considered his brothers to be better tinsmiths than himself. He wanted the trade (tinkering) to be continued and the young people to be able to do tinsmithing; there was a living to be made from it; through the use of the imagination and by turning one’s hand to different things that 20 Chapter Two were saleable. Edward was a gentle man who had a deep faith, loved old customs and the Traveller way of life. Although Edward lived in a house for thirty-eight years he never forgot his roots. This essay includes some extracts from his life history.

I’m tracing back now, drawing my way back through the well of the years to where the only history is what is passed down – from gather to cam (father to son). This is oral history now because it’s all that we Irish were left with for the many centuries. All that we had. And a Ward family member, a Traveller Ward – he fought at the Battle of Vinegar Hill. He fought in 1798, spilled blood in the place where the blood flowed like rain. And from death and destruction came rebirth – He met a girl named Brigid Keefe.

She was a settled girl one of the many women who were involved in the rebellion and oft-forgotten. This girl named Brigid Keefe – didn’t herself and her brother and her father too – they went up to Vinegar Hill in Wexford to try and drive away the oppressor. Aned after the fighting there were the Irish and their secret meetings and their feasting and drinking and their tending to wounds. And Brigid Keefe met and married this Ward man. Married him in the place which they then called the “hidden Church”.

This underground church where they got married at dawn was outside Ross somewhere and the curlew was only making his way home in the early-morning when they were pronounced man and wife. The Catholics had to be careful about who they were then. They had to keep their religion to themselves and so too did the priests. Because the priests in those days were hunted from place to place by the occupier. The priests and the poets and the hedge-school teachers The educated classes. The British were afraid of them and their power over the Irish people, how they might make the people rise up against them. And after they were married the newly-wed Wards took to the road and came down around the west of Ireland where they had children. One of their sons married two decades later and he married back into the other Travellers – the other Wards that were always travelling the roads then (Irish: Mac an Bháird – Son of the Bard) and And they married back into other Travellers. And that’s the way it went down until it came down to my own generation.

*** Extracts from “The Turn of the Hand” 21

There’s the history of our country – Ireland – and the history of the Irish people and the history of those Irish people who were Travellers and have of it is still hidden to us. More than half – probably the most of the loaf. All the myths that the English had about the Irish and the Irish had each other – the settled people about Travellers and the other way around. And we’re only beginning to see through the fog of memory now, to brush past the misty rain to see where the sunlight is breaking through. To find our own true history. And like every history it’s a mix of legend and fact, one story added to another like the layering brick of a house and all we can do is build our own house and construct our history once more in the way that we see fit and true. In our own way.

The Corner-boy and the Insult

There was one time when my father was down by the town square years ago. It must have been the Sixties or (maybe) the early Seventies and he was standing at the square in Tuam and there was this country fella from the town who’d always be there with the lads. And because this fella never had much- my father used to give him a cigarette or buy him a pint every now and then. Because this fella was just another corner-boy. That is to say - my father was earning a living but this fella was doing nothing – only a corner-boy. And they were talking and somebody mentioned this man who had died suddenly out the road only a few days before. And the fellas came over and said – “I wonder who was that man that died out the square – out the road there – I didn’t know him one fella said –– and one fella said – I didn’t know him – he lived a good bit out the road- and lived in off the road – you wouldn’t probably know him – he didn’t come to town that much – his wife mostly came. And he’d come to the fair or the mart or somethin’ but other than that he was a country man – and this fella said – Ara, sure he was only the breed of a tinker! And my father thought about what your man said and he said “Well this is one tinker that must go and earn a few bob for himself and he threw his leg on the bicycle and cycled off. And that fella wasn’t getting’ no other pint or fag from him because he was throwing a slur on travelling people who earned their living and all he was good for was a corner-boy. So - he never got another pint or a fag from my father!

So that’s the way it was…

***

22 Chapter Two

And there was a man there too named Tom Maughan. He was a first cousin of my mother’s – God rest him. He’s a long time gone now and so too is Ellen and all of the others (RIP) who were there at that table that day – except for the odd one or two people. Ellen anyway started off with the storytelling and it went from one extreme to the next and Ellen started to tell a bit of a yarn about what life was like when she was growing up and krushing the tohbar. And she described how she was in Galway one time and she used to live in Oranmore at that time. And one night she went into a wooded area with her horse and car to where her father was camped And she was collecting him to bring him home to where she was staying at the time And she was in this wood that we call the Black and Tans wood in Merlin Park just on the outskirts of Galway city. And the reason it was called that name was because around the time of this story that she was telling the people about - a bloody battle took place between the Irish rebels – the Irish Republicans and the Black and Tans - this was during the War of Irish Independence. A battle where men were shot and hurt and killed. Anyway they were bringing out her father’s stuff – his tent and his bedding and his tools for metal-working and the next thing the horse baulked in the road as if there was something or somebody lying on the road. Ellen and her father gave the horse a crack of the whip but no matter what they did, the horse refused to pass it whatever kind of a strange thing it was sensing there. There was something dark lying in the road but they couldn’t make out what it was – the night was black as pitch – there were no street lights and very few cars in those days – and it was so dark in that wood that you could hardly see further than your own hand. They tried to nudge and prod the horse to get it trotting but whatever it was - the horse was adamant and refused put another foot forward. In the end, what Ellen had to do was to back the horse backwards and place her shawl over the horse’s head and walk it past this strange black bundle in the road. Once the horse was past it kicked into a right gallop and Ellen went straight up to the barrack in Oranmore and knocked up the Sergeant.

Come on! C’mon Sergeant fast! There’s a man dead in the road back there! So the Sergeant jumped into the cart with Ellen and her father and they went back to the crossroads at Merlin Park but they didn’t find no ghost or no dead man. So the Sergeant said – “Bring me back to the barrack Ellen – and the next time you see a black bundle in the road…just drive over it – don’t bother calling me!!

And Ellen would be talking about things and she’d call on my father to verify it and he would do likewise and he would talk about the decent