School: Tobar Rua (roll number 15427)
- Location:
- Toberroe East, Co. Galway
- Teacher: Eibhlín, Bean Uí Mhuireagáin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0016, Page 225
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- (continued from previous page)Hardly any lone (travelling) traveller passed the country now but go in bands. They are called tinkers and gypsies and earn their living by making and selling cans and jobbing on asses and horses. The gypsie women carry baskets round on their arms containing little articles such as tie-pens, collar-studs, hair-clips, combs and brushes and mirrors and also picture frames and pictures, and Irish hand made lace; these they sell making good profit on some of them. They also sell floor carpets and linoleum. Some of the gypsies are very well off but mostly all the tinkers are quite the opposite, because they beg from door to door while the gypsies buy every thing they want except milk.
There were a lot of old beggars going round these villages some time ago but they must be all dead now as they were old. They were as follows:-
Patcheen Glynn who went round with a bag on his back. He got lodging in these villages and was very cranky. Mickeen Fleming who used to walk barefotted in Summer and Winter the same. He used to beg flour and when he had a few stones he would sell it to some people(continues on next page)
