School: Ceathrú Riabhach (Cahooreigh)
- Location:
- Aghalee More, Co. Kerry
- Teacher: Muiris Ó Donnabháin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0454, Page 239
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- 239Carhooreigh National School Killarney 8/6/38Travelling FolkThere are many Travelling folk in this district and some these are Tramps. Tramps are poor people who travel from day to day from town to town looking for food and clothes. Those people have no trade because they are not able to do work. They always travel alone because they have no wife or family.There is another crowd composed of Tinkers. Tinkers were important people long ago because they had a trade when nobody else had no trade. They were respectable intelligent people The trade they had (they had) was making gallons of out tins.The tinkers sleep in caravans and they place them by the side of the road or in a bohereen.The men make and mend tin vessels while the women combine the trades of selling the tins and begging for food and milk. They usually carry a child on their backs to excite the pity of the housekeepers. The chief tinker families in Killarney area are the Coffeys and Briens. The Coffeys are an old Irish strain many of them being on the land. They are related remotely perhaps to some great scholars in Ireland to-day a characteristic of the Coffeys:- High cheek bones - cocked nose - and great eloquence
