School: Radharc na Sionainne, Lios Uí Chathasaigh (roll number 10741)

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1. Travellers

   

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   Johnny Molloy was an old traveller. He had a dozen ponies and asses. He would not sell one of them for all the money he would get. He had a name on each of them. He begged from house to house. He favourite place for lodging when he came to this townland was at Mrs Breens.
   Ann Hegarty used to travel around selling pins lace and pictures. She was very holy. She got lodging in a farmers house.
   Carthys went around in a big flock. They camped by the roadside and stayed there for a couple of days. They mend umbrellas and pots for the people and charge for doing them.
   Falkiners go around very often in summer. They beg. They men mend umbrellas and pots. They clean chimneys. They sell cans they make from tin. They always ask for horsehair. They take turf and anything that is left around the house. The women make flowers from paper and sell them. They sell camphor + holy pictures. The money they get they buy drink for it. It is often they are in prison for bad behavior but that does not frighten them. Rose Ann Healy was a traveller. If she did not get every thing she asked for she would curse.
   Long ago all the tinkers went together to set up a forge. They gathered all the broken pots they could find +mended them. They often had fights so they scattered from each other + went around in crowds as we see them now. Tom Connors and Maggie Eustace used to go around long ago. Johnny Molloy called each of his donkeys some name. He called one The Key of Heaven, another St Anne another St Joseph and so on.

   

   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. agents (~1)
      1. people by social grouping
         1. travellers (~3,023)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Peggy Conway

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Furroor, Co. Clare

   Informant

   Mrs Conway

   Gender

   Female