Traveller Voices
Travellers on travelling
Travelling means my whole life. I like everything about it. Travellers are committed to their families, we all help one another. The travelling life has changed a lot - the tents and wagons are gone and we're all in trailers and on sites or in schemes of houses. Travellers in houses want to be called a Traveller; we'll always be Travellers. A lot can live and pass as settled people, but there's not many that'll deny they're Travellers. We always knew what we were and told the kids what they were. Kids are now called knackers and they didn't know what it was and were getting confused. We don't call you a president or politician or the name of the trade you might have, why call us a knacker? I can't understand it, we're not treated like normal Irish people. - Nellie Joyce, Blanchardstown
Travellers mix in and out with each other. They always have one another to go to. If you're in trouble there's always someone there. - Mary McDonagh, Coolock
I like being a Traveller because
when you get up in the morning your family - aunts, uncles, cousins - the
whole lot - is there for you. You can joke and chat or play cards. Not
like country people who're stuck on their own. If you've no money you can
go out begging or if you've no gas you can light a fire and bake. The
women can go out in the country and get clothes - a settled woman couldn't
do that. - Mickey Collins, Cara Park, Belcamp
You're born a Traveller - no point in trying to deny something that you are. Just like a black man, he can't change himself to white. Most Travellers want to be with a group of Travellers not in among settled people. - Bernie McDonagh, Coolock
Travelling was good in the old days, we were accepted in the community. The life we had going around was better than today, there was more freedom. Turf in the bog, you could pick spuds and we worked in England on the buildings. Pity a lot of them didn't get education it might be a lot better. I'm not able to go anywhere now - I can't walk anymore. In the past we'd our own liberty and freedom. You could pull out and go on to another camp. We'd a grand old time in the bog - cutting turf for the summer, picking spuds then. Then we'd make buckets and cans when that was finished. Not like the Travellers now, more like townspeople now.
I travelled all over Ireland. There are fewer fairs now - Carlow was great. They're all in vans and cars now, we'd the horses and wagons and cars and everything. Drawing the dole you have to keep in a distance of it - the dole is ruining the people. We travelled in England too - you wouldn't see the track of a camp or wagon along the road. You'd know the name of every camp we used to stop - 'rest farm', 'waste farm' or the 'Pinkeen Road' - that was in Edenderry. We'd be chatting at the fire until 11 or 12 at night. We'd all have our own fire, water and sticks. We'd be eating potatoes and cabbage mainly then, you might go off fishing for eels. The women would go out in the country begging and selling old cans. The men would go on with the wagons to the next camp. In summer it was lovely, we'd go up to Clogherhead, Termonfeckin and around the races around the country. - Paddy McDonagh, Coolock
Settled people are sitting in luxury all their lives. No one wants you for being a Traveller; we're not accepted, can't go nowhere or do nothing. Everything about a Traveller is different - talk, looks, walk. We're more old-fashioned and strict. It's nicer - settled people have too much freedom, they get excited in themselves. It's nicer being a Traveller - settled people are too free going; but I'd like to be accepted. The biggest half of young people don't want to be called Travellers - getting put down for it. When you went down to a shop and you were called a knacker, you knew you were a Traveller. When it's raining outside and I'm stuck in the middle of dirt - what's good about that? Travellers celebrate too much - they celebrate everything. Getting married, born, engaged, married, dying. - Kathleen Joyce, Blanchardstown
All the travelling time is gone - we're all in halting sites or houses now. You miss the travelling and going meeting other Travellers. We used to travel from Offaly to Kildare and meet one another - we're sick looking at the one people the whole time. You'd miss the horses we had on the road. If you had a right way of going you'd pull out for 5 or 6 months. It makes no difference what you have or wear or where you live - you're still a Traveller and no one can take that from you. - Martin McDonagh, Avila Park, Finglas
