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Product Description
A second edition , with additional photographs and extra content to the 1st edition - an account by Sharon Gmelch (a US researcher) on the social and family life of Irish Travellers in the mid 1970's , a period where traveller life (and Ireland in general) was undergoing rapid social change.
Some quotes from travellers in the book ....
.“Years ago there was no aluminium pots or kettles or anything like that. The farmin’ people couldn’t live without a tinker because they’d need big pots to get meal in, anyone feedin’ calves, and buckets for milkin’ their cows. And they’d have their kettles to be mended. They’d be prayin’ to see a tinker. ‘I wish to God there’d be a tinker around. They’re around too many times when you don’t want them!’ The travellers made all the cans. But since this aluminium stuff came out, they don’t want the tinker at all... Oh, they couldn’t do without the tinker...
“A tinker was a man years ago who thought of a hundred ways of surviving. If he was sellin’ delph and the delph failed him, he’d switch to somethin’ else. He’d sell somethin’ else or he’d buy somethin’ else and resell it. There was always a hundred ways out. This was the real tinker, not just the tinsmith. He was a better survivor than the rest.”
'Common to all travellers is a form of arranged marriage known as the “match”. Until this century it was the accepted practice in most of rural Ireland as well. Matches are usually made between families from the same neighbouring counties who have a history of intermarriage. As Jim Connors states, “Our family nearly always married in between the Cashes, Dorans, Briens, and Connors. We never mixed up much with any outsiders, only Wexford folk”. When families are tied together by numerous marriages, they develop a sense of solidarity expressed in the common saying, “There’s no differ between them, they’re married...
PB, O'Brien Press, Dublin 1979. The first edition was 1975.
Creasing to external covers, small area of paper peel at base of spine.
