What's New

Humor:

I'd feel guilty laughing at these jokes if I could still remember why I should. These have been circulating around the net for quite a while.

A very elderly gentleman, very well dressed, hair well groomed, great looking suit, flower in his lapel smelling slightly of a good after shave, presenting a well looked after image, walks into an upscale cocktail lounge. Seated at the bar is an elderly looking lady. The gentleman walks over, sits along side of her, orders a drink, takes a sip, turns to her and says, "So tell me, do I come here often?"

An elderly couple had dinner at another couple's house, and after eating, the wives left the table and went into the kitchen. The two gentlemen were talking, and one said, "Last night we went out to a new restaurant and it was really great. I'd recommend it very highly."

The other man said, "What's its name?"
The first man thought awhile and finally said, "What's the name of that flower you give to someone you love on Whatitsnamee's Day? You know... the one that's red and has thorns."

"Do you mean a 'rose'?"

"Yeah, that's it," replied the man. Then he turned towards the kitchen and yelled, "Rose, what's the name of that restaurant we went to last night?"

History Ireland:
It has been my pleasure recently, to receive a copy (Winter, 2004) of History Ireland, which bills itself as Ireland's only history magazine. It is a beautiful piece of work. Of course, it helps that the cover photograph and principal featured article was submitted by a personal friend of long standing, Dr. Sinéad ní Shuinéar. It also helps that the author, a cultural anthropologist, is one of a mere handful of "experts" who truly are expert when it comes to Irish Travellers and trustworthy to boot. In this article she debunks several urban myths, I guess you could call them, that have taken root about Traveller origins in the popular mind and sociopolitical scene, not necessarily in that order.

I was privileged to have read her doctoral thesis on the Travellers (hopefully to be published in book form soon) which I can only describe as innovative, comprehensive and masterful and I use those adjectives in their most superlative sense. Probably the most sensitive problems she faced in her personal interviews for that thesis concerned kinship and other social relationships. Travellers usually love to share their "living history" among themselves but almost never with outsiders. It is a testimonial to the regard and respect with which she is held (and which she returns) by those of us who know her that no such barriers are necessary. Her coding techniques allow absolute privacy for the individuals and families interviewed, yet each bit of data can be easily checked for provenance and interrelated for assembling "the big picture." Dr. ni Shuinéar has, in fact, received a significant grant to enlarge upon this work due to its importance. I personally believe her researches are not just academically consequential, they are perhaps critical to the survival of our people as an ethnic entity. Like it or not, we are largely a closed society and that's not going to change soon, if ever. We badly need a trusted bridge of sorts if we are to avoid being swept away and submerged in the mainstream, a means for us to look around, backward and forward, to know ourselves as we are, as we were, and as we wish to be.

[Aside May 5, 2005: I have recently read a report by Dr. S. prepared for the Navan Travellers' Workshops, Ltd, entitled Conflict and Conflict Resolution. Frankly I am "floored" by the level and extent of Traveller-on-Traveller violence which exists in Ireland and England. The good Doctor's report, based on direct interviews of Irish Travellers, is descriptive of the situation as it exists there without any judgmental pretensions of omniscience, pro or con. It offers much food for thought but wisely refrains from digesting it for the reader. My own take on the differences between Travellers in the USA and those of Ireland that might partly account for an order of magnitude or two in comparative inter-family violence centers on the restraints and constraints in place there that almost resemble the Gulag Archipelago when it comes to suppressing the traditional freedom of our people to come and go, largely as we wished or needed.

[Another aside here: Speaking of intraTraveller conflict, I was e-mailed earlier this week (also in early May, 2005) by an anonymous source who, I presume, wished me to post its content on this site. Its message was a threat of violent revenge from one named Traveller family bloc to another. I have but one comment on the subject: A dangerous fool is not any less of a fool!]

I find that if you ask any random group of Country People to characterize Travellers, you will wind up with as many generally uninformed opinions as there are respondents. It is truly odd that the same disparateness will generally occur within any group of unacquainted Travellers asked the same questions.

Dr. ni Shuinéar's work may well serve as a spring-board for scholars in a dozen different disciplines, yet its most important beneficiaries will still be Travellers if the old aphorism is correct, "The truth will set us free." We're not dealing with "hit and run" or "drive-by" anthropology here but honest useful work done on our behalf by someone who is a friend and neighbor to the Irish Travelling People.

Speaking of whom:

Michael and Ellen McDonagh are well-known Irish Travellers living and working in Navan, Eire, both active, if I am not mistaken, in the Travellers' Workshop there. Ellen, in particular, would like to correspond with American and Canadian Irish Travellers. Both come highly recommended. Her e-mail address is infontw@eircom.net.

While I'm at it, another Traveller from Ireland, named John Carroll, is looking for other Carrolls over here to talk to or correspond with. It seems that there are only maybe a half dozen Travellers left in Ireland with that family name. The trouble is he has no e-mail connection apparently; watch those phone calls to Ireland, as they're pretty costly. Or just use his snail-mail address:

John Carroll
13 Farranferris Park
Farranree
Cork City
Ireland
Cell# 011 353 643 4120

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