It appears there is some confusion regarding travellers. there are a number of unrelated groups, though of course there is intermarriage and friendships.. There are Irish travellers. Scottish travellers, 'new age' travellers, and Romany travellers plus tramps and the dispossessed.
Itinerant workers, 'Spailpin fanaucht ', have been and still are an essential and necessary part of society. A group of workers who are able to move to where the work is, and then move on again. Society may refuse to recognise these groups but without us a traditional economy can not work.We act as a 'buffer' so to speak. crops need harvesting. Where do these workers come from if there is full employment in an area? Travellers.
The highland clearances forced many on to the road. Times of famine and oppression in Ireland did the same.
Travelling musicians are a part of our heritage. Fiddle masters walking around the country on their annual routes. Blind Harpers. The list goes on.

Modern life has to an extent rendered the old ways redundant, It would seem that society now wants us to 'settle down' but not in 'their' neighbourhood. We, as travellers, are caught between a rock and a hard place. Travelling the old ways is fraught with danger, cars travel too fast. there are too many of them.The songs we sing often reflect these aspects of our lives. When you have been moved on more times than you can count, Ewan Maccoll's songs, for example,speak to us, for us and through us of our hardships.


MOVING ON SONG
(Peggy Seeger)

Born in the middle of an afternoon
In a horse-drawn wagon on the old A5
The big twelve wheeler shook my bed
You can't stay here the policeman said
You better get born in someplace else

CHORUS; move along, get along, move along, get along,
Go, move, shift

Born in tatie lifting time
In an old bow tent be a tatie field
The farmer said, The work's all done
It's time that you were moving on

CHORUS; move along, get along, move along, get along,
Go, move, shift

Born in a wagon on a building site
Where the ground was rutted be the trailer's wheels
The local people said to me,
You lower the price of property

CHORUS; move along, get along, move along, get along,
Go, move, shift

Born at the back of a blackthorn hedge
When the white hoarfrost lay all around
No 3 wise men came bearing gifts
Instead the order came to shift

CHORUS; move along, get along, move along, get along,
Go, move, shift

The winter sky was hung with stars
And one shone brighter than the rest
The wise men came so stern and strict
And brought the order to evict

CHORUS; move along, get along, move along, get along,
Go, move, shift

Wagon, tent, or trailer born
Last week, last year, or in far off days
Born here or a thousand miles away
There's always men nearby who'll say
you'd better get born in some place else.

move along get along move along get along, go move shift.