Thread #170988   Message #4135680
Posted By: GUEST,Mike Yates
07-Feb-22 - 07:36 AM
Thread Name: Gypsies, Travelers, Roma (closed)
Subject: Gypsies, Travelers, Roma

...In Britain (and much of Europe) Gypsies and Travellers have played one of the most important roles in the transmission and preservation of folk song and folk music. Over the years some of our greatest singers have come from these groups.

In Scotland we had Jeannie Robertson (once called ‘The World’s Greatest Folk Singer’ by an American record label), Stanley Robertson, Georgie Robertson, Bella Higgins, Charlotte Higgins, the extended Stewart Family, Betsy Whyte, Duncan Williamson (who, along with his numerous songs and ballads, recorded some 700 folktales for future generations to hear), along with dozens of other singers whose work can be heard in the School of Scottish Studies at Edinburgh University. In England there was Carolyne Hughes, Mary Ann Haynes, May Bradley, Phoebe Smith, Charlie Scamp, Jasper & Levi Smith, the Willett Family and the Brazil Family. This is but a small selection. Welsh Gypsies gave us many superb musicians, while Irish Travellers also offers us musicians, singers and story-tellers aplenty, most notably John Reilly who became famed for his ballad of ‘The Well Below the Valley’.

But there is also a downside to this. John Reilly, a relatively young man when he was discovered by the folk music world, was close to death. A situation brought about by the life that he had been forced to lead. This was not a situation only to be found in Ireland. I remember Sheila Stewart telling me that when her mother was born, householders would not help, and her mother was actually born in the only available place, namely a stable. Not the first time that a stable had been used, of course.

It should come as no surprise when I say that many folk people in Britain and Ireland have befriended Gypsies and Travellers. Gypsies and Travellers have been subjected to many forms of abuse over the years and we have often tried to help on their behalf. Nick Dow has worked tirelessly on behalf of Gypsy rights (as well as producing a book of songs collected from Gypsy singers – this is ‘’A Secret Stream’). Jim Carroll worked with Irish Travellers who were struggling to survive in London. I have worked with Gypsies in Kent and Surrey, trying to help improve their lives. And, of course, Ewan MacColl & Peggy Seeger worked with Travellers to produce their radio ballad ‘The Travelling People’, which dealt with the injustices that Travellers still suffer. In Scotland Hamish Henderson took on board the cause of the Travelling people as did another collector, Tom Munnelly, in Ireland.

If I may repeat myself. The Gypsy and Travelling communities stand well and truly in the centre of the British and Irish folk song and folk music world and when they are so blatantly attacked is it little wonder that so many folk people wish to stand alongside them?