In both Ireland and in Romania, I have seen at first hand the appalling treatment and the social exclusion of their respective wandering classes, sects, races, castes, call them what you will. The Roma have moved away from Romania in large numbers to try to find a better life elsewhere, but don't seem to be getting much of a welcome anywhere.

Yet who are the carriers of the traditional oral culture of both these countries and also the amongst the finest exponents of their singing and music?

Well, funnily enough, it if the travellers and the Roma respectively.