"David Thomson describes travelling tailors in Ireland "
Travellers of one sort or another were welcome visitors in many of the rural homes - their tinsmithing work and horse trading was an essential part of rural life and their abilities as singers and storytellers made them all the more welcome
Two brothers in North Clare described how, when Travellers with songs were in the area work would be abandoned ant they would go off deliberately to pick up new songs
From the opposite point of view we have a remarkable reminiscence from a Kerry Teveller, Mikeen McCarthy, who described how, as a child, he would eavesdrop on sessions where village people would walk out to the site with food and 'guals' (armfuls') of fuels and sit around an open fire listening to Mikeen's father singing, telling stories and laying music
Jim