Irish Travellers & Traditional Music

Subject: Folklore: Irish Travellers & Traditional Music
From: beachcomber
Date: 03 May 12 - 10:34 AM

Has anyone read the book "FREE SPIRITS" about Irish Traveller families and their impact on and propagation of Traditional music ?
I came across this volume lately and although a little bit repetitive I found it quite educational. The Traveller Musical Dynastys are traced here and there are many excellent photographs, some pretty old as well. I would like to know what other Mudcat members thought of the publication ?

Subject: RE: Irish Travellers & Traditional Music
From: MartinRyan
Date: 03 May 12 - 10:42 AM

A copy on the table behind me as I type! Haven't read it through but am dipping in intermittently or when a question comes up that it might answer. I agree re the photographs - excellent.

Regards

Subject: RE: Irish Travellers & Traditional Music
From: terrier
Date: 03 May 12 - 11:38 AM

Free Spirits? Author and / or ISBN, please.

Subject: RE: Irish Travellers & Traditional Music
From: MartinRyan
Date: 03 May 12 - 11:58 AM

Free Spirits: Irish Travellers and Irish Traditional Music
Authors: Tommy Fegan, Oliver O'Connell
Publ.: MPO Productions, Ennis, Co. Clare, Ireland.
Year: 2011
ISBN: 978-0-9570194-0-9 (Paperback)

Regards

Subject: RE: Irish Travellers & Traditional Music
From: MartinRyan
Date: 03 May 12 - 11:59 AM

Available online:

Click here

Regards

Subject: RE: Irish Travellers & Traditional Music
From: Owen Woodson
Date: 03 May 12 - 12:41 PM

For anyone living outside Ireland it's on Amazon UK for £20-00 plus £2-80 p&p. That might work out cheaper than having it shipped from Ireland and paying whatever the postage rate is over there.

Subject: RE: Irish Travellers & Traditional Music
From: beachcomber
Date: 04 May 12 - 05:35 AM

I remember seeing and hearing a very tall , fairly old (45 - 60 ish) Traveller Woman singing at GAA Games in some of the larger venues around Munster, in the early 50s. She had a wire supported money collection bag too. One song I still recall , that she sung, was "Boolavogue". She had a distinctive way of ending the verses by staying on the same note for the words "........far and near".
I remember the Dunne brothers busking in Cork city also. I had no idea that they travelled around the country so much.

Subject: RE: Irish Travellers & Traditional Music
From: Gedpipes
Date: 04 May 12 - 06:32 AM

if fairly old is 45-60ish what is really old!
Ged 53 2/3

Subject: RE: Irish Travellers & Traditional Music
From: beachcomber
Date: 04 May 12 - 11:25 AM

Yes I know what you mean Ged but I was describing a Traveller woman, not a "settled" woman. In the 50s, at any age over 40, a traveller woman would have looked considerably older than a woman of the same age nowadays.I know that she would have experienced a hard life on the roadside back then, some didn't even have a caravan and used a horse cart laid down on it's shafts with a tarpaulin thrown over it and tied. That was a common type of shelter that Travellers used. She would probably have had to cook over an open brushwood fire with the attendant smoke and sparks which wouldn't have helped her appearance either.
The age expectancy of travellers is considerably lower than that of the population at large, even still.

Subject: RE: Irish Travellers & Traditional Music
From: MartinRyan
Date: 04 May 12 - 11:32 AM

Well put, beachcomber.

Regards

Subject: RE: Irish Travellers & Traditional Music
From: GUEST,Derek Schofield
Date: 04 May 12 - 11:44 AM

I referred to the book in the article on Thomas McCarthy and Simon Doyle and family in the last issue of Engoish Dance & Song magazine ... www.efdss.org some interesting information in the book...
Derek

Subject: RE: Irish Travellers & Traditional Music
From: beachcomber
Date: 04 May 12 - 06:24 PM

Thanks Martin. I am glad to hear that the book has circulated a good deal, I don't remember any kind of fanfare when it was launched or did I miss it?
I believe that it will gain in importance as time goes by because the musicians featured were , without doubt, some of the more important in the tradition. It may inspire someone to write in even greater depth on the subject.

Subject: RE: Irish Travellers & Traditional Music
From: terrier
Date: 04 May 12 - 07:59 PM

Thank you for the info, Martin. I'm looking forward to getting a copy.

Subject: RE: Irish Travellers & Traditional Music
From: ollaimh
Date: 04 May 12 - 09:07 PM

i\ll have to order one as well.my first professional busking was under the menotrship of a traveller i met in london, he tasught me a lot, and was fun to be around

Subject: RE: Irish Travellers & Traditional Music
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 05 May 12 - 02:13 PM

One of the authors, Oliver O'Connell, organises a very enjoyable weekend tribute festival to piper, Johnny Doran here on the west coast of Ireland every Spring.
Not easy to spot, but well worth looking out for.
Jim Carroll