In Search of Descendants of Irish “Travellers” in Canada

(Published in the New Brunswick Shamrock, July 2005)

By Sandra Bunting

Questions have a way of lodging themselves in our heads and sometimes they won’t let go until we find an answer. The journey towards finding enough information to satisfy ourselves can lead us on unplanned and fascinating paths in order to add another small piece to the puzzle. An Irish scholar is looking for descendants of Irish Travellers or Scottish Travellers living in Canada as part of his studies into their way of life and language. Different than the Romany, the term Traveller is used for people formally called tinkers or Irish gypsies. Travellers bear illustrious Irish or Scottish surnames and believe that their traditions and lineage go back to very honourable origins

Niall O’Murachu first encountered Travellers when he was a young boy near Limerick. A family of them used to camp regularly near his house. He would play hurling with a boy his age, his hurly stick kept under the caravan. The father had been in the army. In fact, says Mr. O’Murachu, a lot of them had served in army in America. He said he developed an affection for Travellers.

“I have a grá for them,” he says.

After that he had no contact with Travellers until he began to teach. Among other students, he had a few Travelling children at his school in Limerick and later in Galway. He still remembers one of his first pupils from the Travelling community.

“I can see this lad’s face after 40 years,” he says.

To understand the children, he took an interest in their customs at home. He felt that in order to treat all children fairly, you had to know the parents’ background. With that in mind, he began to meet with them and was fascinated to learn that they had their own language. More questions appeared in his head. As he found out more about them, the Irish Department of Education asked him to prepare a tape for teachers of Travellers so they could become acquainted with their background and traditions. It included extracts of songs and reminiscences.

The main question he asked was where the people came from, what their origin was. A common response was that they were the dispossessed during the Irish famine, forced to take to the road due to evictions or hunger. However, were they not in place before that? The term tinker was in use as far back as the 12th century but Mr. O’Murachu does not believe it applies to Irish and Scots travellers, although they were often tinsmiths as well. There are no written references to Irish Scots until the 19th century. As their history is a blank, the only link to the distant past is the language and common core traditions.

From his discussions, he realised that the language formed an important part of the Celtic tradition and felt he had to do something about it. With a tape recorder under his arm, Mr. O’Murachu went from encampment to encampment all around Ireland to record bits of folklore, customs and language. He now has 180 tapes. His research expanded to other countries when he discovered that Scotland shared a similar tradition. Even more interesting was his visit to the United States where he found communities now settled in Georgia, Texas, Mississippi and Tennessee that have maintained the Traveller tradition intact.

Even though they exist in the United States, Traveller Communities may not necessarily exist in Canada but Mr. O’Murachu strongly believes they do. He thinks they may have originated from the Scots Travellers.

“I know they are in Canada,” he says, “because a Canadian man with Romany connections has written on the subject and gave a list of words which are the same as words in the Irish language.”

Language appears to be supplying clues to the mystery of the Travellers’ origins. The language, based on Irish (Gaelic), is called Cant, probably from the Irish word Caint meaning to talk.

There are several dialects of Irish. The different dialectical differences around Ireland and Scotland give some sort of date to activities in past. For example, Mr. O’Murachu says changes in stress patterns and variations between Munster Irish and Western Irish go back many hundreds of years. Stress on other than the first syllable is common in Munster Irish while the stress appears on the first syllable in Irish spoken in the west and north of Ireland. This is reflected in the language of traveller, especially in words of Irish origin. Travelling people have the same stratification of language in English and Cant. It follows therefore that Cant, as a language, must have originated a long time ago and gives the idea of how traditional and old it is, besides demonstrating its importance to Celtic Studies.

“One new word opens another window on past,” said O’Murachu.

Cant is now an 'in' language, a jargon, slang, a language to keep others out. He adds that it has survived because of the isolation and marginalization of its speakers until recent times.

Although the Traveller language in Ireland is generally accepted as being called Cant, the Oxford English dictionary lists “shelta” as the correct word. This was given by an American – the originator of studies in the tradition of Travellers around 1880. However Mr. O’Murhu feels he was mistaken.

“He probably came across Travellers in Liverpool, heard the word shelta, which was probably just meant shelter or tent.”

In England, the Gypsy-lore Society has published good work about the Romany and Irish Travellers in Great Britain.

Are there communities of Irish or Scots Travellers that have survived in Canada, perhaps settled now, perhaps integrated or still dreaming of home? Mr. O’Murachu says they would know who they are, their traditions being very strong. He would like to know what memories have survived in terms of folklore, traditions and linguistics.

He can be contacted at niallom@eircom.net