About the Project
This project aims to fill the void that exists in the teaching of Irish Traveller History and hopes to encourage further research in this area.
With funding from the Higher Education Authority, the Department of History, University of Limerick, has managed to garner as much resources as possible relevant to the history of Irish Travellers. All material is housed in a dedicated reading room (GL2 013) on floor 2 of the Glucksman Library Building. The resources support the teaching of two Traveller history modules as well as post-graduate research. The Department of History intends to further develop the range of historical material available and this on-line database
People
This project was initiated by Dr Bernadette Whelan and Dr John Logan, Department of History, University of Limerick . Dr Ciara Breathnach acted as resource coordinator. Field expert, Dr Aoife Bhreatnach, designed the module outlines and provided invaluable contributions to the database selection. Dr Micheál Ó hAodha was also helpful in identifying resource material.
John Lancaster, previous Head Librarian, Gobnait O Riordan, Acting Head Librarian and Pattie Punch, Humanities Librarian assisted in organising the resource space.
Acquisition Librarians Aine Finnucane and Jacinta O Driscoll have facilitated this project enormously.
Site Content
The Bibliography details all relevant books held at the University of Limerick Library.
BIBLIOGRAPHY >>
The Department of History has acquired a copy of the University of Ulster, Jordanstown, resource collection on the Irish Travelling People. This collection was compiled by Aileen L’Aimee and copies of this 24 Volume collection was donated to UL via Niall Burns, Assistant Librarian, Jordanstown.
Index to the UU collection in UL >>
The Department of History has a hard copy of part of the Irish Folklore Commission, 1952 Tinker’s Questionnaire; this was obtained by kind permission of Prof. Seamus Ó Catháin, Department of Irish Folklore, UCD, and John Power, Head Librarian, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick.
Dr Paul Delaney , Department of English, TCD, has kindly arranged permission to reproduce his articles on this website.
Module information
Postgraduate
HI6052 Irish Nomads in a Sedentary Society, 1850-1980
This module traces the social position of the Irish Travellers from 1850 to 1980 and the relationship between them and the settled community. Using as many primary sources as possible, the module will pay particular attention to how the Traveller community has adapted to Irish social, political and cultural change. This module will also adopt a comparative dimension referring particularly to Irish Travellers abroad (in Northern Ireland and England) and, to a lesser extent, to the position of the Roma population and other indigenous nomadic groups in Europe.
Undergraduate
HI4057 Irish travelers: history and society
This module aims to define the Irish traveller community, to identify the many differences that exist within the community and with external traveller groups. It aims to explore the history of nomadism and attempts to outlaw it, the history of racism and debates on ethnicity. It will examine how Irish society, culture and government responded to a nomadic minority. Students will be encouraged to ask: what do these responses tell us about Irish society as well as the marginalised? Central to this module will be an understanding of Traveller culture and, how such culture is defined by Travellers themselves and the settled community. How the Irish government responded to Traveller children in the education system will be examined as a case study of minority relations with the state. A central objective of this module will be to challenge the popular belief that Travellers are somehow an anachronism in modern society. The place and niche occupied by Travellers shifts throughout the twentieth century, with the greatest changes occurring after world war two. Students will consider how social change, driven by government policy and economic development, affected both Traveller culture and their relationship with the settled community.
