Representations of Fairground Travellers and Showpeople in Irish Tradition

Heritage, Dublin City Council

A free public talk by Dr Mícheál Ó hAodha, hosted by Dublin City Council's Heritage Office. Part-funded by the Heritage Council.

The Wood Quay Venue

Dublin City Heritage Talks 2026

The Dublin City Heritage Talks free public lecture series aims to showcase heritage projects, topics and new research across Dublin city, and is an action of the Dublin City Strategic Heritage Plan 2024 - 2029. Supported by the Heritage Council.

Full talk title: "The Diversity Within": Some representations of Fairground Travellers and Showpeople in Irish Tradition. About the talkIn recent decades, particularly when viewed through a media lens, Irish Travellers have been frequently depicted as a single homogenous group of people, all of whom share the same cultural traditions and history. This narrative is partly a remnant of colonial discourse whereby all Irish Travelling people and nomadic groups were “classified” as one and the same -e.g. “masterless men and women”, “wandering Irish”, “wild Irish” etc. Under colonialism, administrators made little or no distinction between different cultural and minority groups who travelled for a living and the rest of the Irish population. This meant that all Irish Traveller communities – whether travelling metalworkers, jobbers, animal-healers, stonemasons, tailors, musicians and fairground Travellers – to name were all assigned to the same category and assumed to be culturally similar.This obscured the rich cultural diversity within Irish Traveller communities and the historical differences between different groups in terms of language, culture and tradition.  This talk explores just one aspect of the diversity within Irish Traveller history and culture i.e. show people and fairground people, their centrality to Irish fairs, and discusses how these Travellers are represented in Irish oral tradition (both in Irish and English) and the historical discourse generally. About the speakerDr Mícheál Ó hAodha is an Occasional Lecturer in the Dept. of History at the University of Limerick who has published widely on Irish minorities and the Irish diaspora. <a href="https://eur04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fscanner.topsec.com%2F%3Fd%3D1962%26r%3Dshow%26u%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.michealohaodha.com%252F%26t%3Dec8142760dec297be08cb004b4884104c3e62f63&amp;data=05%7C02%7Ccharles.duggan%40dublincity.ie%7C17c0cb02a8ea40a3fa2008de5421a783%7Ccb73b27473ac476da3aa703024ae36f0%7C0%7C0%7C639040700716390131%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=y59NR%2FQWigW0vsW%2FnK1SnY1sJ2plEuOo1Y2UB25rTyQ%3D&amp;reserved=0" title="https://eur04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fscanner.topsec.com%2F%3Fd%3D1962%26r%3Dshow%26u%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.michealohaodha.com%252F%26t%3Dec8142760dec297be08cb004b4884104c3e62f63&amp;data=05%7C02%7Ccharles.duggan%40dublincity.ie%7C17c0cb02a8ea40a3fa2008de5421a783%7Ccb73b27473ac476da3aa703024ae36f0%7C0%7C0%7C639040700716390131%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=y59NR%2FQWigW0vsW%2FnK1SnY1sJ2plEuOo1Y2UB25rTyQ%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://www.michealohaodha.com/</a> About the seriesThe Dublin City Heritage Series is a free public lecture series which aims to showcase heritage projects, topics and new research across Dublin city, and is an action of the Dublin City Strategic Heritage Plan 2024 - 2029.The series has received grant support from the Heritage Council. This talk will be recorded and made available online at a later date.ISL interpretation will be provided.

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Representations of Fairground Travellers and Showpeople in Irish Tradition

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