Alen MacWeeney: Irish Travellers: Tinkers No More
Starred Review.From 1965 to 1970, the Travellers of Ireland, a people thought to be "descendents of a mixture of nomadic craftsmen and those who had literally taken to the roads... for a variety of reasons," welcomed Dublin-born photographer MacWeeny (Spaces for Silence) to their campsites outside his hometown. His quest to publish the photos, stories and music he took with him is at last realized in this spare but lovely book, a stirring cultural miscellany from a community that remains invisible to many-in both the general public and the historic record ("like so many marginalised people"). As MacWeeney notes, "Theirs was a bigger life than mine, with its daily struggle for survival"; in page after page of beautiful black and white photos, that struggle is captured in the Travellers' faces, by turns despairing, hopeful, joyous and solemn, but also belied in scenes of celebration, laughter and music-making. MacWeeney sees in these portraits "a dignity, a raw beauty, a deep uncertainty and perhaps a stripped-down Irishness," a sentiment deepened by the lyricism and sly humor of songs ("The Old Hag's Death") and stories ("The Grey-Headed Norrisey's Skull") transcribed throughout, and also captured on an enclosed CD. If there's a fault to find, it's in the volume's brevity; like the Travellers themselves, it's gone before you're ready to stop looking and learning. B&W; Photos.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.