Romanichal and Traveller song

English Gypsy song · Mincéirí song · Scottish Traveller song

England · Ireland · Scotland

Oral family song of English Romanichal, Irish Travellers, and Scottish Travellers. Irish and some Scottish Travellers are indigenous nomadic groups, not Romani. They share sites and a song economy. This page keeps the names distinct.

Irish Travellers (Mincéirí) and some Scottish Travellers are indigenous nomadic groups, not Romani. They share sites and a song economy with English Romanichal. This page files the song rooms and keeps the names distinct.

Oral family song. Mike Yates recorded more than a hundred songs from Mary Ann Haynes. Cecil Sharp heard Betsy Holland in 1907. Second revival: Phoebe Smith to Shirley Collins; Levi Smith to Martin Carthy.

Songs are often filed as “English folk” with ethnicity stripped (Marsh, Wettermark, Hore 2024). Sources: VWML / EFDSS; Yates, Travellers’ Joy (2006); Carroll–Mackenzie / ITMA; The Conversation 2024.