Edenderry Oral
Histories Map

(Fullscreen version available here.)

What you are looking at here is an actual route travelled by mine and other Traveller families when we were nomadic. We found out through our research that a lot of the older Travellers could actually remember the location of routes and stopping places from when they travelled the road. A group of us went down to Offaly on a bus with no maps, just the memory of a group of Travellers and located 20 different places on one particular route they travelled. My family included.

These are the exact locations Travellers stopped in and if you click on each pin you can listen to the names and stories of each stopping place which were told by the older Travellers while we were there.

When you listen to the stories you can learn about the way of life, how important the landscape or geography was to each different place such as how there were Summer Camps and Winter camps, as well as the relationship they had with people from the general population, and in many ways the vital role Travellers had in the community.

We worked with an artist Seamus Nolan throughout the project which was brilliant as like working with Tony there was a constant transfer of knowledge, with everyone involved constantly learning.

Derek Speirs also took some excellent photographs which you can also enjoy as you go through the story.

-Michael Collins