Paper short abstract:

This paper explores Irish Traveller song in Galway, where traditionally, in the flux of dwelling, music was bound up with hospitality. The nomadic way of life has changed but song remains a powerful vehicle of movement, reinforcing connections with family and with the travelling way of life.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores an aesthetics of dwelling through Irish Traveller song in a Galway community. Traditionally Irish Travellers identified as nomadic and the practice of music enabled different processes of dwelling: making music allowed them to narrate aspects of their life, including its sorrows and joys; it formed a process of familial and community bonding; it accompanied the daily and seasonal activities needed to home-make; it provided a means of acquiring sustenance and money as they moved from place to place. In the flux of dwelling, music, and song in particular, was bound up with hospitality, including that between Irish Travellers and settled communities, changing environments, and kin, both living and dead. Although the nomadic way of life is no longer possible in the way it once was, as Irish Travellers have been assimilated into society by being housed, song remains a powerful vehicle of movement, reinforcing connections with family and with the travelling way of life through its capacity to draw the distant into close proximity.