Traveller children get a handle on Cant

YOUNG Travellers in Clare have put pen to paper to document their cultural and linguistic heritage in a new children’s book.

Due for release later in the summer, the book has its genesis in the Traveller Afterschool Project based in St Joseph’s Traveller Education Centre at the Gort Road Industrial Park in Ennis. The programme is funded by Pobal and run by Clare Local Development Company.

The idea was touted by Maria Rieder, a Trinity College PhD student, who worked at the St Joseph’s Training Centre for the last two years as an assistant and participant among Traveller students, adults and children, in order to research the Irish Travellers’ language and culture.

Cant, also called Gammon, is the native language of Irish Travellers. It is a cryptolect that is used for private conversations among the Traveller community. Cant is heavily influenced by Irish, but also contains many words of unknown, possibly ancient origins. Sadly, the language is being used less and less.

The objective of the project was to raise awareness and pride among the children of their cultural and linguistic heritage and deepen their knowledge of Cant.

The project started in early March and was worked on over a period of four months. Eight girls and boys between six and 11 years of age participated in different workshops that were broken down into two phases – a language assessment and acquisition phase, in which the children learned more about their language and how to use it and a creative writing phase, in which the acquired knowledge was applied and each of the children wrote a short story in Cant. 
Four of the children’s stories were then chosen to be published.

In completing the project, Maria was helped by student support worker David McCarthy, co-ordinator Lesley Hamilton and artist Imelda Greene who has illustrated the children’s stories for the book.