A century ago, barrel-top wagons were vital to Traveller families. Now one is being re-created to capture an almost forgotten culture, writes Brian O'Connell
In among the mangled body parts, contorted heads and metal-toothed machinery that litter the floor of the National Sculpture Factory, in Cork, a unique project is taking shape that in many ways epitomises the city's time as European Capital of Culture. John Carroll and James Carmody, both Travellers, are deftly putting ornate touches to a barrel-top wagon, the first to be made in Ireland for more than 40 years. The workmanship is impressive, evidence of a craft almost extinct in Ireland, from the salvaged wheels, axle and foldaway beds to the canvas roof, movable stove and tilley lamps. In the first half of the last century almost every Traveller family crammed into such vehicles.
Cork 2005's organisers have been criticised for failing to ignite interest in the year's events, but the wagon project, set up by Cork Traveller Women's Network, is evidence of the possibilities that exist when a section of the community gets serious about its art in an attempt to retrieve aspects of its culture that are in danger of being forgotten: the education curriculum contains little about the Traveller lifestyle, and the bulk of media coverage is negative.
Cork Traveller Women's Network worked with both the Travelling and the settled community to research, construct, equip and decorate the barrel-top wagon. The hope is to give it its first outing during this year's Cork St Patrick's Day parade and then install it as part of a permanent exhibition at Cork Public Museum, in Fitzgerald's Park. "The aim is to regenerate an aspect of our culture that is gone," says Mary O'Sullivan of Cork Traveller Women's Network. "We are in talks with Cork 2005 to organise a scholarship and train a person as a curator of the piece when it will be exhibited in Fitzgerald's Park."
The barrel-top project therefore hopes to sow the seeds of a permanent space for cultural interaction and exchange. "I've never been involved in such a positive project," says O'Sullivan. "It'll be very interesting to see the public reaction to having a wagon of this type in a parade for the first time. It will also be a useful educational tool for schools to come and visit the wagon in the park."
For John Carmody, a wagon builder, the chance to revisit a skill that earned him his living before caravans became popular has filled him with renewed pride and purpose. "I had been building these wagons all my life, but the last time I built one was 39 years ago. I never served my time or did an official apprenticeship: it was something that was passed down from generation to generation. If I was to work every day it would usually take me about two months to build a wagon."
Although the wagons varied greatly on the outside, they were very similar inside. At the back of each wagon was the top, or main, bed; underneath was a smaller one, called the press bed. With as many as 10 people living in each wagon, storage space was at a premium, so the beds were always pushed in during the day to make more room. Wagons generally contained a bench on each side and a food press. Light came from a paraffin-fuelled tilley lamp. A stove provided heat and hot food in winter. Many families fixed their ornate dishes and pots outside the wagon, on a big high table, or hung them from one end of the wagon. The Cork barrel-top will include all these features, many of them made from materials that were salvaged from around the country.
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