What We Talk About When We Talk About Migration
Knocknagalty (from King’s Yard) - Galtee Mountains
In the world of birds, Ireland has immigrants and emigrants. We often discuss with astonishment the vast and wide-ranging migratory routes that birds take, marveling at their instinctive ability to navigate without instruments. Their migration is seen as an innovative evolutionary response to environmental obstacles.
When we think about nomadic (or semi-nomadic) human beings, do we view them similarly as innovators? Do we praise their ability to understand their environment and respond to its limitations by leaving their home and taking residence elsewhere? Or do we view them as less cultured and less civilised?
In Ireland, there is a complex and painful history of outward migration owing to “the” Famine, poverty, social and political unrest and, stitching much of that together, a long history of colonial plunder. The Irish diaspora is huge and spread across the world. If we were to ask Irish emigrants how they feel they’ve been perceived since leaving their country of birth, I wonder what sort of split there would be between positive and negative experiences. I appreciate I’m lumping in a wide and various group of people here, and without hard data it will remain speculation, but I’m convinced there would be a cohort who feel they’ve been viewed in a less positive light as a result of their migration.
Aside from the diaspora, there is also a history of migration within the island of Ireland, whether that be a kind of structured and temporary migration like booleying, or more permanent moves in times of desperation. Those engaged in booleying and “creaghting“ (a new one for me, which I’ll mention later) have been looked on unfavourably and these aspects of our history have almost been buried, as if they are a source of shame. In the last few weeks I’ve tried to mine into the reasons why.
English Views on Nomadism (circa 1600)
Many of the earliest sources indicating the existence of booleying are written by English men involved in the plantation of Ireland. This period in Irish history was described by Pádraig Ó Moghráin as “a time of savage warfare”. (1) In his fantastic book on booleying, Eugene Costello responds to some dismissive accounts of Irish farmers written by English commentators towards the end of the sixteenth century. I will include a couple of paragraphs here rather than cherry-picking quotes:
Edmund Spenser notes in 1596 that the Irish were in the habit of ‘keep[ing] their cattle and liv[ing] themselves the most part of the year in Bollies, pasturing upon the mountain and waste wild places, and removing still to fresh land’ (Todd 1805, 363). This description conjures up images of groups of people and animals wandering, nomad-like, for most of the year, a pattern that does not entirely fit with our definition of transhumance: that is, a predictable seasonal movement between winter and summer pastures. Spenser goes on to liken the Irish habit of moving from pasture to pasture ‘to the manner of the Scythians’, disapproving of it as ‘a very idle lyfe, and a fit nursery for a theife’. He recommends a cure – that they settle in towns and ‘augment their trade more of tyllinge and husbandrye’ (Todd 1805, 363). (2)
Incredibly, this was fairly mild stuff compared to some other statements Spenser made about Ireland. He essentially vouched for a scorched earth policy in conquering Ireland and attempted to justify the military campaign by speaking of Ireland’s “evils” and its “disruptive and degraded people”. There were other commentators, too:
Fynes Moryson launches a more extreme tirade, claiming that the Irish ‘build no houses, but, like nomads living in cabins, remove from one place to another with their cows’. Again, this was a lifestyle that would make one ‘think these men to be Scythians’; indeed, Moryson goes as far as to compare the wild (Gaelic) Irish to ‘wild beasts’ (Falkiner 1904, 222–32). Francis Jobson remarks in 1598 that ‘so long as they may have scope to range up and down into pasture and feed, they both can and will ever at their pleasures ... rebel and make havoc’ (CSPI VII 445). In the same vein, Lord Deputy Arthur Chichester recommends in 1608 that the Ulster Irish be ‘drawn from their course of running up and down the country with their cattle ... and settle themselves in towns and villages’ (CSPI James III, 65). (3)
As you can see, there is a tone of derision towards the system of movement between summer and winter pastures and the commentators above sought to link booleying to stereotypes about the Irish being lazy and unsophisticated.
The renowned geographer and archaeologist, E. Estyn Evans, claimed that “a bourgeois notion of respectability, which equates nomads with tinkers, is also responsible for playing down the nomadic element in the old Gaelic order.” (4) He goes on to suggest that, with the English view of the Irish as a country of nomadic pastoralists and the negative connotations that went with that, Irish nationalists of later years endeavoured to steer eyes away from this aspect of Irish history, lest it be in any way implied that Ireland was anything other than “civilised” before the arrival of English settlers. Evans points out that, contrary to 16th century English notions that these migratory practices were chaotic and ill-thought out, there was in fact “an institutionalized nomadism in the form of booleying or transhumance.” (5) Booleying should be admired for its structure and invention rather than being painted as backward and random.
Goat Cabin near Glen Cush - Galtee Mountains
Naturally, there was a strategic colonial interest in portraying Ireland’s pastoralism in a negative way. It provided justification for English settlers during the plantations. The hypocrisy of this portrayal of Ireland is laid bare by the archaeologist Audrey Horning: “Considering that seasonal transhumance was also practiced throughout the British isles in the late medieval period (Bil 1990; Ramm et al. 1970), English commentators must have misrepresented the practice to bolster their own claims to this "wild," land, uncultivated by its 'nomadic' inhabitants. What better advertisement for prospective settlers?” (6)
In his Topography of Ireland, Giraldus Cambrensis (a 12th century Cambro-Norman priest and historian) described the Irish as “a rude people, subsisting on the produce of their cattle only, and living themselves like beasts – a people that has not yet departed from the primitive habits of pastoral life…. The whole habits of the people are contrary to agricultural pursuits, so that the rich glebe is barren for want of husbandmen, the fields demanding labour which is not forthcoming.”
Costello highlights the inaccuracy of this quote. Firstly, the suggestion that Irish farmers were not engaged with crops at all, and only farming livestock, is categorically incorrect. Secondly, Costello points to the irony of these claims. A large part of the reason for seasonal migration with livestock was precisely to free up space for the growing of crops in the winter pasture. Essentially, the goal was to employ a hybrid system of crops and livestock on separate land. (7)
Creaghting
There has also been confusion between booleying and another form of migration when seen through the eyes of some English commentators. Have a look at this short piece from the book Art and Architecture of Ireland: “Synonyms for the Irish cabin include cottage, shack, hut, hovel, cot, scalp, bothán scoir, bothóg and, in Ulster, creaght. The booleying or creaghting cabin was erected each summer for the purpose of moving the livestock from one grazing ground to another.” (8) It’s interesting that this article treats the terms “booleying” and “creaghting” as one and the same, the latter merely being the Ulster dialect. Costello leans more towards the latter term signifying a more radical and more permanent form of migration, often made in times of desperation when families were fleeing conflict or social upheaval. He offers one example where hundreds of people left Longford and arrived in Mullingar in 1691 with all the possessions they could carry. Costello believes that English commentaries on Irish pastoralism at this time were “so vague and racially motivated that they might well be interpreted as the product of purposeful or careless conflations with transhumance”. In other words, an attempt to damage the credibility of booleying by associating it with more desperate forms of migration. (9)
Tropes of Rural Ireland
In the 20th century, we rightly expect not to find such overtly prejudiced views on rural Ireland, particularly in the world of academia. And it is true to say that the study of booleying has moved on considerably. We have a greater depth of understanding now thanks to a multidisciplinary approach which incorporates the work of historians, folklorists, geographers, archaeologists, and more. Yet, even in the research of well-meaning figures in the last hundred years, there remains some unhelpful tropes.
Jean Graham was an academic heavily influenced by E. Estyn Evans. In fact, she was his student in Queen’s University Belfast. Costello praises her thesis, Transhumance in Ireland, with special reference to its bearing on the evolution of rural communities in the west, as a groundbreaking work which, unfortunately, has not been as widely published as it deserves to be. However, he also identifies a tendency in Graham’s work to portray the west of Ireland as more traditional and, by extension, more resistant to change than other areas of Ireland. She depicts older practices as being more Irish and consequently suggests that poorer areas in the west of the country are more worthy of study. The issue with this line of thinking is that it equates oldness with Irishness, and puts forward the notion that more economically disadvantaged areas are more Irish. A similar outlook is present in her mentor’s work who saw the journey from the east to the west of Ireland as a journey “into the past”.
In fairness to both Graham and Estyn Evans, they were following a line of established thinking that went far beyond Ireland. The Romantic period in art idolised basic rural life as an antidote to modern industrialisation in a way that can now be seen as reductionist and condescending. Furthermore, Irish nationalists have invariably tapped into this idea of Gaelic (or “Celtic”) Ireland as an idyllic place before colonialism. In this sense, there are two different presentations of rural life in Ireland, both of which have been guilty of misinforming. The first one being the prejudiced view of 16th century settlers, which dismisses the Irish as wild and backward. On the other side, however, we have another (admittedly less hostile) misconception, which promotes old, traditional ways as a romantic ideal of Ireland, ignoring both the hardships that went with that and the cleverness and innovation of migratory agricultural practices. (10)
It’s important to note that this is arguably an unconscious bias rather than anything malicious, and we should acknowledge that the work of Estyn Evans and Graham has been invaluable in furthering our understanding of transhumance in Ireland. In fact, Estyn Evans was known to spring to the defence of rural Ireland in other instances, when faced with negative stereotyping by his peers. For example, when the archaeologist R.A.S. Macalister created a graph depicting how periods of social and economic decline in Ireland correspond to periods of poorer climate, Estyn Evans criticised him for the simplification. The implication seemingly being that the Irish could not adapt to changes in weather and were simply subject to its whims. Estyn Evans sarcastically expressed his gratitude that “the enervating effect of the Irish climate which moved Macalister to eloquent attacks on Irish inefficiency did not affect his own industry.” (11)
I must confess I feel a personal debt to Estyn Evans because the first time I ever came across booleying was in his book The Personality of Ireland, which I read a number of years ago. I would recommend it to anyone interested in the intersectionality between the history, geography and folklore of Ireland. It knits various disciplines together beautifully. The memory of the book lingered with me, as did a loose interest in transhumance, until I learned about the existence of booley huts right on my doorstep in the Galtee mountains. And here we are.
Evening Ramble between Rain Showers
29th July 2023
No hiking happened in July, until a very short evening stroll on the 29th. I revisited Coolagarronroe, a spot I’ve been to in a previous blog post. I wanted to see if I could make use of the softness of the evening light to achieve better photographic results, and these cloudy days always draw my eye. Nothing much to report, but I didn’t want to leave you hanging on fresh images! See two shots below from the short hike on the southern Galtees.
Revisiting a Booley in Coolagarronroe
Revisiting a Booley in Coolagarronroe
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this month’s subject in the comments below. I appreciate it might be a provocative one, but I think it’s a conversation that Irish people could benefit from having as we reflect on our turbulent past. There are clearly more avenues we could have gone down on this issue, perhaps examining negative sentiments towards migration through a modern lens, whether that be cases of refugees being poorly treated in recent months, or the experiences of the Traveller community in Ireland and the prejudices they face. These social issues are things I feel strongly about but for the purposes of this study on a historical practice like booleying, there is only so much that I want to veer from the primary subject matter and I didn’t feel it would be right to impose the present upon our past in this way.
Thank you for taking the time to read this piece, and I hope you’ll tune back in at the end of August - all the best!
Alan Tobin
Bibliography
(1) More Notes on the "Buaile" (Pádraig Ó Moghráin and S. Ó D.) in Béaloideas , Jun. - Dec., 1944, Iml. 14, Uimh 1/2, p. 46. Published by An Cumann Le Béaloideas Éireann/Folklore of Ireland Society.
(2) Costello, Eugene. Transhumance and the Making of Ireland's Uplands, 1550-1900. Available from: VitalSource Bookshelf, Ingram Publisher Services UK- Academic, 2020. p. 31.
(3) Costello, Eugene. Transhumance and the Making of Ireland's Uplands, 1550-1900. Available from: VitalSource Bookshelf, Ingram Publisher Services UK- Academic, 2020. p. 31.
(4) Archæology and Folklife (E. Estyn Evans) in Béaloideas , 1971 - 1973, Iml. 39/41 (1971 - 1973), p. 134. Published by An Cumann Le Béaloideas Éireann/Folklore of Ireland Society.
(5) Archæology and Folklife (E. Estyn Evans) in Béaloideas , 1971 - 1973, Iml. 39/41 (1971 - 1973), p. 135. Published by An Cumann Le Béaloideas Éireann/Folklore of Ireland Society.
(6) Materiality and Mutable Landscapes: Rethinking Seasonality and Marginality in Rural Ireland (Audrey Horning) in International Journal of Historical Archaeology , December 2007, Vol. 11, No. 4 (December 2007), p. 363. Published by: Springer.
(7) Costello, Eugene. Transhumance and the Making of Ireland's Uplands, 1550-1900. Available from: VitalSource Bookshelf, Ingram Publisher Services UK- Academic, 2020. p. 33.
(8) Rural Domestic Architecture (Ed. Andrew Carpenter, Rolf Loeber, Hugh Campbell, Livia Hurley, John Montague and Ellen Rowley) in Art and Architecture of Ireland Volume IV: Architecture 1600-2000, p. 332. Published by: Royal Irish Academy.
(9) Costello, Eugene. Transhumance and the Making of Ireland's Uplands, 1550-1900. Available from: VitalSource Bookshelf, Ingram Publisher Services UK- Academic, 2020. p. 31-32.
(10) Costello, Eugene. Transhumance and the Making of Ireland's Uplands, 1550-1900. Available from: VitalSource Bookshelf, Ingram Publisher Services UK- Academic, 2020. p. 46-50.
(11) Archæology and Folklife (E. Estyn Evans) in Béaloideas , 1971 - 1973, Iml. 39/41 (1971 - 1973), p. 129. Published by An Cumann Le Béaloideas Éireann/Folklore of Ireland Society.
