Buskers join union to avoid being prosecuted
Busking is illegal in Ireland and treated the same as begging under the Vagrancy Act of 1847.
There is growing concern that the number of ‘professional’ beggars will force gardaí to act against traditional street entertainers.
On Monday, a court heard that a Galway beggar had turned the practice of begging into a “fine art” and was found with €60 in cash and a bank deposit book in his pocket which showed he had made a €400 lodgement the previous day.
Buskers are also faced with child beggars sent out with instruments they can barely play. According to traditional musician Máire Ní Bheaglaoich, beggars have always posed a problem for buskers but the “latest scam is devious”.
“Child beggars are being sent out by adults to make money. They don’t have a melody between them and they are aggressive toward the musicians, driving three buskers off the street in the past few years. It’s a racket and we need a strategy.”
Buskers now want official recognition to set them apart from beggars. Six of the 15 full-time Dublin buskers have met community gardaí and Jane Boushell of the Musicians Union of Ireland, a branch of SIPTU.
Musicians holding union cards are now confident they will not be prosecuted.
“A number of them have been admitted recently,” a spokesperson for the union said yesterday.
However, the Garda Press Office said: “Asking for money is illegal, it doesn’t matter if you are playing an instrument at the time or not. We are aware that it is part of the culture but our job is to uphold the law.”
Meanwhile, the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children is concerned more parents might be prosecuted for allowing their children to beg. Twenty-one parents were prosecuted for the offence in 2004.
