This paper addresses the complex articulation in Irish drama between the cultural imaginary of the tinker and modern Irish society at its critical juncture of globalization. The juxtaposition of the tinker with the relentless forces of globalization makes for a compelling study. The study begins with J. M. Synge’s conception of the tinker, which offers an invaluable framework for analyzing the dynamic evolution of the cultural imaginary of the tinker in Irish drama. After a brief discussion of the socio-cultural appropriation of the tinker against the backdrop of the changing political landscape of post-independence Ireland, the study proceeds to offer an analysis of two contemporary plays that feature a tinker at their core: Tom Murphy’s The House and Sebastian Barry’s On Blueberry Hill, one performed during the height of the Celtic Tiger era, and the other in its immediate aftermath. These two plays together highlight the impact of globalization, which readily assimilates the tinker into a uniform and sedentary society: the tinker as an emblem of autonomy and mobility is no longer tenable within a globalized epoch that tends to erode distinctiveness by homogenizing diverse social and cultural forces. Ultimately, Murphy and Barry strongly suggest that the once potent traditions anchored around the Big House and the Catholic Church have receded in tandem with the tinker. This diminishing resonance finds eloquent expression through the very fabric of their dramatic structures of symbiosis, concealed underneath the more familiar perception of the tinker as the Other.