Colette Kelleher (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman, An Leas-Chathaoirleach. As he did, I warmly welcome everyone here today. Gralti tome geels, a muni feins an beoirs ar crush ain nesdes talosk. I am sorry for ruining the language but I got those words from the lovely Oein De Bhairdúin. I thank people for coming here today from far and wide and for making what has been a record number of diverse submissions to this open call, all of which will be included and reflected in the inevitable report we will produce. I thank my fellow Senators, members of the Seanad Public Consultation Committee, members of the Senate Civil Engagement Group, supporters across parties and Independents.

I acknowledge and thank Bridget Doody, Carol Judge and the Seanad team for making today happen and also the ushers for their great support. I would also like to mention my little team - Ben, Sarah, Katriona and Hazel. I particularly thank the Irish Traveller Movement, Traveller non-governmental organisation and, above all, Oein de Bhairdúin, who advised me and helped put together a programme of work to advance Traveller rights, which I am pursuing in different ways in my role as Senator.

The date, 1 March 2017, was a historic day for Ireland and for Travellers. This was the first day when the State formally recognised the ethnicity of Irish Travellers and in doing so ushered in a new era of mutual understanding and relations. When the then Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, spoke to the Dáil recognising Traveller ethnicity he said: "our Traveller Community is an integral part of our society for over [a millennium], with their own distinct identity - a people within our people”. He went on to say "that recognition of Travellers could have a transformative effect on relations between Travellers and the wider society". Despite the State's formal recognition of Traveller ethnicity and, by extension, language, culture and history, the everyday efforts that Travellers make to develop their cultural literacies are systematically ignored in public and policy discourse.

I am always taken by the writings of African American writer, civil rights activist and gay man, James Baldwin, writing on identity. He was a man who grew up in 1950s Harlem and also spent many years as a writer in Paris. He wrote: "My inheritance was particular, specifically limited and limiting; my birthright was vast, connecting me to all that lives, and to everyone, forever. But one cannot claim the birthright without accepting the inheritance."

Ireland’s inheritance includes our Traveller history and culture. We must cherish, celebrate and know it for us as Irish people to claim our birthright. We must cherish, celebrate and know it to redress the stigma, the long-standing prejudice, discrimination, racism, social exclusion and identity erosion experienced by Travellers. We must move beyond stereotypes and begin to bring into our awareness our unconscious bias, through formal cultural awareness and reflection.

There have been attempts at assimilation of Travellers and denial of difference. There has been segregation in many forms which makes constructive conversations and dialogue well nigh impossible. Today we have an opportunity to do something different, to create a new narrative by having a different kind of conversation, a dialogue that systematically engages with Traveller cultural literacies and seeks to appreciate and understand them - to link the private troubles of Travellers into the public issues that the State, Government, agencies and bodies must connect with and address. The State looms large, particularly in the lives of Travellers and the onus is on the whole of society, the machinery of the State, Government Departments, agencies, public bodies, the Oireachtas and for leaders and people in schools, hospitals, communities everywhere to have such dialogues.

Recognising the almost total absence of Travellers in the Oireachtas, either as Members or behind the scenes, or at least people who have self-identified as Travellers, and with the same absence across the public sphere, I, a settled person and not a Traveller, sought to make space, make room, make common cause in different ways with Travellers in my privileged role as a Senator, not to set an agenda or the agenda or to speak for Travellers, rather to listen and use the power I have to advance rights, justice and well-being, and to be part of the gateway to an even fuller participation in politics and public life by Travellers. It would be my privilege if Travellers could and would consider and accept me as an ally, learning from them and the community as I go.

It is good that we are here today in Seanad Éireann, one of the Houses of the Oireachtas, to have a good exchange, to speak, to listen, to come up with good ideas and proposals for Travellers to be Members of this House, to be Members of the Dáil, to be councillors, to work behind the scenes, to reach the upper echelons and all parts of the Civil Service, the Garda, the Judiciary, and health and social care systems. For too long Travellers have been invisible in and excluded from these worlds or even when in those worlds hide their honourable identity, like so many LGBTI people felt they had to do to survive.

As I conclude my opening remarks and we embark on our day of hearings, I cite words of two black Civil Rights Activists. Martin Luther King said: "Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” Put more simply and directly, Maya Angelou told us: "When you know better, you do better.” Those of us on this side of the House today will be educated by Travellers and others; our consciousness will be raised. We have many important voices to hear so that we may know better and, most important, do better.