Mr. Patrick McDonagh:

Good afternoon. I am a pursuing a PhD in medieval history at Trinity College Dublin and I have been invited to contribute my opinions on how to strengthen Traveller participation in politics. One of the first steps that would make an important difference would be the creation of senatorial seats for Travellers, or indeed, just one. Our current political system has a similar provision for the universities, which have six seats in the Seanad. My own university, Trinity College, has three seats while the National University of Ireland also has three. Article 18 of the Constitution makes that provision. If a similar proposal for a separate constitutional provision to provide for a Traveller seat were made, it would be in line with this. It would be a useful first step because, despite the good work of the Minister of State, Deputy Stanton, and Senator Colette Kelleher, the trust of Travellers in the State is more or less non-existent. That is not unique to the Irish State; it applies also to the United Kingdom. I am from Northern Ireland. As a way forward, a Seanad seat would create a symbol. Irish Travellers do not see Irish Travellers being present when they look at our political system. Of course, Senator Pádraig Mac Lochlainn was a Dáil Deputy some years ago for Donegal. While his mother and grandmother were Irish Travellers, and that was an important step, he is an exception and a rarity. There seems to be no sign that this participation will become part of the mainstream. It would also be important for the four major parties of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, the Labour Party and, indeed, Sinn Féin to increasingly select Travellers to run for seats at all levels, including at local authority, Dáil, MEP and Seanad levels, the last separate from my proposal above.

The best way to strengthen Irish Traveller participation is through education. I am the first person in my family to go to university and I am the first to be asked to speak in this room. Irish Traveller participation at university level is essentially non-existent and almost irrelevant. I am one of a few and the only one currently pursuing a PhD in Trinity College. Dr. Sindy Joyce from the University of Limerick is the only one to have been awarded a PhD. I will be very surprised if that number goes above ten in the next ten years. The creation of an Irish Traveller-specific scholarship is a proposal that should at least be considered. When Travellers view the universities or, indeed, the secondary school system, they do not see something that fits for them. There are barriers and it is not as if their parents went and can explain the system to them. Barriers include the financial cost, fear of being identified as a Traveller and questions about what it actually results in. Great work could be done between Irish Traveller organisations and the State to promote that participation but the provision of a dedicated financial scholarship for Irish Travellers on the island to study at university would go a long way towards encouraging them. Once people enter the education system and become more aware of how the State operates, they become less mystified and more willing to effect change. They are more willing to refuse to be lectured by someone else. Irish Travellers cannot expect others to speak for them if they are not willing to speak for themselves and education is one of the great motivators and drivers for change in that regard. It is good to see that there are more Irish Travellers attending third level education, but there is a long way to go before we approach participation rates that are proportionate to our population. There are 40,000 Irish Travellers in the Republic and 6,000 in Northern Ireland but there are fewer than 200 attending Irish universities. It is an insignificant number.

Linked to the idea of increasing Traveller education, the Traveller Culture and History in Education Bill 2019 is on First Stage before the Seanad. It is legislation on which Senators Lynn Ruane and Colette Kelleher have done great work. Passing the Bill would be an important step. Apart from ensuring Travellers enter education, if Irish Travellers are to participate in the State, they must know their history, prior and subsequent to the foundation of the State. It is not that long ago that the myth that Irish Travellers date from the Famine was current. There is then the idea that Irish Travellers date from the Cromwellian period or from the period of the dissolution of the monasteries in the Tudor period. These are questions that can only be answered if more work is done on those areas and thoughts. There were nomadic groups in late medieval Ireland. Dr. Katharine Simms, a former lecturer at Trinity College Dublin, has an article on nomads in medieval Ireland focusing on an O'Conor clan who were pushed to the west of Ireland. While it would be difficult to establish whether they were Travellers, they were certainly a nomadic group. Bringing in legislation to teach Traveller history and, more broadly, the history of Irish nomadism, would give Travellers and others from a nomadic background on the island a view of how they fit into Irish history. All too often, Irish Travellers are seen as the aberration or freaks - whatever one wants to call it - and as a problem that needs to be fixed or dealt with through assimilation or simply by ignoring them. Introducing legislation like this, promoting Irish Traveller participation in education and encouraging political participation by deliberately selecting Travellers to run in local or national elections and by creating a Seanad seat would mark the beginning of what will still be a long journey to give Travellers a role in the State that is proportionate to their population and place within it.