Ms Lorraine Higgins:

With regard to Traveller Pride I want to highlight that Traveller culture is celebrated and encouraged in the prison education unit. Education is a very inclusive space for people of all cultures, backgrounds and minorities including Travellers. For the past number of years we have had a Traveller Pride week. It was halted because of Covid but we will recommence it. We have various teachers who work very closely with members of the Traveller community. As Ms McCaffrey mentioned, last week we had the graduation for the peer mediation in prisons course. This is funded by the Traveller Visibility Group in Cork. We constantly look at how we can link in with the outside community and support our Traveller students.

Traveller culture is something we support through various art and literature works done in prison. It is something that we celebrate. A few years ago we produced a voices booklet that celebrated the experiences and culture of Travellers. The book told their stories and celebrated their artwork. Travellers are also supported in many of the literacy classes. There is a huge emphasis on how we can support them. Prison education is a very inclusive space and many of our success stories are Traveller students. Many of them did not have a particularly positive experience of education but it is amazing to see how they progress over the years. Our first Gaisce gold awardee in Cork Prison was a Traveller student. He had left school at 14 or 15 years of age. In prison he was able to achieve a full level 3 award, progress to his leaving certificate and continue with Gaisce. He engaged with peer mediation, the listener scheme and the Red Cross. We really support our Traveller students as best we can.