Pride event celebrates positives of Traveller culture

The organisers of the Traveller Pride event in Mullingar want “celebrate Traveller culture and the positive things about being a Traveller”.

Christina Joyce, co-ordinator of the primary healthcare project for Travellers in Westmeath, told the Westmeath Examiner that she is “hoping this will help the younger Travellers to be proud of who they are – because there’s so much negativity about Travellers”.

Christina said: “It’s good to see the positive things and to say ‘we have this to celebrate; we have this shared thing – this is ours, our language our culture, the past that makes us who we are.”

Traveller Pride event has been an annual event for four years in the Grange area of Mullingar, and Christina said they invite Travellers to celebrate their culture: “We have the wagon and the tinsmith, photographs of older Travellers, we have fun events for the children, like face painting, balloon making, talent shows, we also have different agencies come along, like the garda, the HSE, the local authority, any agencies that work with Travellers.”

The event is funded by the HSE, Christina said it wouldn’t be possible without Catherine McEntee, a manager with Youth Work Ireland, whose centre hosts it.

Michael McDonagh from Meath Travellers Workshop brought a living history project from its heritage programme. He said: “The whole purpose of this to let not only Travellers see what life was like for people who lived at this time, but also for the wider community.

“It’s an educational project and it’s a pleasant, nice project, and that’s good, because normally the contact between the communities isn’t always positive, and this is a positive way of doing it.”

Michael said it is important to preserve identity and culture and acknowledged the UNESCO recognition of certain Irish cultures. “Tinsmithing needs to be protected and the language of Travellers needs to be protected. It’s a very important step for us, particularly coming after the recognition of the ethnicity of Travellers. It’s important that people see Traveller identity and culture as a positive thing, and Travellers start to see it as positive – and that helps us get over a lot of the negative stuff that’s there as well.”

(On the subject of language, Christina Joyce has written a book called ‘Learn to Speak Cant’, in both the Cant language and in English, “and the reason behind it was to encourage younger Travellers to keep the language alive” she said.”

Among the officials at Traveller Pride (which was on Friday week last, July 19) was Sgt Roger Nicholson of the Community Policing Unit in Mullingar. “We’re seeing some unique crafts attached to the Traveller community, their horse-drawn caravan, and a thing I’m particularly interested in, the tinsmith, who has been making pongers and jugs from copper and steel, and it’s fantastic to see.

“It’s great to see everybody so interested, and it’s great to be part of something that’s very positive towards the Traveller community and allows them to show their skills and their great traditions.”