The theme for this year’s Traveller Pride is “Embracing a modern Traveller culture, with creativity in our roots.” This week will highlight the contemporary changes within the Traveller community and Traveller life in general while celebrating and embracing traveller heritage with pride.
Speaking to the Irish Mirror, Senator Eileen Flynn, who in 2020 became the first Traveller to be in the Oireachtas, said: “It’s a week of celebration, we’ve got a lot to be proud of as a community. We’re still here, we’re still standing, we’re still a very strong community.”
Senator Flynn blamed discrimination for the fact that suicide rates among the traveller community are six times higher than the general population. She explains that everyday discrimination is prominent in the education system, something she felt while studying an access course at Trinity College, she didn’t feel that trinity was a place where she had the opportunity to be successful,
