On 16-17 September, members of the Council of Europe Roma and Travellers team and several ADI-ROM experts will, including its chair Ian Hero, participate to the Conference on Irish Travellers / Mincéirs and the State, 1922-2022.
Hallvard Gorseth, Head of the Council’s Anti-Discrimination Department will speak alongside Irish Traveller activist Mags Casey at the opening ceremony of this two-day conference that will be taking place in Galway, Ireland.
This event is organised by the National University of Ireland Galway, in association with Irish Traveller activists and allies and the Irish Centre for the Histories of Labour and Class (NUI Galway) with the support of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media under Ireland Decades of Centenaries programme.
The multidisciplinary conference will examine Travellers’ experiences of exclusion, dating to the foundation of the Irish state in 1922, and will feature panel discussions, academic presentations, theatre pieces, stories and personal reminiscences, among other formats of expression. Amongst many cultural highlights, the conference programme features the play ‘Ireland Shed a Tear?’, a response to the Carrickmines fire tragedy.
The conference will be multi-disciplinary with contributions from speakers including Travellers, historians, psychologists, sociologists, cultural theorists, and artists.
The aim of the conference is to reflect on the treatment of Travellers since the inception of Irish State; to introduce multiple perspectives on the exclusion of Travellers in Irish society; and to facilitate innovative thinking about how to achieve equality and inclusion.
