'Landmark moment‘ University of Limerick confers largest cohort of Irish Travellers with degrees
Kenneth Fox
The University of Limerick celebrated a landmark moment by conferring postgraduate degrees on the largest group of Irish Travellers to graduate from an Irish university.
History has been made at UL on Tuesday as 13 Irish Travellers/Mincéirí were conferred with postgraduate diplomas and master’s degrees at UL’s Winter Conferring Ceremonies.
It is the largest cohort of Irish Travellers/Mincéirí to graduate with level 9 postgraduate qualifications from any Irish university at any one time, making this a significant milestone for the Irish Traveller community in Ireland and the University.
Of the 13 Travellers to graduate with a Master’s or Graduate Diploma in Sociology (Youth, Community and Social Regeneration), 11 are Traveller women connected with the Limerick Traveller Network.
Just 4.7 per cent of Travellers in Ireland have a third-level education in comparison to 47.7 per cent of the general population, and just 2 per cent of Travellers have obtained degrees, signifying the alarmingly low level of participation by Travellers in higher education in Ireland.
The UL Mincéir/Traveller Programme was created in 2023 to ensure the educational aspirations of Mincéir/Travellers were supported.
Based on the principle of co-creation, the programme supports are designed and developed based on the needs identified by the Traveller community.
In 2024, a collaboration was established between UL and the Limerick Traveller Network (LTN), a community-led network of Traveller representatives from across Limerick.
14 women from eight Traveller sites and two standard housing areas in Limerick have been central to the work of the LTN with education identified early on as a key priority by LTN founders, Olive O’Reilly and Margaret O’Brien, both of whom graduated from UL along with 10 others from the Limerick Traveller Network.
Margaret O’Brien was conferred with a BA in Psychology, while Olive O’Reilly is one of 11 Traveller women connected with the LTN to graduate from UL’s MA in Sociology (Youth, Community and Social Regeneration).
Dr Sindy Joyce, a Human Rights Defender (HRD) is the course director of the MA in Sociology (Youth, Community and Social Regeneration) at UL and was the first Irish Traveller to graduate with a PhD in Ireland when she was conferred with her doctorate from UL in 2019, the same year that Olive O’Reilly and Margaret O’Brien established the Limerick Traveller Network.
Dr Joyce said: “As a Traveller, an academic and Course Director of UL’s MA in Sociology (Youth, Community and Social Regeneration), I am immensely proud of all my students graduating today.
“This master’s program has existed in UL for 15 years and has successfully trained students to work in a wide variety of settings in the youth and community sectors. With a strong international element, the MA attracts students from all over the world, including recent graduates as well as those already working in the NGO sector.
“I am particularly proud to have 13 of the students graduating from this year’s cohort coming from my own community, which shows me how our education system, once harmful to Travellers, can now be a tool of resistance.
“Historically, for Travellers, the Irish education system was about changing our culture and leaving our identity behind but today highlights that our culture is not in conflict with our education system. Traveller voices and knowledge belong in our university spaces, and our epistemologies bring important methods and frameworks to research.
“Each Traveller graduating today makes it a little bit easier for our younger generation to engage with a system that was once so harmful to our community.
“I feel such pride today to celebrate this important milestone for our Traveller students who have shown courage, endurance and determination throughout their time here in UL.”
Margaret O’Brien, co-founder of the Limerick Traveller Network, who graduated with a BA in Psychology from UL, spoke of the significance of this momentous occasion for the Traveller community in Limerick.
She said: “The Limerick Traveller Network doesn’t just open doors, we walk through them together and leave them wide open behind us.
“Today, the LTN celebrates 12 of our members graduating at UL, the home of firsts that awarded the first PhD to a Traveller. Now the first university in Ireland to award 13 Travellers with postgraduate qualifications, 11 of whom are members of the LTN.
“This is not just a milestone for the LTN and UL, but one that raises the bar for Travellers nationwide, with 7 more Travellers from the Limerick Traveller Network now studying at postgraduate level in UL following in the footsteps of our members graduating."
