“There was something about our family ... they didn’t like injustice done to them,” says Chrissy Donoghue Ward.
The Traveller activist says she cannot read, but her storytelling ability shines through in a new children’s book, The Fairy Queen. She was recorded telling the story, which was transcribed and adapted to fit a picture-book illustrated by Monika Mitkute. Donoghue Ward says she hopes the book will help break down enduring prejudice against Travellers.
Donoghue Ward’s late sister, Nan Joyce, became the first member of the Traveller community to stand for election in the history of the State in 1982, running as a candidate in the November general election in the Dublin South-West constituency and polling 581 votes. She cofounded the Committee for the Rights of Travellers the same year. Joyce died in 2018, aged 78. Together the sisters were trailblazers for Travellers’ rights, campaigning for equality for decades.
“The whole family were all involved in human rights. My brother Peter; sister Nan, that went for election. I had an uncle Pat in the ‘60s and he campaigned over in Cherry Orchard and got the first site there. He fought for their rights over there.
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“They kind of went too far, the Corporation [now Dublin City Council], the police and whatever else, the county councils, they went too far with the Travellers. They really gave them the stick in the past. They gave Travellers a very rough time.”
Reflecting on the impact that intergenerational trauma has had on Traveller families, Donoghue Ward expresses her concern over the mental health crisis affecting the community today.
“Sometimes you think, maybe that’s the anger coming out. Maybe that’s still in the brain, thinking that they were no good and that they shouldn’t be in this world.
“There’s big problems with mental health that never was there before. I’d never heard of suicide years ago,” she says. Mental ill-health disproportionately affects members of the Traveller community; suicide is six times higher among Travellers than in the general population, and accounts for 11 per cent of deaths.
Children don’t understand if there’s no one to tell them. Some of them, they think that everything is wrong about a Traveller
Pointing to high levels of unemployment as a key factor in this mental health crisis, Donoghue Ward expresses her concern that prejudice continues to be directed at job-seeking Travellers. “There’s not many people would trust Travellers in a job,” she says. The community has an unemployment rate of 61 per cent, as revealed in the 2022 census.
Donoghue Ward says that, from a young age, shame is instilled in Travellers by elements of Irish society..
“There’s no jobs for the young fellas. Their older way of life is gone ... They think that they can’t cope with life. Life has got so modern now.
“Travelling young fellas are always caught in the middle, they’re neither settling nor travelling,” she says.
This lack of a sense of belonging, especially among Traveller children, often stems from the exclusion and discrimination they face in school, she says. According to a report on the community’s experience of the education system in Ireland, Traveller children do not feel included, wanted or safe when in school – especially at second level. The Government-commissioned report, Out of the Shadows, was conducted on behalf of the Department of Education as part of the National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy (NTRIS) 2017-2021.
“I found that some teachers in the past felt that it wasn’t important to give Travellers education,” Donoghue Ward reflects, highlighting historical patterns of segregation in classrooms. Findings of a University College Cork (UCC) report on the North Cork region published in 2023 found that such segregation still exists in some schools today, creating further barriers to education.
A passionate advocate for children’s rights and the promotion of equal access to education, Donoghue Ward talks of the importance of how young Travellers see themselves being represented.
“Travelling children all their life are reading about the settled way of life. Me shower, me bath, me this, me that, me house, me room and all those things. But the Traveller children didn’t have that at the time. There’d be a whole gang of them in together.”
“Children don’t understand if there’s no one to tell them. Some of them, they think that everything is wrong about a Traveller ... There’s a lot of good, kind people there. In the past, like what’s in that book [The Fairy Queen], it was like they were welcome everywhere.”
Like many parents, Donoghue Ward told her children bedtime stories. “What I used to do with the children – in the dark winters’ nights I’d get into bed with them. And maybe the generator would go out and you’d only have a candle light and you’d be watching the candle ... I’d tell them stories in the bed.”
Asked where she gets the ideas for her stories from, Donoghue Ward says: “I think it’s kind of the hardship in life people had ... it’s a different way of putting through how they suffered really. There’s always good at the end, no matter what you go through, it can’t last forever.
“It makes the children feel much better then, if they did have a hard old life ... Every child knew discrimination, even in schools. They knew it everywhere, every person went through discrimination.”
Through her storytelling, Donoghue Ward has produced a tale with an underlying powerful message about the discrimination faced by the Traveller community through history, conveyed in a way that is understandable for young children.
“All of them [characters] in the stories is replaced in a different way, about events that did happen. You could call the soldiers there the police years ago. You could call them the cruelty man. You could call them the authorities. You could think of them as the fellas with the bulldozers, bulldozing in on top of you. You could relate it to the little children ... twist it around for the children because you don’t want to upset them or hurt them.”
Speaking of historical criminalisation of Travellers, she said this promoted a culture of fear in older generations.
“If people [Travellers] did nothing years ago ... they were terrified to pull a stick out of the ditch. They were terrified to have the fire lit. They’d be afraid that the police would come on and summon them for lighting the fire and they’d go to jail ... They’d be terrorised.”
Donoghue Ward says while working on the book, she often reflected on the growing number of homeless children in Ireland today: “There is a lot of children suffering, a lot of children on the streets. It could be related to them little children. Children in hotels then for years. Poor people homeless lying under cover on a winter’s night.”
Over many years, Donoghue Ward has dedicated herself to preserving the oral traditions and broader Traveller heritage. She gives a tour of her caravans located together in north Dublin, some of which date back to the 1960s, filled with a rich archive of memorabilia and photo albums brimming with family history. Their plush red interiors symbolise good luck, she says.
Showing some of her beautifully bejewelled handmade bags, Donoghue Ward says she comes from a lineage of craftspeople. “They were good with their hands.”
“My father used to make jewellery. If he was stuck for a few bob he’d play the accordion or the tin whistle at the dog racing and places like that. He was very good with the music.” An accordion gleams from among the treasures. “He’d make the wagons. He’d make water cans, he’d make pots, kettles, baskets,” she adds.
Her mother, a skilled seamstress and “brilliant cook”, had “all types of cures” on hand, Donoghue Ward fondly remembers.
Donoghue Ward is one of a group of Traveller elders participating in an ongoing audiovisual project focusing on the lived experiences of the Mincéirí, also known as Irish Travellers, through a compilation of oral histories and narratives. As life expectancy is much lower than for the general population – only one in 100 Travellers is over 65 years of age – the efforts to document the lives of the elders is something of a race against time.
Published as part of an initiative to preserve and promote the heritage of the Traveller community, the Mincéirí Archives aim to provide an education tool for primary schools, ensuring that future generations of Irish children have the opportunity to grow up with a greater understanding and respect for the community.
The Fairy Queen by Chrissy Donoghue Ward and illustrated by Monika Mitkute is copublished by Little Island Books and Skein Press
