Kildare Traveller group release short story collection

The KILDARE Traveller Action (KTA) group recently held a book launch event for the short story collection Her Story which involves accounts and memories from Traveller women on a varied list of themes.

The launch was held in the Riverbank Arts Centre in Newbridge and saw story authors and the community come together to celebrate in the creation of a fantastic body of work that honours Traveller culture and documents the personal life experiences and anecdotes of a select few women from the community. 

A Traveller cultural information pack was also available for children and school teachers on the night for dissemination in Kildare classrooms.

Speakers at the event were Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board's Brenda Lynch and Deirdre Gallagher from the collaboration and innovation fund. Also speaking on the night were story authors Ann-Marie Ward, Ann O’Donnell and Donna O’Donnell who read out their pieces on the night.

KTA's Petra Daly explained that the stories encountered themes of faith, nomadic living, reconnection, and pride.

She said: “They were all very powerful. We were really lucky that we had so many people participate. 

“For us, this is extremely positive and we’re very proud of it. Most of what people see about Travellers in the papers is negative, but this was something to celebrate.” 

Petra said the group hope to continue doing projects like these and shared that they are currently looking to develop a play in the future.

While increasing education on Traveller culture is extremely important, the KTA believe that there also needs to be action on racism towards the Traveller community in Ireland.

“I do think we have to challenge this racist attitude that exists in Ireland towards the Traveller community. It’s appalling. It's not acceptable and it's not okay – almost at a point where a state apology is needed for how Travellers are being treated in this country,” concluded Ms Daly.