University of Limerick has celebrated a landmark moment by conferring postgraduate degrees on the largest group of Irish Travellers to graduate from an Irish university.
History was made at UL as 13 Irish Travellers/Mincéirí were conferred with postgraduate diplomas and master’s degrees at the college’s Winter Conferring Ceremonies. Two of the women are from Cork – Noreen Casey hails from Mallow and Crystal O’Reilly is originally from Charleville, both are now living in Limerick
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 University of Limerick.
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.
‘PROUD’ OCCASION
Just 4.7% of Travellers in Ireland have a third-level education in comparison to 47.7% of the general population, and just 2% 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.
Fourteen 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 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.
“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,” Dr Joyce said.
“This master’s 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,” she said.
Olive O’Reilly, co-founder of the Limerick Traveller Network who graduated with a Master’s in Sociology from UL, described today as a “landmark achievement that marks a first for the Limerick Traveller Network and a proud moment for the wider Traveller community in Limerick”.
