In this poetic monologue, Rosaleen McDonagh explores themes of racism, identity, disability and marginalization, channeling the literary activism of James Baldwin, and her own.

KIN is a diverse anthology of poetry and prose writings and artworks by roughly fifty women writers and artists from Romani, Traveller and Nomadic Communities with an editorial note by Raine Geoghegan and an introduction by Dr Rosaleen McDonagh.

Short film written & directed by Ethan Donoghue about three brothers who reunite for their fathers funeral after becoming estranged.

A young man who can't come to terms with a traumatic event from his past, he allows the guilt and shame of that event to wash over him as it crumbles every close relationship in his life. Directed By Ethan Donoghue and Written by Joshua Donoghue.

Comedian and writer Martin Warde’s debut play is a powerful and moving dark comedy that explores complex themes of family, tradition, and self- acceptance. Set in the house of the deceased, the play is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the importance of finding one’s voice and identity. The Play has been at Kilkenny Arts Festival August 2024. Also Galway Theatre Festival May 2024 And has been at the Dublin Theatre Festival.

Steo Wall's second album released in 2023, Street Wisdom of Lost Souls  features 10 songs including Glory Days for which Steo Wall was nominated for a RTE Radio One Folk Award.

Steo Wall's first album 11 debut songs was released in 2018.  It's a mix of spoken word and folk inspired melodies all woven to an acoustic groove and features other folk singers Damien Dempsey, Luka Bloom and Davy Spillane.

She's Not Mine By Rosaleen McDonagh

The story of a mother and the daughter she entrusted to an institution.  This is a play for radio that was broadcast on RTE Radio One. 

We share a history, we share a memory and they both share my heart. Written by ROSALEEN McDONAGH Directed by JIM CULLETON Set Design by NIAMH LUNNY Lighting Design by SARAH JANE SHIELS Sound Design by DENIS CLOHESSY Video Design by NEIL O’DRISCOLL Cast  - John Connors, Neili Conroy, Gráinne Hallahan, Donal Toolan

A play from Rosaleen McDonagh, this tender, complex and beautiful love story examines how external circumstances pull us apart, when all we really want is to be together. Also live streamed from the Abbey Theatre.

A conversation with Traveller women and oral historian James Furey.  Cork Public Museum has a full barrel top wagon along with photos and short films celebrating Traveller culture and heritage.

With the help of Martin Beanz Warde, Creative Ireland and Naoise Nunn from Minefield, Irish Travellers took to different stages at Electric Picnic.

“Threading Needles, Telling Stories” is an exhibition of 14 three-dimensional hand-sewn dolls made by the women of the Chatters and Matters Tullamore Traveller's Women's Shed.  The project was in collaboration with artist and doll maker Teresa Doyle.   The exhibition was held at Tullamore library in August 2024.

An intimate portrait of Winnie, a resilient and spirited young girl, and her family who are Irish Travellers, living on the side of the road in an industrialised area of Dublin. It follows Winnie through several weeks of her life, as she struggles with her identity as a young Traveller girl in contemporary Ireland.  At the 2005 IFTA Awards, Director Perry Ogden won Breakthrough Talent and Winnie Maughan was nominated for Best Actress in a Feature Film.  The film was also nominated and a winner at a variety of film festivals.

The exhibition consists of contemporary artists who share heritage within the Travelling community. What is important about this selection of artists however is the relevance and criticality of the work that they make. A criticality that is simultaneously rooted in personal experience, but also advocates for the sharing of diverse knowledge, experience and reflection.

An 11 song EP  by Willzee including the tracks Eclipse, Tell Me Tell Me, I See Feens produced by Welcome to the New World.

In ‘It's a cultural thing ... or is it?, Writer and actor Michael Collins brings the audience on a cross-generational journey, exploring Traveller culture from various perspectives.

Reading performed at the Traveller Ethnicity Celebration 2018

A song and video produced featuring Tony and Martin with Laois Traveller Action Group as part of the Music Generation Laois Summer School.  Lyrics and facilitation by Frank McCarthy.

Music, song and video performed by Junior, Sierra, Martin and Tony, Music Generation Laois Summer School of Rock and Pop 2023 in association with Laois Traveller Action Group. Lyrics and facilitation by Frank McCarthy

Traveller pride art quilt celebrating Traveller horse tradition on permanent display in CUH Main Foyer. A collaboration with Arts & Health Programme at Cork University Hospital.

During the summer months of 2023, a group of boys participated in the first ever Paint Punch Programme at St. Mary's Boys National School in Abbeyfeale, Co. Limerick

In a Traveller camp overlooking a neglected council estate, three brothers who went their separate ways are forced to reunite for their father’s funeral. The death of their father forces them to rekindle their relationships.

In partnership with The Model, Visual Artist Francesca Hutchinson is in residence for the period of two weeks where she will facilitate an art camp for teenagers in The Model’s Education Room.

Award-winning author Oein De Bhairduin illustrated a short story about self-acceptance and pride from a member of the Irish Traveller nomadic ethnic minority, drawn from the Irish Traveller oral storytelling tradition, DeBhairduin’s tale, The Slug & the Snail, is a gentle allegory about difference, self-acceptance and different ways of seeing the world.

The tormented protagonist, James, cradles a genuine desire to ignite the library.  The resilient librarian Helen stands sentinel over knowledge, freedom, and enlightenment. Her apprehension of James’ demand for book censorship becomes pivotal in this unfolding drama.

The Wandering Gaze presents a collection of images relative to Travelling people in the work of Jack Butler Yeats. Highlighting Yeats’ keen observations of diversity amongst nomadic groups within Irish society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the exhibition includes sketchbook drawings, illustrated prints, watercolour and oil paintings spanning the breath of his career

Artworks are included from the Niland Collection the National Gallery of Ireland, Limerick City Gallery of Art, The Hugh Lane Gallery, The Crawford Museum, IMMA, University of Galway, and private collections.

A one-day festival of tunes, chats and laughs in the walled gardens of Doneraile Estate which featured a conversation with Traveller activists Mags Casey, Martin Collins and AnneMarie Quilligan and also featured Traveller singers.

It is a documentary short that follows the Stronger Together Collective, a group of nine girls from the West Cork Traveller community as they explore their creative talents, passions and ambitions.

Devised and facilitated by Helen Monaghan, this project was rooted in creative sewing and explored the historical textiles of Lavinia Fontana’s renaissance world. Taking place in two education centres in Ballygar and Athenry, Co. Galway, The Pockets Project was a unique blend of art historical learning, practical and sustainable sewing techniques and community work. Participating groups, including women from both Traveller and settled communities, learned about the life and work of Lavinia Fontana, and gained new sewing skills while reviving the traditional techniques and customs of the Traveller heritage of beady pockets

The Bigger Picture is a photographic project undertaken by Offaly Traveller Movement Youth Project with photographer Eva Donlon. The focus was to develop a series of photographs to challenge stereotypes, and to showcase the pictures to the wider community.

Acting workshops with two live shows from May to August 2022 at the Carmeline Centre, Dublin

In collaboration with Director Sian Ni Mhuirí, Jules McDonagh and Maureen Hughes

Workshops with Live Shows on 29 and 30 September at the Studio Lexicon Dun Laoghaire

A short film about a young deaf Traveller boy and his family

A short documentary

Misleor Bursary Scheme is managed by Misleor and Ardan with GTM, Galway City of Film, The Dept of Culture, Galway City Council and Galway County Council

Celebration of Pecker Dunne's life with music

Two portraits one of John Connors and one of Chrissie Ward at the Darndale Belcamp Village Centre

One man theatre show by John Connors.

A group of young Cardboard Gangsters attempt to gain control of the drug trade in Darndale, chasing the glorified lifestyle of money, power and sex.  Written by John Connors and Mark O'Connor. Directed by Mark O'Connor.

Francesca Hutchinson facilitated a four-day art workshop for Traveller children living in Cashel. The children created ‘identity boxes’ which were showcased on Culture Night 2022 in our Thurles Campus. The video shows the children working on their identity boxes and speaking about what their identity means to them.

Culture Night 2022

A diva with a disability. Fluff, flare and attitude, the Baby Doll Project is a comical piece with a dark and pointed history.

Drawn from the Irish Traveller storytelling tradition this tale is a gentle allegory about identity, self-acceptance and different ways of seeing the world. Written by Oein DeBhairduin illustrated by Olya Anima.

Programme of music, film, theatre and visual art

This project was led by Vanessa Gildea, head of the National Film School and Mary McDonagh of Mary Mc Productions.  Sticks & Stones – is described as an inside view to an outsiders world. Directors Tammy McDonagh, Amy Murphy, Shóna O’Sullivan, Martin Mahon and Producers Tom McDonagh & Shane Fitzgerald share their experiences of discrimination and the power of language.  The films were screened at the Galway Film Fleadh. 

A series of workshops for young people aged 5 - 17 years to try different circus skills

Artist Martina Passman worked with a group of Traveller women alongside a group of women from the majority population to explore the beady pocket. The pockets were hand stitched and then put on public display at Tuam library from 9th Dec 2023 to 11 January 2024.

A collaboration between a group of Travellers from Ballyfermot, Finglas and Coolock, Mental Health Services - Exchange House Ireland & Turn 2 Me, film producer Pat Comer of Comer Productions and performance artist & acting coach Sian Ní Mhuirí of Super Paua.

This artistic film with a social purpose aims to raise awareness about suicide in the Traveller Community, end the stigma associated with suicide and promote mental health services equipped to help.

Book Project

“This important project is about exploring and sharing our connections through the medium of creativity, capturing these stories which will then be shared with generations in the future.”

‘Celebrating our Connections’, a series of workshops have taken place throughout the first half of 2023 in Scoil Íosa

An exhibition of stopping places, camps and halting sites used by Travellers in Sligo. The locations have been identified within historic documentation, newspaper archives and through gathering local knowledge and community history of the Travelling people in Sligo.

No Twixing or Crossing is the title of a new collection of beliefs and superstitions which was produced by artist and folklorist Michael Fortune as a result of conversations with a group of Traveller women from the Bunclody area of County Wexford in January and February 2023.

Collected and published by Michael Fortune http://folklore.ie/Books_Publications.html

Traveller Mental Health Copper art Workshops for young Traveller men and women in the area supported by Youth Mental Health Co-ordinator | HSE Mental Health Services Dublin North City & County | Email: irene.griffin1@hse.ie Mobile: 087-1880736 Ph: 01-7784166. Doreen Carpenter. Mental Health Service Coordinator for /with Travellers,

A Traveller cookbook with traditional cooking recipes, information on cures, reference to CANT with literacy aids developed by older Traveller women in conjunction with younger Traveller women

A community arts project created by Traveller women and girls over a 12-week journey which embeds the message of equality, inclusion and justice and consists of 6 pieces that focus on Traveller women's experiences using buttons, medals and brooches which is a reference to the Beady Pocket

Concert at Ballymun Axis including Caitlin Donovan - Caitlin Donovan Irish Traveller Caitlin Donovan was born in Manchester and raised in Carlow and Kilkenny. She was steeped in the rich singing tradition of the Traveller Community from a young age. She learned her craft from her great grandmother, Josie Delaney and from her grandmother Bridget Donovan. This cross-generational family of singers, honour great life events of their people – singing together at weddings, christenings and funerals.  

Music Artist, WILLZEE curated a live performance in Belltable as part of the November festival, TravFest. This featured an eclectic mix of artists from proud Traveller, folk-rapper Steo Wall and the ever growing popular performer, Sharyn Ward. WILLZEE also introduced some of the newer emerging voices from Limerick’s rap scene.

You Looking at Me is the work of Travellers from Ballyfermot, Finglas and Coolock, Mental Health Services - Exchange House Ireland & Turn 2 Me, film producer Pat Comer of Comer Productions and performance artist & acting coach Sian Ní Mhuirí of Super Paua.

John Boy is the work of Travellers from Ballyfermot, Finglas and Coolock, Mental Health Services - Exchange House Ireland & Turn 2 Me, film producer Pat Comer of Comer Productions and performance artist & acting coach Sian Ní Mhuirí of Super Paua.

Encompassing eight stories inspired by the eight festivals in the wheel of the year. Designed by artist and bookbinder Éilís Murphy in a tête-bêche format, this unique and tactile book is illustrated by Yingge Xu and written by Deidre Sullivan and Oein deBharduin.

collection of twenty tales rooted in the oral tradition of the Irish Traveller community illustrated by Leanne McDonagh

Made with with Cornish gypsy Viv Legg

A re-release of of cassette and book by the European Ethnic Oral Traditions (1983) and collected by Tom Munnelly.

Stories and songs from Johnny Cassidy and Kitty Cassidy Andy Cassidy recorded by Alen MacWeeney 1967 at Labre Park, Ballyfermot, Dubln

15 recordings from 1950s to 2005 - 20th anniversary of PP

A two-hander play, performed by Michael Collins and his 10-year-old son, Johnny. The pair use songs and poetry to tell the story of a family who fear eviction in the wake of the Carrickmines fire.

After his son’s death, Jim has become isolated from other family members and is misusing alcohol. The audience accompanies Jim on an emotional roller-coaster ride as he articulates loving memories of his son, his fears for the well-being of his other three children, the turmoil that has developed in his relationship with his wife, his anger at God, and his agonising questions about whether there was something he could have done to prevent his son’s death.

A collection of essays published by Skein Press

5 Gigs and open mic at Cobblestone Pub Smithfield 2gigs in Kerry

Gifted performers from the Travelling Community as they share the music, poetry, and stories that resonate within their cultural heritage.

From tinsmithing demonstrations and storytelling, to music and folklore, immerse yourself in Traveller culture.

Batik workshop by Clonroche Traveller Women's Group around the theme of biodiversity that ran as part of the Bealtaine Festiaval. 

Francesca recently hosted a special workshop for Offaly Traveller Movement, where 20 participants joined her to learn about and create their own Beady Pockets. The workshop was filmed by Red Shoe Productions, and forms part of TG4’s upcoming arts series Imeall.

A short film about the Beady Pocket. Traveller grandmother Kathleen Keenan shares her memories about a traditional Traveller women's craft with her granddaughter. A beady pocket was a traditional bag worn by Traveller women and decorated with beads and trinkets.

A five minute animated film.

This map is a celebration of a proud nomadic past and rich culture. It was developed by Mags O’Sullivan of Cork Traveller Women’s Network, after she interviewed older Travellers who lived on the campsites around the city. Also a 5 minute film.

A leaflet that highlights public art works cultural exhibits commemorative hawthorn tree

An experiential art installation creating new knowledge and understanding on suicide among Travellers.

‘Lived Lives’ features a series of artworks created by artist Dr Seamus McGuinness of Galway Mayo Institute of Technology in collaboration with Professor Kevin Malone of UCD Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health. The artist uses textile to invoke the sense of loss and pain caused by suicide in the Traveller community and leaves one with a haunting sense of absence.

13 Traveller women, aged from their early 20s to 60s and based in halting sites across the city, who took part in the museum’s outreach programme. Their medium was glass, and they learned to work with it over eight weeks with an artist.

Pavee Point’s Primary Health Care workers spent this week at the Abbey Theatre developing the inspiring story of their work through drama, story and song with facilitator Kathleen Warner Yeates.

10 weeks of tinsmithing classes for Traveller men at Collins Barracks.

A series of workshops on beady pocket with Traveller and settled women working together and facilitated by Roisin de Buitlear artist in residence at Collins Barracks, National Museum of Ireland.   

Night Shift, a new play written by Rosaleen McDonagh, was a very special occasion. It was a play written by, directed by, and acted by members of the Traveller community, which is rare.

As Visual Art Coordinator at the Learning Hub Limerick, Artist Melanie O’Rourke has developed a strong relationship with a group of Traveller teenage girls. For Inic, Melanie will work with Frank McCarthy and Limerick Printmakers in the Hub to develop a series of work based on ideas presented by these teenagers.

A halting site, on the grounds of the Parkway Shopping Centre, was home to several Traveller families in Limerick until the 1990s. Following development, families were moved to the Childers Road Halting Site from where many women access LTHP services. Artists Julianne Hennelly and Amy Bowdren will work with this group to recall memories from their time growing up in the Parkway with an exhibition to follow in a retail unit of the shopping centre.

To work with a group of 5 Traveller women and youth from Fermoy with the support of previous partners to write and publish a sequel to “Maggie May” for primary school children which will be included their schools cultural awareness work.

'No Fixed Abode' is a play written and performed by the Travellers of North Cork (TNC),  and which was peformed for Traveller Ethnicity Celebration 2024.  The play was developed with  18 Traveller women from Charleville. The actors will to respond to the ongoing requests for this play to be toured and to develop it into a more professional piece under the guidance of a Community Theatre Facilitator.

A rewriting of the classic in a Traveller setting.

The project  recreates life on the road through 6 day-camps, featuring interactive workshops on paper flower making, tin smithing, beady pocket making, and bread baking.

A curation project with 3 Travellers and an online exhibition

Organised with Adam Stoneman of the Spice Project

An evening of Traveller drama, poetry and music on 29th June

Collection of heritage stories with exhibition at Axis Ballymun with National Museum

This is a partnership between St Margaret’s Traveller Community Association, Men’s and Women’s Literacy and Leadership Groups and Axis Ballymun.

Comóradh was a visual art project which commemorated the lives of loved ones who have died too young or by suicide. The project gathered together artefacts that provided a glimpse into the lives of those who have passed on, loved ones will always be remembered. The completed project aimed to raise awareness, reduce stigma and promote community healing. Comóradh Worked with 15 Traveller women and was led by visual artist, Melanie O’Rourke. A selection of paintings from Comóradh were also included in the Travellers Together Preventing Suicide event at the O’Reilly Theatre Dublin on January 28th.

Part of Guth na Minceiri 2022

Martin Beanz Warde collaborated with nine participants from the Traveller Community from across Ireland to make a series of photographs that respond to themes of identity and wellbeing.

Traveller Wellbeing Through Creativity projects, an initiative developed by Creative Ireland, the Healthy Ireland Programme, the HSE, the National Social Inclusion Office and the Arts Council.