Introduction

After the foundation of the Free State in 1922, Ireland’s economy struggled until the 1990s, when a rapidly improving economy caused a dramatic change from the longtime trend of Irish emigration to the reverse—return immigration by Irish, immigration from other European Union (EU) countries, and immigration by people from countries outside the EU, including many seeking refuge or asylum.

The sudden changes accompanying this period of economic success, known as the Celtic Tiger included a major increase in diversity in the Irish population. The increase in immigration from the mid-1990s was dramatic, and though the numbers peaked while the economy was good, immigration has continued ever since. The population of the Republic of Ireland is now over five million, and Northern Ireland has a population of 1.89 million.

Relevant official sources for information on marginalized populations in Ireland include the following: The Government of Ireland website offers a search engine for government information. The Central Statistics Office (CSO) website offers reports on statistics relevant to all groups for the Republic of Ireland, and statistics for Northern Ireland may be found on the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) website.

Irish Travellers (Mincéirs)

Though the Traveller, or Mincéir, community is often discussed alongside Roma in the literature, it is officially recognized as a unique ethnic group , and has been part of the Irish population for centuries. While “Traveller” is the most common term used today, some community members prefer to use “Mincéir,” a term from their own language rather than one assigned by others. This term is used by sociologist Dr. Sindy Joyce and writer Oein de Bharduin.

Travellers are traditionally nomadic, both in lifestyle and in ways of thinking of their relationship to place and home. Their homes are often caravans, or small mobile homes, formerly horse-drawn but now vehicle-drawn. Travellers’ occupations have traditionally included trading in horses and donkeys and working as tinsmiths. The Census of 2022 reported almost 33,000 Travellers in Ireland, up from 6% in Census 2016 (Central Statistics Office 2023b). In 2017, the Irish Government declared Travellers to be an ethnic minority (Department of the Taoiseach 2017). More demographic information on Travellers in the Republic of Ireland may be found online, in Census 2022 Profile 5 — Diversity, Migration, Ethnicity, Irish Travellers & Religion.

Travellers’ music and folklore have been collected and published at various times, including by photographer Alen McWeeney and anthropologists such as George Gmelch and Sharon Gmelch. Contemporary writers among the Traveller community include Rosaleen McDonagh, a playwright and essayist, and Oein DeBharduin, whose Why the Moon Travels is a collection of stories from the folklore of the Mincéirí framed in introductory essays by the author. DeBharduin’s book and McDonagh’s Unsettled are both published by Skein Press.

With a current move to include the history and culture of Travellers in the school curriculum, we may anticipate increased resources on the subject.

What follows are sources on Traveller organizations and advocacy groups, historical and sociological work on Travellers, cultural works by Travellers, and sources on Traveller language.

Core Materials

Court, Artelia. 1985. Puck of the Droms: The Lives and Literature of the Irish Tinkers. Berkeley: University of California Press. Folktales and other oral literature and biography collected by Alen MacWeeney with the collaboration of Artelia Court. Photographs by Alen MacWeeney.

DeBharduin, Oein. 2020. Why the Moon Travels. Dublin: Skein Press.

Dunne, Pecker. 2004. Parley-Poet and Chanter: an Autobiography. With Mícheál Ó hAodha. Dublin: A. & A. Farmar. With sound disc: Parley-Poet and Chanter, Songs from the Repertoire of Pecker Dunne.

Joyce, Nan. 2000. My Life on the Road: An Autobiography. Edited by Anna Farmar. Dublin: A. & A. Farmar.

Maher, Sean. 1998. The Road to God Knows Where: A Memoir of a Travelling Boyhood. Dublin: Veritas. Originally published in 1972, the memoir describes Sean Maher’s memories of his childhood, from the 1930s on.

McDonagh, Rosaleen. 2018. Mainstream. London: Bloomsbury.

McDonagh, Rosaleen. 2021. Walls and Windows. London: Methuen/Drama.

McDonagh, Rosaleen. 2021. Unsettled. Ireland: Skein Press.

Community Resources

• National Traveller Women’s Forum Ireland.
• Pavee Point: Traveller and Roma Centre; various publications may be downloaded from the Pavee Point website.
• Traveller’s Voice: a magazine dedicated to contemporary Traveller life. The magazine is available by subscription via Involve.

Recommended Reading

Bhreatnach, Aoife. 2006. Becoming Conspicuous: Irish Travellers, Society and the State 1922- 70. Dublin: UCD Press.

Cauley, William. 2006. Canting with Cauley. A Glossary of Travellers’ Cant/Gammon. Transcribed and edited by Mícheál Ó hAodha. Dublin: A & A Farmar.

Dawson, Robert. 2011. An Irish Traveller Pavee Cant (Gammon/ Shelta) Dictionary. Alfreton (UK): Robert Dawson.

DeBhairduin, Oein, and John Walsh. 2021. “Mincéirí Tori: Conversations on Irish Traveller Language.” Moore Institute, University of Galway and Galway Traveller Movement. YouTube Video, 59:49. February 18, 2021. https://youtu.be/7-kXhy-O1dU?si=HVY1oa2NpC7268CV.

Gmelch, George, and Sharon Gmelch. 2014. Irish Travellers: The Unsettled Life. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Gmelch, Sharon. 1991. Nan: The Life of an Irish Travelling Woman. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press. Available in digital format from Alexander Street Press.

Hayes, Michael, and Thomas Acton, eds. 2006. Counter-Hegemony and the Postcolonial “Other.” Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press.

Ireland. 1995. Report of the Task Force on the Travelling Community, July 1995. Dublin: The Stationery Office.

Joyce, Sindy, Margaret Kennedy, and Amanda Haynes. 2017. “Travellers and Roma in Ireland: Understanding Hate Crime Data through the Lens of Structural Inequality.” In Critical Perspectives on Hate Crime: Contributions from the Island of Ireland, edited by Amanda Haynes, Jennifer Schweppe, and Seamus Taylor, 325-354. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

MacWeeney, Alen. 2011. Irish Travellers: Tinkers No More. Los Angeles: Andrew Ward Fine Art Photographs. See also Alen MacWeeney’s website.

Ó hAodha, Mícheál. 2006. Parley with Me: A Compendium of Fairground Speech. Dublin: A & A. Farmar. A book on the language of the Fairground Travellers, or Carnival People/ Showpeople.

Ó hAodha, Mícheál. 2011. “Insubordinate Irish”: Travellers in the Text. Manchester: Manchester University Press. This book is also available on many eBook platforms.

Ó hAodha, Mícheál. n.d. Irish Studies. Accessed June 6 2023. http://michealohaodha.com/. Mícheál Ó hAodha is a prolific writer on Travellers and other marginalized groups.

Travellers Cultural Heritage Centre. 1995. A Heritage Ahead: Cultural Action and Travellers. Dublin: Pavee Point Publications, 1995. Available to download from the Pavee Point website.

Irish and Black

Over the past 30 years, immigration has brought a dramatic change in the make-up of the Irish population, with people who are black or multiracial now a visible part of that population. In Ireland’s 2022 Census, over 76,000 people are listed as “Black or Black Irish” (Central Statistics Office 2023a).

The “Black and Irish” Instagram page (@black_andirish) reveals a diverse community, with members whose parents were born in Africa, or whose parents or grandparents immigrated from Europe, America, or elsewhere.

The 2018 report Ethnicity and Nationality in the Irish Labour Market presents unsurprising evidence that people who identify as Black or Black Irish experience the highest rates of discrimination in the Irish labor market (McGinnity, x-xi). The background reading below gives more context to this racism, and lists some of the literary works and memoirs that bear witness to their experiences.

Primary Materials

Akinjobi, Olutoyin Pamela. 2006. Herstory: Migration Stories of African Women in Ireland. Dublin: AkiDwA.

Boran, Pat and Chiamaka Eny-Amadi, eds. 2019. Writing Home: The “New Irish” Poets. Dublin: Dedalus Press.

Chiamaka Enyi-Amadi. 2020. “Dishonouring the Dead.” In Art of the Glimpse: 100 Irish Short Stories, edited by Sinéad Gleeson, 312-318. London: Head of Zeus.

Dabiri, Emma. 2020. Twisted: The Tangled History of Black Hair Culture. NY: Harper Perennial. (Originally published as Don’t Touch My Hair, London: Allen Lane, 2019)

Kasa, Nithi. Palm Wine Tapper and The Boy at Jericho. Inverin: Doire Press, 2022.

Okorie, Melatu Uche. 2018. The Hostel Life. Dublin: Skein Press.

Okorie, Melatu Uche. 2020. ‘The Initiation.’ In Voices: An Open Door Book of Stories, edited by Patricia Scanlan. 186-191. Dublin: New Island.

Okorie, Melatu Uche. 2021 “Under the Awning.” In The Art of the Glimpse: 100 Irish Short Stories, edited by Sinéad Gleeson. London: Head of Zeus.

Community Resources

• AkiDwA (Akina Dada wa Africa): an organization founded by Salome Mbugua, working with African women and migrant women in Ireland on various issues that affect their lives. Reports and other publications may be found on their website.
• Black and Irish: initially an Instagram account, this has gathered a large collection of personal stories of black people in Ireland. The website has links to the Black & Irish Podcast and the group’s social media sites.
• INAR (Irish Network Against Racism).
• Migrant and Minority Ethnic Thinktank (formerly the MME Council): a Northern Ireland advocacy and community think tank that seeks responses and solutions to key societal issues.

Recommended Reading

Joseph, Ebun. 2020. Critical Race Theory and Inequality in the Labour Market: Racial Stratification in Ireland. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.

Fanning, Bryan. 2012. Racism and Societal Change in the Republic of Ireland. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.

Gilligan, Chris. 2017. Northern Ireland and the Crisis of Anti-Racism: Rethinking Racism and Sectarianism. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.

Ulin, Julieann, Heather Edwards and Sean O’Brien, eds. 2013. Race and Immigration in the New Ireland. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.

References

Central Statistics Office. 2023a. Census of Population 2022 — Summary Results: Migration and Diversity. May 30, 2023. https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-cpsr/censusofpopulation2022-summaryresults/migrationanddiversity/.

Central Statistics Office. 2023b. Census 2022 Profile 5 — Diversity, Migration, Ethnicity, Irish Travellers & Religion. October 26, 2023. https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-cpp5/census2022profile5-diversitymigrationethnicityirishtravellersreligion/keyfindings/.

Department of the Taoiseach [Prime Minister]. 2017. “Statement by An Taoiseach Enda kenny TD on the Recognition of Travellers as an Ethnic Group, Dáil Éireann.” https://www.gov.ie/en/speech/d29014-statement-by-an-taoiseach-enda-kenny-td-on-the-recognition-of-travel/.

Ireland: Houses of the Oireachtas. Traveller Culture and History in Education Bill 2018 (Bill 71 or 2018). https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/bills/bill/2018/71/

McGinnity, Frances, Raffaele Grotti, Sarah Groarke, and Sarah Coughlan. 2018. Ethnicity and Nationality in the Irish Labour Market. Dublin: Irish Human Rights and Equality. https://www.esri.ie/publications/ethnicity-and-nationality-in-the-irish-labour-market.