Traveller Collection Publication and Website

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11 November 2021 - 31 December 2021

Traveller Collection publication and website

To celebrate the launch of the publication, Traveller Collection at the Hugh Lane Gallery and to mark the launch of the website https://TravellerCollection.ie Dr Rosaleen McDonagh, Martin Collins and Séamus Nolan gave presentations of their experience of work being carried out between Traveller organisations and National institutes to collect preserve and interpret the material culture of Irish Travellers. The publication and website were formally launched by Deputy Lord Mayor Cllr. Joe Costello on 11 November 2021. The publication and website resulted from the project Traveller Collection  partnership between the Hugh Lane Gallery and its education department, CREATE the National Development Agency for Collaborative Arts as part of CAPP, the EU Collaborative Arts Partnership Programme in 2018. Artist Séamus Nolan worked with Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre to explore material and material processes within national and private collections related to Irish Travellers. Rosaleen McDonagh is a writer, academic, disability activist, and feminist from the Travelling community. Here 2021 play ‘Walls and Windows’ was the first play on the Abbey stage, the National Theatre by a Traveller writer and her 2021 biography ‘Unsettled’ is currently nominated for the An Post Best Irish Published Book of the Year award. Martin Collins is co-director of Pavee Point Traveller & Roma Centre and a Traveller rights activist for over 30 years. He was a strong advocate for state recognition of Traveller ethnicity which took place in 2017. Martin was also a Human Rights Commissioner between 2002 and 2007, and is currently a member of the Advisory Committee for the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.

The publicationTraveller Collection edited by Séamus Nolan is available from the Hugh Lane Gallery bookshop, €10.

The Traveller Collection website can be accessed here: https://TravellerCollection.ie

The launch was highlighted on RTÉ here: https://www.rte.ie/news/2021/1111/1259325-preserve-traveller-culture/