21/01/2026
Today marks a significant milestone for the Traveller community in Ireland, where 13 Travellers will graduate with Masters and Graduate diplomas at the University of Limerick. This represents the largest of group of Travellers to be conferred with Level 9 postgraduate qualification from any Irish university at any one time
To mark the occasion both Dr Sindy and Olive O'Reilly spoke to Morning Ireland about what it means for Irish Travellers.
Dr Joyce was the first Traveller to graduate with a PhD in Ireland in 2019, and is programme Director at UL for the MA in Sociology, (specialising in youth, community, and social regeneration). She spoke of how state education has shifted for Travellers: "Our education system [...] was once so harmful to the Traveller community, and it now has become a tool of resistance. [...] historically [...] the Irish education system [...] was more about changing our culture or leaving our identity behind us. But what today highlights for me is that our culture is not in conflict with the education system and the Traveller voices and knowledge belong in our university spaces".
Questioned whether today's graduation marks an exception within the Travelling community - where fewer than 5% of Travellers have a third level qualification - and if change is happening fast enough, Dr Joyce affirmed that change is coming from within the community. She sees a community that is showing mentorship and flexible learning in returning to university.
On specific changes required, Dr Joyce stated: "The supports need to be there to begin with. So, even if we look at our younger generation and we look at the children going to primary school and secondary school, still at the moment we don't have Traveller history, culture, or identity on the curriculum, which is a barrier for higher education in the future for our young Travellers.
So, there's lots of supports there that need to be done and particularly scholarships for full-time courses, both BA and postgraduate courses, for the community."
Olive O'Reilly, one of today's graduates and a worker with the Limerick Traveller Network, also spoke of transformations in the community: "It's a day that we can be very proud of. This has never happened before: not for any Traveller organisation and not in UL's history. So I suppose, coming from that, it's a great achievement for the Limerick Traveller Network. It shows you what can happen when Travellers come together and really get a chance of making changes".
Asked what she would say to Travellers thinking of going into education, or going back to education, Olive offered: "Life is changing for everybody, it's changing for the Travelling community as well, and the way forward is education. I think education will open up doors for Travellers".
Listen back to the interviews here: https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22576473/
Photo credit: RTÉ
