THE NATIONAL TRAVELLER Mental Health Network held a protest outside Leinster House this afternoon calling on the Government to take action to address the mental health difficulties and living conditions in the Traveller community.
The group is calling for a national Traveller mental health strategy to be implemented to address what they say is a “crisis” in the community.
Successive governments have failed to address the “dire conditions that Travellers live in” for the last five decades, the group said.
It said that while research reports, recommendations and promises have gone unimplemented, the indigenous ethnic minority group are “condemned to live in deplorable conditions” due to institutionalised racism and a lack of political will.
According to the most recent Behaviour and attitudes study, 82% of Travellers have been affected by suicide. In some areas, this rose to 90%.
“We are being failed by a Government that has no interest in supporting us when it comes to Traveller mental health.”
— Jane Moore (@janemoore__) December 5, 2023
Senator Eileen Flynn told those gathered that every single Traveller at the protest knows someone who has been impacted by suicide. pic.twitter.com/TOVrZgCD3B
Some 44% of those affected were in their immediate family or their wider family, the study found.
Among those at the protest today were Michelle and Pat McDonagh, the parents of 12-year-old Patrick McDonagh from Finglas in Dublin, who took his own life last year after he was bullied.
A documentary about Patrick, which told his story and detailed the wider struggles that the Traveller community faces, aired on RTÉ One last week.
Several TDs, including People Before Profit’s Richard Boyd Barrett and Bríd Smith, and Independent Thomas Pringle, also attended the protest.
Mags Casey, the chair of the National Traveller Mental Health Network, told the protest that the Traveller community has been calling for political change for a long time to no avail.
“Our community is actually on its knees at the moment. There’s people crying out for help and support,” she said.
Casey said the community is owed an apology for how it has been treated in Irish society.
She thanked Mental Health Minister Mary Butler for being present at the protest.
“We no longer want to be ignored. We will not accept it and we want change for our children. We want our children to live. We no longer want to carry the coffins and bring the children to the grave,” she said.
“Enough is enough. We have had enough as a people.”
The Programme for Government committed to publishing a Traveller and Roma mental health action plan.
In 2020, the final report of the Joint Committee on Key Issues Affecting the Traveller Community recommended that a National Traveller Mental Health Strategy should be implemented, with a ring-fenced budget.
This recommendation is also contained in the first National Traveller Health Action Plan (NTHAP) 2022-2027, which was published last year.
Speaking at the protest, Senator Eileen Flynn said that none of the recommendations made by the Oireachtas Committee has been implemented.
“We are being failed by a Government that has no interest in supporting us when it comes to Traveller mental health,” she said.
“Every single day, I’m waiting for a phone call to say a member of my family has passed away by suicide. Every single Traveller here knows somebody who has been impacted by suicide.
Addressing Minister Butler, she said: “We should not be standing here today in 2023, Minister, and begging for basic human rights.”
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