The documentary ‘Patrick: A Young Traveller Lost’ has been nominated for a Royal Television Society Award.
The RTÉ documentary, Patrick A Young Traveller Lost, has been nominated for a prestigious Royal Television Society Award for Factual Single. The sensitive, ground-breaking documentary highlighted the issue of the alarmingly high suicide rates within the Traveller community through the harrowing story of 12-year-old Patrick McDonagh from Finglas who died by suicide last year.
Featuring Patrick’s parents, Pat and Michelle, alongside Bernie Power from Kilkenny, Thomas McCann and Senator Eileen Flynn, the film provided the Traveller community the opportunity to tell their own story in their own words.
Michéal Mac Donnachada from Navan who worked as an Assistant Producer on the film said: “As a young Traveller man growing up in Ireland today I was aware of the horrific statistics of mental health and the increase in suicides particularly among Traveller men, when the opportunity arose for me to be involved in the research and production of this documentary I didn’t hesitate as I knew of the importance of the story. Despite how difficult of a topic it is to hear and tell, it needed to be told and to be told by Travellers ourselves, Thankfully the production team had the foresight to recognise the value and importance of this. It’s a great honour to have been part of this powerful production team that worked really hard for our story to be told, particularly the bravery of the Travellers who despite their personal loss, were willing to share their stories with other Travellers and society in general that has led to the documentary being nominated for an award by the Royal Television Society. This nomination recognises that the story of the massive rise in suicides and other mental health issues among the Travelling Community is being told in a real and meaningful way and that will hopefully lead to positive change in our community.”
The film is available to watch now on the RTÉ Player.
