By John Madden. It’s that day of the year again, the Annual Budget. It’s not a ‘Giveaway’ Budget so it’s doubtful there will be too many huge expectations once it is all announced over the course of the next day or so. Here are some of the main announcements of Todays’ Budget Address: Cigarettes…
By John Madden In recent days, we were made aware of three great opportunities for any Travellers who might be interested in turning their hand to radio. Two community led organisations, Athlone Community Radio (Westmeath), Wired FM (Limerick) and Radio Corca Baiscin (Kilkee, Co. Clare) are looking for interested people to be trained in…
By John Madden Meningitis affects, on average, 200 people in Ireland each year and can lead to further complications, which are, sadly, in some cases…death. In recent years an increased risk of meningitis among Irish Travellers was identified by the Department of Public Health, so knowing the symptoms is vital as early recognition and treatment…
By Dr David Murphy. Following the announcement of the Irish State’s recognition of Traveller ethnicity in March, several other groups were in touch with Travellers’ Voice magazine to offer their congratulations to Irish Travellers. One of the groups was the European Yenish Union; Yenish activists also went through a similar experience of lobbying…
by John Madden & Lorraine O’Connor The words, ‘Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire,’ have been attributed to William Butler Yeats; and with that in mind, we remember it’s that time of the year again when we wonder what we will do next year. Well readers,…
By John Madden & David Jo Murphy By now, we have all heard of the horrors of the Tuam case where, when the news first broke we were told of “significant quantities” of human remains being discovered at the site of a former mother and baby home in Tuam, County Galway. This unsettling news…
The Road Behind and the Road Ahead Following Ethnicity Recognition By Dr David Jo Murphy “May all the people of our nation live in the shelter and never in the shadow of each other” (Enda Kenny Dáil Eireann 1/3/2017). Now that the proud day has passed and the last three decades of campaigning…
By Noelle Mann Images Colm Keating Traveller Culture was well represented this September for Dublin’s Culture Night. Despite a bus strike making it more difficult for people to attend the free events around the city, the back room of the Cobblestone in Dublin’s Smithfield was packed to the rafters once again for the sixth Celebration…
Finbar Furey Album Review – by Paddy Slattery As a lifelong fan of Finbar’s music, you would think that writing a review of his latest album ‘Paddy Dear’ would have come very easy. You would expect the compliments to gush freely from my fingertips to my keyboard, and in truth, there is an urge to…
Eurovision: Telling Another Story By David Jo Murphy. Each year in Ireland we get our hopes up, thinking this will be our year again; we’ve won it more times than any other country, surely this year will be a triumphant return to form. Then, as has become routinely usual, we crash and burn out…