Six members of the Traveller community graduated from Maynooth University today, among them the first Traveller to receive a PhD from the university.
Thomas McCann was conferred with the doctorate at a ceremony at Maynooth University (MU) this afternoon.
Five undergraduate students also received their Bachelor of Social Science, Community and Youth Work degrees.
Dr McCann is a long-time Traveller advocate and Director of the Traveller Counselling Service.
His PhD focused on work undertaken to support the Traveller community, and its struggle for human rights in Ireland.
He expressed delight and relief at the culmination of what was a long and challenging journey.
Having left school at the age of 11, Thomas McCann returned to education a number of years later as part of his activism for improved Traveller rights.
In 1985, he became the first Traveller to be admitted to MU when he began his degree.
Almost four decades later, today he became the first Traveller to receive a doctorate from the university, an achievement he hopes will show others in his community that getting a PhD is "doable".
There are many talented Travellers and, with supports, Dr McCann believes that they could be graduating alongside him.
Brigid Nevin from Swords in north Dublin also received a degree from Maynooth University today.
The Primary Health Care Co-ordinator for the organisation Trav: Act said that her graduation was a huge source of pride for her family
"I'm absolutely over the moon. It was a long hard four years. It’s actually great to see so many Traveller women here today graduating."
Brigid was the first of her immediate family to go to third level education, and said she wouldn’t have been able to do it without their support.
"I left primary school at about 10 years old and never went to secondary school until I was an adult."
"My grandchildren are looking at me now and thinking, 'Nannie is going to school, Nannie is going to college.’ It means an awful lot."
Geraldine McDonnell from Finglas in north Dublin also celebrated her graduation today. The Community Development Mental Health Worker with Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre said that she felt brilliant having overcome the challenges she faced studying through the Covid-19 pandemic, while minding her baby.
"Trying to do the college - and the baby - and the work was tough, but with the support it was great, it was a great opportunity."
Geraldine is expecting her second child and says her degree will inform her work.
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Exclusion and racism
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Dr McCann flagged a number of challenges facing Travellers who want to pursue higher education.
These include educational disadvantage from a very young age, along with exclusion and racism.
"There was very little expectation in the education system for Travellers that they would go on, and particularly for my generation."
"On the ground things haven't changed greatly," he noted.
Poverty also has an impact, often fueled by high unemployment levels among Travellers, which makes it very difficult to fund a college education.
However, Dr McCann noted that many Travellers have gone to college as mature students on a part-time basis.
Dr McCann said the purpose of his research was to tell the story of the struggles for Travellers' human rights, but that it was also a personal journey.
"Travellers face systemic and structural racism, and indeed individual racism," he said, pointing to these prejudices being underpinned by ideology.
"And what I mean by that is, that there's a belief that settled culture is superior and sees Traveller culture as inferior."
