Athlone Community Radio, in partnership with the National Traveller Mental Health Network, is delighted to announce a series of six programmes that tells the stories about the lives of Travellers from their own experiences.
“I am actually quite excited by this, I can’t recall a situation like this where we have four Travellers talk to each other, and I am just delighted to be invited to be part of the conversation, and also to see it happening," Oein De Bhairduin, author and one of the panellists, said.
This six programme series 'Travellers Lives – Journey into Culture' will air on Athlone Community Radio from tomorrow, October 8, in conjunction with the second National Traveller Mental Health Day.
This is the first time that programs have been researched, recorded and presented by members of the Travelling community, and the aim of the project was to reach out to the Traveller Community and the settled community, to raise awareness of Traveller Culture and the issues faced by Travellers in Irish society.
The series of programmes includes panel discussions and interviews with well known members of the Traveller community, plus music, stories and song by well-known Traveller musicians, singers and song writers.
These six programmes will discuss homelessness, unemployment and discrimination both from a personal experience and the impact they have on the wider Traveller community, and will dispel many of the myths regarding the Traveller community, one being that 'Travellers are lazy and don’t want to work.'
Chris McDonagh, a Mediator with the Traveller Mediation Services and Bridget Kelly, a Community Development worker with the National Traveller Women’s Forum produce and present the programme supported by Deirdre Hunt of Athlone Community Radio, while Thomas McCann, Director of the Traveller Counselling Service and Margaret McDonagh, Community worker research the topics.
The first one hour programme will air on Friday, October 8 at 4pm on Athlone Community Radio 88.4fm, and will be repeated on Monday, October 11 at 5pm.
You can also listen online on athlonecommunityradio.ie and the tunein app. The following five programmes will air each Monday between 5 and 6pm.
