The magazine’s remit, how it looks and its target audience have changed since it was established.

“Previously it was a publication that was been solely there to dispel the myths that surround Travellers; this notion that Travellers aren’t employed, that Travellers don’t want an education. Although there are still issues in those areas, we are not a homogenous group in that regard,” said Michael who is based in Athlone.

“Right now the magazine is more of an aspirational tool for members of the Traveller community. We feature members of the community that are doing really well.

“It is used as an educational tool within institutions as well and knocking on the head the notion that Travellers don’t want an education, don’t want employment,” he said.

He thinks that it helps to show that many Travellers do have an interest in becoming educated, but he feels more schools should read it.

“A lot of people who use that magazine would be surprised that there are so many Travellers in third level education for example.

More primary schools should subscribe to Travellers’ Voice

“One of the things we have struggled with is trying to ensure that the magazine goes into all national schools. We find that within national schools there is sometimes a plateau on people’s expectations of the level of education that Travellers want.

“We find that maybe our young people aren’t doing as well in the education system, but in a lot of cases (while) there is a lot of goodwill towards individuals people think that Travellers don’t necessarily want a junior cert, so they don’t push them as much as they would their settled peers.”

On the issue of with getting national schools to access the magazine he says that schools that don’t have Traveller students often don’t want it.

“In a lot of cases they say they don’t have any Traveller students so there would be nobody benefiting from it. That’s losing sight of the fact that it’s not just for Traveller students but it’s to inform teachers as well what the community is about.”

Shining a light on taboo subjects

As editor he wants to put a focus on certain things that are too often ignored.

“We try and highlight issues within the community that Travellers don’t generally talk about themselves. We speak quite a bit about depression because it affects the community disproportionately, but people don’t talk about it.”

Travellers’ Voice also seeks to highlight the successes of its readership.

“Within the community, we are so long in existence that we are considered a trusted source. We have people that reach out to us and ask if we would highlight their stories. A lot of our front covers are individuals that come through the grapevine who are aspirational figures.”

Advertising and discrimination

Getting advertising from the private sector isn’t easy.

“A lot of businesses are reluctant to advertise within the magazine because it’s almost seen as opening the floodgates to members of the Traveller community. This is despite the fact that we know that members of the community utilise a lot of the businesses that we reach out to.”

The reluctance of businesses to be associated with it reflects an ongoing discrimination.

“A lot of people that go onto third level mightn’t go through education with their identity intact. In order to get employment after third level education you almost have to change your surname, or use the Irish version of it, to try and conceal your identity as a Traveller. There is still a lot of discrimination out there in terms of Traveller employment. It can be very demotivating when you see members of your family go through third level education and still end up on social welfare,” he said.

Depressingly, some people who feature in the magazine because of their achievements can find that the focus actually works against them.

“We have had people who featured in the magazine previously, and who had their interviews on our website, reach out to us and ask if we could take the interviews down from the website, because when employers google them, that’s what comes up.”
More positively, public sector entities see Travellers’ Voice as a useful means of reaching the community.

What else is in the magazine?

There are serious stories inside, but also a light side. For instance each issue contains recipes.

“We actually get great feedback on our recipes from people within the prison system. The magazine goes into all of the prisons in Ireland and in the UK because there is quite a high population of Travellers in the UK as well. We get correspondence from people currently in the prison system saying they tried a recipe; it’s very accessible to them.

“We want the contents of the magazine to be as accessible to members of the Traveller community as possible, we don’t use jargon, don’t use anything that would be out of reach to the average person,” he said.

To subscribe, which costs €30 for a year, visit: https://www.travellersvoice.ie/subscribe/

Michael’s route through voluntary work to becoming editor

“I am with Travellers’ Voice for the past 19 years. I’m the editor and I’m also the CEO of the overall organisation Involve,” says Michael Power.

“The magazine is our national platform, but we also run youth services on the ground. We have seven youth locations. We run the STATUS toolkit – STATUS stands for Supporting Travellers Accessing Universal Services. We run a Traveller culture and identity programme and manage the Traveller Pride Week budget on an annual basis.”

Michael started off volunteering with Travellers’ Voice, and has kept moving on within the organisation.

“I’m a member of the Traveller community and I was out of work 18 years ago. I put myself forward for a voluntary position that came up with the magazine, it was sales or subscriptions at the time. This is prior to the magazine obtaining Community Services Programme funding administered through Pobal. I have been in it with different hats on since then.

“I started off in a volunteer role within sales, I then became a reporter, I was really interested in writing, and I started writing articles featuring members of the Traveller community. My approach to features and to the Traveller community has always been strengths based, as opposed to what we don’t have.

“Then in 2015 the role of the magazine manager/editor came up and I applied for that. I’ve been in that role since as well as taking on the broader role in the organisation,” he said.

Michael in a voluntary capacity also sits on the board of directors of this publication, bringing unique expertise to the role.

Michael in a voluntary capacity also sits on the board of directors of this publication, bringing unique expertise to the role.

Travellers’ Voice is supported by the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht and Pobal through the Community Services Programme.