Today, six Travellers, including the first traveller to get a PhD from the institution, graduated from Maynooth institution, reports RTE.
At a ceremony held this afternoon at Maynooth University (MU), Thomas McCann was awarded a doctorate.
Additionally, five undergraduates were awarded degrees in community and youth work and social science for their bachelor’s degree.
As the director of the traveller Counselling Service, Dr. McCann has long been a champion for travellers.
His doctoral research centred on initiatives to assist the traveller community and its fight for human rights in Ireland.
At the end of a long and difficult voyage, he expressed pleasure and happiness, reports RTE.
Thomas McCann, who dropped out of school at age eleven, went back a few years later as part of his advocacy for better rights for Travellers.
He was accepted to MU as the first Traveller and started his degree program in 1985.
He became the first traveller to be awarded a doctorate by the institution today, over forty years later. He believes that this accomplishment would encourage others in his community to pursue a PhD, calling it a “doable” goal, reports RTE.
There are many gifted Travellers, and Dr. McCann thinks that with the right help, they may graduate with him.
Today, Brigid Nevin from Swords, in the north of Dublin, also graduated from Maynooth University.
Her family was quite proud of her graduation, according to the organisation Trav: Act’s Primary Health Care Coordinator.
I’m ecstatic beyond belief. Four gruelling, arduous years passed. The large number of Traveler ladies graduating today is very wonderful to witness,” reports RTE.
Being the first person in her immediate family to attend a university, Brigid claimed she couldn’t have succeeded without their help.
“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,” reports RTE.
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