Looking back, Hannagh McGinley says, it all began to go wrong when she moved to secondary school.
“I just found it a very unsupportive environment,” recalls McGinley, a member of the Traveller community. At primary school in Donegal, she says, there was discrete support from “wonderful” teaching nuns. That all changed when she moved to post-primary in Galway.
“Going from primary, where you were minded, supported and known by the teachers, to post-primary where you saw teachers for 40 minutes. It was a hard adjustment. No one knew I needed that level of support. So, you’d feel embarrassed for not having the uniform or books.”
McGinley recalls begging her mother not to send her back in second year, warning that she would get expelled if she needed to.
Soon she was skipping school and spending her days hanging out in the city. When she punched a classmate following verbal taunts about her family members, McGinley was suspended. When she refused to apologise, on the basis that she felt she wasn’t entirely to blame, she was expelled.
“Looking back, there was no fair process. I didn’t know how to challenge it. I just remember a letter saying, ‘you’re not welcome back’. Youth workers advocated for me to go to another school, but they wouldn’t let me in,” she says.
Expelled from school and working in a takeaway, she was just 14 years old. There was no obvious route back into education.
At 17, she tried again to get back to school through a combination of cold-calling and letter-writing. She eventually found a principal who, himself, had left education at a young age but returned as a mature student.
“I could see myself in him ... he understood children like me at a deep level. He didn’t focus on the small things, like uniforms, but he created a safe sense of belonging in the school,” she says.
This time, McGinley flourished. By her own admission, she figured out how to behave and not get into trouble. The school also had more students from a Traveller background.
She hadn’t fallen that far behind academically due to her love of reading. She also forged a positive relationship with her English teacher who introduced her to the idea of philosophy. She went on to study English and philosophy at third level.
The experience sparked her interest in teaching. After completing the Leaving Cert and training to be a teacher, she spent several years working in community development.
In more recent years she undertook a doctorate at University of Galway where she explored intercultural education and, with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, helped develop the first ever section of the school curriculum to focus on Traveller culture and history.
Although outcomes for Traveller students have improved since her time in school more than 20 years ago, they haven’t shifted drastically, McGinley says.
“There are more Travellers in college. There are five or six Traveller teachers. Access programmes are helping, and bringing children to campus who might not otherwise be there, but we need far more research and support,” she says. “Traveller children still face exclusion and reduced timetables.”
Additional targeted funding is important, she says, while research is also needed to evaluate good practice so it can be embedded elsewhere. She also feels more research is needed into expulsions and suspensions.
“I know some principals who would never expel a child; it’s against their philosophy and beliefs. Whereas others might expel too soon if they don’t understand what’s going on, especially if there are adverse childhood experiences or trauma. Is it ever fair for adults to turn their back on children? Should you ever give up on children?”`
Today, McGinley is just the third Traveller to be awarded a PhD in the history of the State. As associate professor in education at Mary Immaculate College in Thurles, Co Tipperary, she hopes her story will inspire young Travellers to succeed and make more teachers aware of the supports that vulnerable students need.
“I’m a third-level educator training the next generation of teachers. For me, it’s like getting a golden ticket and I’m proof that, yes, with the right supports, you can be,” she says.
