Thomas Connors (13), who lost five members of his family including his parents in a fire in their Co Dublin halting site in 2015, was among a group of over 30 Traveller children who called to see President Michael D Higgins at Áras an Uachtaráin on Thursday.
The children, from south Co Dublin and north Co Wicklow, were on a Christmas outing organised by the Southside Travellers Action Group. Before going to see the Wild Lights event at nearby Dublin Zoo they and their families presented a model traditional Traveller wagon to President Higgins.
Johnny Connors (13) told the President: “This is a gift for your home, a Christmas present. It’s part of the Traveller culture.”
Afterwards Johnny explained to The Irish Times that it had been made by young Travellers who attend a woodwork workshop at Hazel House in Tibradden, Co Dublin. “The wood is cut with a laser machine which is like a printer but kind of cuts out and makes shapes. I was excited to meet the President because I never met him before.”
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His cousin Thomas said it was “really good” to be at the Áras. He lives now with his grandmother Josie Connors and extended family near the site in Carrickmines, Co Dublin, where his parents Thomas and Sylvia and three siblings Jim (5), Christy (2) and Mary (six months) died in a fire in October 2015.
Kitty McAleer, mother of three children among the group, said the visit was “brilliant and very important” because “Traveller children don’t get opportunities to come into places like this“. Her daughter, Katie (9) said of the Áras: “We do fun things but we don’t do lots of big things like this.”
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