The good, the bad and the ugly side of life for Tullamore's 90 Travelling families is to be captured on video film next year. This record of the lives of the community has been made possible by a £4,000 award from the National Millennium Committee.
There is great pride in the community because the proposal, made by the Tullamore Travellers' Movement, is the only project in the county to have received such an award.
That pride was evident during the week at the Tullamore Travellers' Movement centre, which is in an upstairs suite of offices opposite the Catholic church in the town centre.
"We are delighted and proud that the Millennium Committee has committed the money to this project. We will have a lasting record of what our lives are like here," said Ms Biddy Kavanagh, an education worker at the centre.
Biddy, a Traveller who has spent most of her adult life in the town, said her hope is that the video will show the true culture of the Travelling people.
"Our culture is under attack from all sides, but if we can capture that culture, its music, its art and the way we live, it will have been very worthwhile." She hopes the video will also show the human side of the lives of her people and the difficulties they face. "I would like the video to show, for instance, what happens when a family is moved on from the side of the road - the difficulties and the pain that causes." What has captured the imagination of the community in Tullamore is that editorial control of the film will be in the hands of the community itself.
"We will be getting five or six of the local community here trained in the skills of making the video and then we hope to start shooting as soon as possible," said Ms Mary O'Donoghue, the project manager at the centre.
Filming is due to begin early in the new year.
"The local Travellers will be involved at all levels, filming, editing and promoting the video which we hope will be of the kind of quality which could be used on television or cinemas," she said.
Her colleague, Mr Liam Hanrahan, community development worker at the centre, said the video would focus on a number of issues facing the Travellers on a daily basis in the town.
"We would like it to include issues such as health, education, accommodation, youth issues and, of course, the unique culture of the Travelling people." Another local Traveller, Mr Tom McDonagh, who is a youth worker at the centre, is very excited about the project and said some of his colleagues were beginning to think they were going to become movie stars.
"We intend to record every aspect of our lives and to try and get the message over about who we are and where we are," said Tom. Both Mary and Biddy want to capture the dying crafts of the Travellers, who know how to work in copper and tin and are expert wood workers.
"Some of the people here have all those crafts but there does not seem to be much call on them," said Biddy. "We have the ability to build carts and traditional caravans but they are very expensive.
"My fear is that these crafts will die, just like the language and the way of life of the Travelling people." Mary is particularly excited about the Travellers' art, especially the work being turned out by younger people. The main office in the centre is dominated by a colourful painting showing a traditional Travellers' camp and the modern conditions in which they live.
As for the life of a Traveller in the town, Biddy and Tom said there was a lot of hidden discrimination. This was hard to cope with.
"It is as good or as bad as anywhere else. Travellers have a tough time wherever they are and I hope the film will show that," Biddy said.