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10 Sept 2025
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10 Sept 2025
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Annamarie O’Reilly (2nd from left), a member of the Midwest Traveller Youth Mental Health Advisory Panel with family and friends at the launch | PICTURE: Eamon Doody
LIMERICK Youth Service (LYS) has launched a hard hitting and evocative short film addressing the prejudices faced by young people from the Travelling Community.
Written by and featuring teenagers and young adults from the Travelling Community, ‘Our Story’ highlights the challenges young Travellers face in terms of mental health support.
Throughout the piece the young adults speak openly about their own mental health and the discrimination they have faced in the education system and in society in general.
Crystal Ward, LYS Traveller Youth Mental Health Project, who took part in the short film said:
“Today is a day that will set a foundation for a brighter and more positive future for those of us who struggle with their mental health.”
Travellers’ unique cultural identity should be celebrated, promoted and respected, not something that should be hidden, in fear of discrimination, Crystal added.
As part of the project, almost 100 young members of the Travelling Community took part in consultations across Limerick, Clare and North Tipperary.
They shared their experiences of their mental health, from speaking among their peer group and family to assessing support and barriers they face.
From those consultations, seven young people took part in the CHIME mental health recovery programme and from it decided to create Our Story.
Crystal expressed her pride in her Traveller heritage, saying that it shouldn’t stop us or anyone like us from reaching out for help, which is what the short film is about.
“With mental health sometimes, our heritage makes people feel like they can characterise us, without knowing us.
“We are more than a label makes us out to be. We are all human and we deserve a chance at life without being pre-judged,” Crystal concluded.
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