Traveller Pride 2026 in Clare
Clare Traveller Pride 2026 takes place on Thursday 4 June at glór, Clonroad Beg, Ennis, with doors opening at 6.30pm for light refreshments and music by the Keenan family, and the show starting at 8pm. The event is free, open to over-13s, and everyone is welcome.
At the heart of this year’s celebration is Michael Collins’ acclaimed one-man show It’s a Cultural Thing – or is it?, presented under the theme **“Looking back, Moving forward.”* Collins, an actor, writer and Traveller activist, has toured the play widely in Ireland to critical praise, including being described as “entertaining, enriching and provocative” by the Irish Times.
“It’s a Cultural Thing – or is it?”
The performance is based on Collins’ own life experiences as a Traveller, remembering his childhood “through innocent eyes.” He brings the audience from living in the fields of Kilbeggan in a barrel-top wagon to life in a tent at the top of Prosperous Hill, through school days and a first real encounter with settled people.
Told as a fast‑paced sequence of stories, the show becomes a microcosm of the history of the Traveller community over the past 40 years. It invites audiences to question their assumptions, while highlighting the resilience, humour and pride that have sustained Travellers through rapid social change.
Looking back: Traveller oral history in Clare
This year’s Traveller Pride comes on the back of an important milestone for Travellers in Clare: the Clare Traveller Oral History Project at De Valera Library in Ennis. Supported by Clare Local Development Company’s Traveller Community Development Project and Cuimhneamh an Chláir, the project has trained Traveller collectors to record their own community’s stories, photographs and memories, and recently celebrated 18 months of work at a special event in the library.
That celebration included a slideshow from photographer Pat Galvin’s 1970s and 1980s archive of Ennis Travellers, now held in De Valera Library, placing Traveller lives and faces firmly in the historical record of the county. Together, the oral history work and this year’s Traveller Pride event show Travellers in Clare leading the way in preserving, sharing and shaping their own culture for future generations.
Moving forward: invitation to the wider community
Traveller Pride 2026 in Clare is not only for Travellers; it is a chance for the wider community to listen, learn and stand in solidarity. By coming to glór on 4 June, audiences will experience a unique piece of theatre, enjoy music and hospitality, and be part of an ongoing conversation about culture, identity and equality in Clare.
With Traveller voices now more visible in libraries, archives and on stage, this year’s theme “Looking back, Moving forward” feels especially timely. Traveller Pride offers an evening of laughter, reflection and connection – and a reminder that when Traveller history is valued, the whole county’s story becomes richer.