PRESIDENT Michael D Higgins has enjoyed a sneak preview of a new art project which has been designed and led by the Traveller community in Ireland.
The Pisreóg Project sought to “collect, document, and celebrate Pisreóga, superstitions, beliefs and traditions of the Traveller community”.
It has been spearheaded by the St. Margaret’s Community Traveller Association in Dublin’s Ballymun and the local creative community centre Axis.
The joint project has received support from Creative Ireland, the Department of Health’s Healthy Ireland Programme, the HSE and Ireland’s Arts Council.
“The Pisreóg Project is a Traveller designed and led project that seeks to collect, document, and celebrate Pisreóga, superstitions, beliefs and traditions of the Traveller Community in Ballymun and the variances within these from family to family and from county to county,” the organisers explain.
“These will be celebrated and shared in a variety of creative ways, including a calendar of pisreóga, printed and shared online, a glossary of pisreóga and a glossary of Gammon-Cant terms connected to these pisreóga.”
This week President Higgins went along to Axis Ballymun with wife Sabina, to help launch what is Ireland’s first official Traveller-led art project.
At the centre the pair were treated to a sneak preview of the artwork.