Flying the Irish Traveller flag

Celebrating the history of Hackney’s Irish Traveller community on 25 July

Philomena Mongan

“I was reared on the side of the road in Ireland and lived in a tent. That was a hard life, but it came with me. It made me who I am today,” says Philomena (Mena) Mongan.

Mena, a voice for the Irish Traveller community in Hackney, understands how this longing for the freedom of the road contrasts with the reality of life in a dense urban environment.

She says: “We know there’s a shortage of homes for everyone, it’s not just the Traveller community. But Traveller families have nowhere to go because there are no stopping places and there are no new sites being delivered for them.

“We prefer to live this way of life. Children are losing out on their culture – they don’t have the freedom that we had and it breaks my heart to just think of that.”

The lack of housing for Travellers is not a new phenomenon. Thirty-four years ago Princess Anne came to meet the community in Hackney to advocate for their need for housing.

At the time, Mena and her extended family were living on a campsite at Grandsen Avenue, located behind Hackney Town Hall, off Mare Street.

Princess Anne visits Hackney’s Traveller community

Mena recalls: “Princess Anne came down to visit us and she came into the caravans. She took tea with the McCarthy family. It was absolutely beautiful. She was so easy to talk to and she just wanted to know about Travellers’ lives.

“She said to us, ‘What would it mean if you had a site built?’ And we said it would mean a lot. We need the base, we need to be registered with doctors, we need to have the kids in school.

“We can still travel, but as long as we have a base we can come back to, we can travel so many months of the year.

“It was less than six months after that we heard that there was going to be a new caravan site built for us, on Waterden Road, in the Olympic Park!”

For two decades, Waterden Road was home, but the arrival of the 2012 Olympics changed everything and the community was once again displaced.

Mena says: “We were in a temporary piece of land while the Olympic village was being built all around us. Big containers would be driving in and out every day and you could see these cranes going right over us.

“Land was very tight and we didn’t really want to be in a built up area because we were quite frightened how people would take to us.”

The Irish Traveller flag

Hackney Council, together with the community, found four new sites in the borough for the Travellers to move to.

Today, with an estimated 500 Irish Traveller families in Hackney, and a continued need for new pitches, the community remains focused on new sites.

Mena says: “We just want more sites delivered, and for families to be able to live as a community, as we’ve lived all our lives.”

Last year, the community celebrated its first ever International Irish Traveller Day.

Mena explains: “I was asked to take part in a survey regarding an International Irish Traveller Day to celebrate our history. We got over 5,000 signatures!”

Fittingly, the community chose 25 July to celebrate, which is the feast day of St Christopher – the patron saint of travellers.

Mena continues: “On the back of that, we did another survey to have a flag to represent us on that day. We gave people the choice about what the flag should look like, what symbols should represent them.

“We decided on the horseshoe, a horse and the tribal colours. This is our ethnicity flag for the Irish Traveller community.

“We have our own day now and we have a flag to celebrate it!”

See the Irish Traveller flag being raised over Hackney Town Hall, on 25 July at 12noon, for the first time