THE Ennis Community Development Project are celebrating 10 years of being a voice for the voiceless, not just in Ennis, but throughout the county. Although they have seen cuts to funding, the message is clear, Ennis CDP are here to stay as they continue to be a passionate advocate for Traveller and immigrant communities.
The seeds for Ennis CDP were first sown in the beginnings of the Celtic Tiger. Dermot Hayes, chairman of Ennis CDP, recalled, “Back then, a number of people in Ennis, such as Madeleine McAleer, Maureen Hand, Micheál Neylon and others, began to think that, although the economy was growing, there was a good bunch of people that weren’t doing so well and they hadn’t moved on because they were tied for a variety of reasons,” he said.
A study showed that those with disabilities, the unemployed, Travellers and immigrants were among the most socially excluded. “The policy makers in the Government suggested a mechanism of bringing together, in a group organisation a community development project, developing in other parts of the country and mainly in the bigger cities. These were partnerships dealing with social inclusion, bringing various people together,” Dermot explained.
Once Ennis CDP was born, it was decided to concentrate on Traveller and immigrant communities. “We had to focus on what we saw at the time as critical issues,” said Dermot.
Various programmes emerged including addressing Traveller advocacy, immigrant advocacy, Traveller education, interculturalism and Traveller health. While some things have changed in the past decade, this has always been the main focus of Ennis CDP, based at the Clonroad Business Park.
“The CDP is about being a voice for those people who couldn’t be heard, that’s the essence of what we have been since the beginning. To try, where possible, to speak and to encourage and promote people to speak for themselves, which can be very difficult for them when they are on the back-foot,” he said.
He pointed out one of the essentials of the organisation is to work with other agencies to look for solutions together.
“The CDP values the support and collaboration of all the community groups and organisations we have worked with over the past 10 years and look forward to working together into the future,” he said.
While the organisation’s core funding has been cut, Dermot explained other funding streams are helping keep the doors of the CDP open. “There’s work to be done here and we have the passion, especially when there is a huge downturn in the economy,” he said.
Jim Whitney, treasurer of Ennis CDP and Fetac centre manager, described Ennis CDP as being in a “transformational period”.
“At present, there are a number of things happening such as the Back to Education Initiative that’s been running for the past six or seven years. That’s orientated towards something quite practical, a Fetac Level 4 employability skills programme. We’re not just doing education for the sake of education, it’s to prepare people for employment,” he said.
Looking to the future, he commented, “We need to be looking at having a plan in place and we need to have the resources to do that. The funding portion for what’s to happen to the future of the CDP is yet to be orchestrated and it’s another large challenge and opportunity for us. The CDP has to decide, and is deciding, how it’s going to make a difference to the community. The community in this instance isn’t just Ennis but it’s the whole of Clare. It’s an exciting opportunity to look at where we’re headed.
“The CDP, as an organisation is in a state of flux. It’s both energising as well as challenging. It’s energising because it’s going to take the creativity of our biggest component, that is the critical importance of volunteers to the CDP.”
He described Ennis CDP volunteers as the “lifeblood” of the organisation. “The people here really have a calling, making sure that issues don’t end up hidden under a stone but that they get turned over. They have a passion,” he said.
Among the valuable work being carried out is the promotion of school retention for Travellers, with a peer support programme forming part of this. A Traveller After School Club was initiated by Ennis CDP eight years ago and is managed by an interagency group. Also volunteer community healthcare workers from within the Traveller community have been fully trained to support Traveller health, with more set to take part in the programme.
Alphonse Basogomba, co-chair and volunteer co-ordinator of the Clare Intercultural Network joined the CDP in 2004.
Speaking about his work with Ennis CDP, he said, “There was already a good job being done by the CDP in advocacy for Travellers and immigrants but as someone from outside Ireland, I noticed a lack of interaction at local level between people from an immigrant background and people who are Irish,” he said.
According to Alphonse, “There can be the best laws in the country to promote integration but if people are not doing the job on a local level, nothing can happen. You have to create a space where people can interact and bond and no law can create that.”
From this idea, the Clare Intercultural Network was spawned, with Alphonse emphasising, “Some people think that when you speak about interculturalism, it’s about immigrants but it’s about interaction between cultures,” he said.
One of the ways the network is doing this is through their Futsal League, the only one outside of Dublin in Ireland and the annual multicultural festival. The network has also started an intercultural development and education centre.
Alphonse concluded, “When the funding for the Ennis CDP was cut, many people started to bury us alive. But we have a passion and maybe the fund is not there but we are still here and we are going to hang around. We have been here 10 years and after a hundred years, we will still be here if we are needed.”

More health workers to be recruited from Traveller community

AN increase in the number of trained community healthcare workers recruited from within the Traveller community is just one of the many plans for the Ennis Community Development Project in its 10th year.
At the moment, three Traveller women, Catherine McCarthy, Kathleen Sherlock and Anne Keenan, have been highly trained to work within their own communities as health workers and it is planned to increase that number by seven.
Marianne Murphy, primary health care project co-ordinator explained, “The statistics around Traveller health are shocking. These are the people who live side by side with us and a Traveller is more likely to die 10 or 15 years younger, they are more likely to die in early infancy and more likely to die by suicide. It’s shocking that not many people know this, yet they know about My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding and this is a dreadful injustice.”
She explained, “An All-Ireland Traveller health study showed that one of the biggest barriers to accessing services for Travellers was trust. In the ‘90s, a pilot study in Dublin was done where the Travellers themselves became the health workers and it was so successful that it spread out nationally. We are working off a primary health care model where the Travellers themselves are the community healthcare workers. They are fully trained, fully qualified and spend four years training in all aspects to do with health.
“They are not just running programmes, such as the wellness programme for women but they are also making a DVD around addiction for the Traveller community, which is going to be a national resource. Of course, a lot of work is being done by other agencies, locally and nationally, and we work with the HSE and the public health nurse.” The Traveller primary health programme is funded by the HSE West Traveller Health Unit.
Member of the healthcare team, Kathleen, said, “We’ve done a good job here, we’ve had four years of training and we’re almost three and a half years employed as community healthcare workers. The three of us make a good team and, hopefully, we will be taking on another group soon. There is a lot of negativity out there based on Travellers, they forget the good points and paint every Traveller with the one brush, which I think is ridiculous because everyone is not the same.”
Catherine added, “We’re the people on the ground and we’ve seen great success”.
Marianne went on, “This programme is about getting the information out there, keeping Travellers involved and letting them know what services are there and what they can do. We work very closely with the public health nurse, we visit new mothers, for instance helping them keep their appointments for checkups. This is very much on-the-ground work. It’s very built on relationships of trust within the community and we found that’s the model that works best in terms of improving Traveller’s health. In fact, latest studies show that the take-up in Traveller communities of screening programmes such as cervical cancer screening is actually higher than the general population.”
The three women work three days a week and run a health drop-in service on Thursdays for any health-related issues.
According to Marianne, the service has proved very popular within the Traveller community. “We are very busy, for example, we recently held a focus group on women’s health and we have 17 participants taking part, talking about women’s health and what kind of programmes they would like to see running. With St Joseph’s closing, we are very keen to maintain the relationship and support here for the Traveller community.”
She said the project has proved so successful, there are now plans for a recruitment drive to take on more community health workers.
“We are planning to take on seven more. The training is a long programme and when the girls came out of it, they were very knowledgeable. Findings show that Travellers trust other Travellers and that’s how this programme works. The success has already been shown. The key thing is that members of their own community are the ones going in there.”