Ireland, it’s a place that has been long associated with religion and conservative values, but over the last few years, the country has reinvented itself as a new and progressive Ireland. In 2017, the Irish government extended this spirit of inclusivity to its traveller population, who were now to be recognised as a distinct ethnic group within the nation of Ireland. Now in the year 2020, we are three years on but has anything really changed?

In this BBC Our World Special we meet three young women fighting to bust the myths about their community and make their dreams a reality. The film opens in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, where we meet the O’Reilly family who have lived here for the last four years, they currently live on family-owned land in a makeshift halting site with no toilet or shower and there are currently no men on the site. We hear from Noreen, who’s father and eldest brother are both in prison, they are well known in the community as the rubber gang. The family say police attention has always been intense, but this is not just a problem faced by the O’Reilly’s it’s something the entire traveller community has felt.

Directed by: David Howell