This Culture Night, join award-winning author, curator, and activist Oein DeBhairduin at Chapters Bookshop for the launch of a new podcast ‘Taking the Long Road’.

This series will explore the harmful legacy of the Commission on Itineracy Report, 1963 and its impact on the Traveller community, Ireland’s indigenous ethnic community. The series will be launched by Oein in conversation with leading human rights activist, cultural consultant and theatre maker Catherine Joyce.

The event is part of Skein’s ‘Thinking Aloud, Thinking Together’ initiative, which encompasses cross-disciplinary discussions between artists, writers and thinkers, touching on current points of connection and concern in contemporary culture.

Oein DeBhairduin is a writer, activist and educator with a passion for preserving the beauty of Traveller tales, sayings, retellings and historic exchanges. Oein is the author of the award-winning ‘Why the moon travels’. His other works are ‘Weave’, ‘The Slug and the Snail’ and ‘Twiggy Woman’. He is the Curator of Traveller Culture with the National Museum of Ireland and seeks to pair community activism with cultural celebration, recalling old tales with fresh modern connections and, most of all, he wishes to rekindle the hearth fires of a shared kinship.

Catherine Joyce is a leading Traveller human rights activist and spokesperson. She has represented the community at the United Nations and was appointed by the Irish government to the Task Force on Travelling community and its National Monitoring Committee and is the manager of Blanchardstown Travellers Development Group. She is a cultural consultant and theatre maker collaborating on The Trailer of Bridgit Dinnigan and The Rose Tattoo and films Worlds Apart and Float like a Butterfly. Catherine received the people of the year award in 1991 from the Rehab Group.

Advance booking is advised however walk-ins may be admitted if capacity allows.