The Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts on Roma and Traveller Issues (ADI ROM) will meet in Galway, Ireland on 14 and 15 September. 43 representatives from 34 Council of Europe member states will attend the hybrid meeting, hosted by the University of Galway in the context of Ireland’s Presidency of the Committee of Ministers.

Whilst in Galway, members of the ADI-ROM committee will engage with senior officials from Ireland’s Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and meet a range of representatives from local and national Irish Traveller organisations. The meeting itself will see experts consider the outline of a draft recommendation on equality of Roma and Traveller women and girls, reports on how to encourage governments to employ Roma and Travellers, and good practice regarding tackling the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic on Roma and Travellers.

ADI-ROM’s meeting has been scheduled to align with a major conference, ‘Irish Travellers/Mincéirs & the State, 1922-2022’, hosted by the University of Galway on 16-17 September. Several ADI-ROM experts and Council of Europe officials will contribute to the conference, with Hallvard Gorseth, Head of the Council’s Anti-Discrimination Department, speaking alongside Irish Traveller activist Mags Casey at the opening ceremony. Over two days, the multidisciplinary conference will examine Travellers’ experiences of exclusion, dating to the foundation of the Irish state in 1922, and will feature panel discussions, academic presentations, theatre pieces, stories and personal reminiscences, among other formats of expression. Amongst many cultural highlights, the conference programme features the play ‘Ireland Shed a Tear?’, a response to the Carrickmines fire tragedy.