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10 - “Where are our costumes?”: the All Ireland Traveller Health Study – our Geels 2007–2011

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2014

By
Cecily C. Kelleher  and
Brigid Quirke
Edited by
Roger Tourangeau ,
Brad Edwards ,
Timothy P. Johnson ,
Kirk M. Wolter  and
Nancy Bates
Cecily C. Kelleher
Affiliation:
UCD School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Population Science, Dublin
Brigid Quirke
Affiliation:
UCD School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Population Science, Dublin
Roger Tourangeau
Affiliation:
Westat Research Organisation, Maryland
Brad Edwards
Affiliation:
Westat Research Organisation, Maryland
Timothy P. Johnson
Affiliation:
University of Illinois, Chicago
Kirk M. Wolter
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
Nancy Bates
Affiliation:
US Census Bureau
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Summary

The Traveller community

In this chapter, we describe the methodology for the All Ireland Traveller Health Study (AITHS) from inception to completion. This population is hard to reach in that it is nomadic, has traditionally been closed to outsiders, and is highly disadvantaged in both material and psychosocial terms, including generally low literacy levels, so it fulfills the criteria for this volume in several key respects. In methodological terms, as we describe, it is highly novel in the solutions employed to overcome these challenges and it is also a very large-scale study by the standards of the literature on ethnic minorities.

In August 2012 at the Olympics Games in London, a young boxer named John Joe Nevin won a silver medal and indeed got within a few adjudication points of winning a gold one. A native of a middle-sized country town in the midlands of Ireland called Mullingar, in a games of outstanding human achievement by many athletes who are global household names, such as Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt, this young man Nevin had duly taken his place in this illustrious company amongst the nations of the world as an Irish Traveller. In this chapter, we describe how we undertook a census survey of his people in a landmark collaboration that was a research initiative for, with, and by Travellers themselves.

Type
Chapter
Information
Hard-to-Survey Populations , pp. 201 - 222
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

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