Mary Brigid McDonagh is a pupil at Rockford Manor Secondary School in Blackrock, Co Dublin. She spoke at the launch of the report by the Dublin Southside Partnership's Travellers Interest Group (TIG) on participation in second-level education before Christmas.

"There are many reasons why Traveller children choose not to go to school," she said. "They are expected to conform to norms of completely different situations. I was the only Traveller in my family ever to have gone to post-primary. It helped me build up my confidence."

Mary wants to go on to study law.