During a two-year training course I participated in with Pavee Point Travellers Centre I got involved in many things, but the activity that comes most easily to mind was the visits we made on request to various schools.
What struck me and the other Traveller girls who attended the schools was the naivety of some of the young settled people not far from my own age.
They had very strong ideas about what they thought differences between them and us were. They were under the impression that we would walk in wearing shawls with babies under our arms. I have even been asked: "What do you eat?" and "Where do you get the clothes?"
It was to their surprise that they found that when it came to likes, dislikes, taste in music, clothes, hobbies and pursuits we were not so different after all. Yes, I like to go to the cinema and I like to go shopping, yes, I enjoy listening to pop music and I have a sister who collects Dawson's Creek merchandise.
But then we would really start to explore what being a young Traveller was like and what it was to have a sense of belonging to the Traveller community.
I think that at the end of the session some of the students grasped that this thing called "culture" was quite complex, had little to do with the trappings of everyday life, and more to do with our deep-rooted values and beliefs, the way that we do things, how we work, how we learn.
Unfortunately, it is very difficult to get involved in sport or socialise without fear of persecution. The racism that we face from day to day defines and dictates how we interact in Irish youth culture. It often means that we can't take part in whatever you'd care to mention, hobbies, youth clubs, sports clubs, discos.
If we don't get the chance to take part in these things and to bring our ways to these things it makes it very difficult to develop our skills and potential. It's not fair to deny us the chances to develop and then blame us for not contributing. I really think that when we are given half a chance, we make a good contribution to Irish society.
Look at Francis Barrett, for example, who made such a great effort in the Olympics; Michael Collins in Glenroe; and many of the Traveller musicians, like the Fureys, young and old, the Keenans and the other Travellers who kept the music going down through the generations.
Of course, it's hard for young Travellers nowadays to play music if the very place where most music happens, the pub, doesn't let them cross the door. But there is a new project starting between Pavee Point and the Pipers' Club, which will give some young Travellers the chance to learn music from our own tradition.
Some people think there is a contradiction between being a Traveller and being modern. Like as if we were stuck in some sort of a time warp. Or that if we want to be modern we have to lose our Traveller identity. This sometimes comes out when you read between the lines of the questions asked.
Like any community, there is a danger of getting stuck in a time warp if we're not given a chance to develop. I often think that when someone has been killed in caravan fires people say: "Oh, you should stop living in caravans, they're dangerous." When there's a house fire people don't say you should stop living in houses: they try to make houses safer from fire. I think we should do the same to make the Traveller way of life safer and healthier.
That's not to say that things aren't changing. We aren't living the same way that our grandparents lived, just like the way life has also changed for young settled people from the time their grandparents were young.
Some people think we're all queuing up to be put through some sort of a machine that will turn us into settled people and we'll all live happily ever after.
I am young, I am modern, I am a Traveller and I'm proud of it.