"Family to me is absolutely everything", says Senator Eileen Flynn. And her view is shared by other Travellers in Donegal who speak on this podcast - Kieran Mongan, Letterkenny; Hugh Friel, Ballyarr, Ramelton; Teresa Ward, based in Ballyshannon; Bridget McDonagh, Ballyshannon; and Ackie McGinley, Ramelton.

This is the second podcast in the short series 'Travellers Lives' and it's called 'Family Matters'. Kieran Mongan says he and any other Travellers he knows share a very strong belief in family. "We only really have each other," he says.

Senator Eileen Flynn, who lives in Ardara, talks about breaking down barriers for the Traveller community by getting into the Oireachtas. And now her family in Labre Park in Ballyfermot in Dublin, where she grew up, refer to her only as 'the Senator' when she visits - "In a jokey way. It's nice, because they're doing it out of love."

Senator Flynn speaks about her own health challenges, including a collapsed lung in 2024 and lung failure. She puts it down to poor living conditions when she was growing up - her late parents both had similar health issues. Time for Travellers to get "safe and sustainable accommodation', she says.

Kieran Mongan talks about the lower life expectancy for Travellers - 15 years less for men, 11 years less for women. But he also sees signs of hope for the community, pointing to the likes of Senator Flynn getting elected to the Senate, and David Friel lecturing at Atlantic Technological University in Letterkenny.

Kieran says he can tell his daughter, "Yes, you're a Traveller, but you can be anything you want to be."

Kieran Mongan lives with his wife and children in Letterkenny but he spent much of his youth travelling up and down England and Scotland.

"From the outside looking in, it probably looks like a pretty hectic way to live your life but it's not," he says. "Until you're part of that community you don't understand. There's something freeing about it, you're with your own, everybody looks after each other. You decide where you're going to be that night [ . . .] you can control your own life, that's a great feeling."

Ackey McGinley, who lives in Ramelton, spent his early years on the road. He's lived in houses since he married more than forty years ago, but still misses the road. "Very badly till this present day. I would go back to the old times again if I was young," he says, though he reckons you wouldn't find a camping place along the road these days.

Hugh Friel, who works with the Donegal Travellers Project, was brought up in a house in Killybegs and now lives in Ballyarr near Ramelton. He keeps horses, and reckons that life with horses on the road has something to teach the modern world. "People can slow down time because I think everything's going too fast [ . .]

Speaking in her home in Ballyshannon, Bridget McDonagh thinks living life in the open air was healthier for Travellers. But she believes that life for Travellers is moving off the road. "My opinion today is that Travellers are settling down," she says, adding that this means Traveller children are getting more education than they were when she was young.

All this and much more from our Traveller speakers. There are also clips of special guest Dessie Crerand singing a song written by Master Seán McBride about a traveller, 'The Homes of Donegal'. And there's a song from Mary Josephine Ward from Manorcunningham - 'My Connemara Marble Ring', by Candy Murphy from the renowned family band The Murphys from Kerry.

Total running time - 22.27