News and Updates
The Traveller Court Support Initiative Project staff visit the Washington St Courthouse.
The Traveller Court Supports Initiative visit Washington St, Courthouse for a tour of the historic building by Mary-Clare Kearney.
The TCSI which is an exciting project, provides six Traveller women with legal training and courtroom experience. The aim of which is to provide culturally-appropriate peer support workers, who will act as 'court buddies' for other Travellers taking civil or family cases to the courts.
The TCSI is the first such programme in Ireland to be codesigned and advanced in partnership with Traveller organisation partners in Cork, the Court Service and the School of Law, UCC. In providing and training culturally-appropriate court support workers, the TCSI seeks to respond to the barriers to justice experienced by Traveller litigants within the civil system.
Pictured (L-R) Mary Conway (TCSI Worker) Theresa McCarthy (TCSI Worker) Margarita McCarthy (TCSI Worker) and Mary-Clare Kearney, Court Service.
About the TCSI:
Data collected by the TEJP in 2022 identified significant barriers to justice for Travellers, finding that the adversarial nature of the District Court was a barrier to justice for vulnerable groups such as Travellers (TEJP, 2022). Travellers experience 22 times more discrimination in accessing goods and services (ESRI, 2017) than white settled Irish and remain Ireland’s most marginalised group. Yet. despite proliferating levels of racism and discrimination (FRA, 2021) legal avenues for address remain inaccessible for many owing to current barriers within the equality adjudication system (TEJP, 2022). When engaging with legal-institutions Traveller litigants experience fear, institutional mistrust and revisiting of intergenerational trauma arising from societal marginalisation and over-policing of the Traveller community (ITAJ, 2022). The impact of this, is that many Travellers are fearful of taking a case to challenge discrimination, feeling alienated by the process (TEJP, 2022). Although victims of crime and their families can avail of a number of appropriate court supports (ITAJ, 2022; VSAC) there are no equivalent supports for minority discrimination victims within the Irish civil system.
Project Approach:
The TCSI as developed by PI Dr Samantha Morgan-Williams, responds to these barriers through development of a co-designed training programme and establishment of a network of Traveller ‘court-support workers’ to provide community-engaged, and culturally appropriate peer-led court accompaniment supports for Traveller litigants in the District Court. This feeds into the need for understanding of vulnerable court-user experience to adequately inform reform of domestic equality adjudication bodies, enhanced judicial training and actions ensuring access to justice for most vulnerable, while also providing vital resources needed to encourage increased discrimination litigation against those who discriminate against the Traveller Community
The TCSI project was advanced in partnership with Traveller organisation ‘Travellers of North Cork’ and using the Washington Street District Court as a research site. Pre-existing links with the Court facilitated access with the support of Registrar Orla Penney, BL and Mary-Clare Kearney in Washington St.
Over a four month period (August-December) the six Traveller women visited the court and the School of Law for sessions. They took an 8 week introduction to the legal system course delivered by Dr Morgan-Williams, before completing visitations and sessions at the Washington St Courthouse, focused on capacity building, legal policy and research awareness and development of understanding of the daily processes of the District Court.
During one of these sessions the women were able to test out the Court Service new VR headsets which platform the 'Virtual Courtroom', being one of the first groups in the country to trial this new exciting technology!
Pictured L-R: Anita Toner (TCSI Worker) and Margaret Meehan (TCSI Worker) try on the new Court Service VR Headsets in Courtroom One, Washington St.
The VR Headset provides the wearer with a tour of the court room, including an explainer on each person usually present in the courtroom. As an educational tool, the 'Virtual Courtroom' can help nervous litigants understand court process and 'visit' the space prior to hearing, helping them to feel more comfortable.
Such initiatives are important to demystify the courts for litigants and court-users and to allow users to familiarise themselves with the courtroom prior to their visit. Many thanks to Orla Penney for arranging this.
The women were also invited by the Washington Street staff to observe court hearings, including s.19 Intoxicating Liquor Act 2003 hearings and on one occasion were very kindly invited to meet District Court Judge John King to discuss the TCSI and its aims with him:
Pictured (L-R) Orla Penney, BL (Court Service), Mary Conway (TCSI Worker) Margarita McCarthy (TCSI Worker) Judge John King, Dr. Samantha Morgan-Williams (PI, TCSI), Theresa McCarthy (TCSI Worker), Mary-Clare Kearney, Court Service.
The TCSI was kindly funded by a UNIC ER Seed Fund Grant for 2023 (€4812)
